For a detailed list of my activities, please see my CV.
What do I research?
I research accessibility and inclusion for second and foreign language teaching and learning, including examinations of equity and fairness.
What does that mean?
Like so many things, it depends on the learning context. For example, are we talking about the experiences of K-12 second or foreign language learners with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), adult second language learners taking non-credit language courses, international graduate students who speak other home languages, or domestic university students learning a foreign language in a classroom setting?
It can mean adjusting your language choices:
-Use “plain” language. Avoid jargon and complex sentence structure.
-Avoid idioms, acronyms, abbreviations, and pop culture references (unless you also explain them).
It can mean remediating documents:
-Use accessibility checkers, heading styles, and outlining features in your documents.
-Add AltText to any images (in the language that allows learners using screen reader technology to access meaning as easily as their classmates can).
It can mean delivering input in scaffolded ways:
-Provide materials in multiple modes (e.g., audio and visual versions).
-Reduce working memory load by introducing input in smaller chunks (e.g., 2-3 minute videos instead of longer ones).
-Make good use of white space for readability.
-Avoid italics and use font sizes and styles that are easier to process.
It can mean presenting course content inclusively:
-Narrate any visuals and keep text to a minimum in your slide presentations.
-Speak with a microphone when you are provided one.
-Use caption, subtitle, and transcript features in your video content.
It can mean making use of assistive technology or other support:
-A friend with cerebral palsy whose visual acuity is affected by his muscle control benefitted from not only magnifiers but also coaching from tutors when reading Arabic because scripts with connected letters (like English cursive) are much more difficult to parse.
It can mean providing accommodations:
-Extra time for test taking is a common accommodation and is incredibly helpful to students who put in a lot of extra cognitive work and time to get through additional layers before getting to the language level.
It can mean making class activities maximally inclusive:
-Have you designed interaction to enable disabled learners to engage autonomously in your class?
-Are disabled students able to participate in your activities and tasks in much the same way as their classmates?
It can mean reevaluating learning outcomes and assessment that are inherently unfair:
-For example, hard of hearing learners who rely on lip reading in their home language should not have their second/foreign language listening assessed using audio-only clips.
It can mean thinking more proactively when you design your courses:
–Universal Design for Learning can guide you in offering variety both in the ways learners engage actively with your course content and also how learners demonstrate what they know.
Why do I engage in this research?
The short version: because language learning is for everyone.
The long version: I believe that sharing the experiences of disabled learners who have successfully navigated foreign language courses despite unique barriers to input exposes and rejects the notion of language learning as a luxury, an extracurricular endeavor only for archetypal learners.
*A note about language choices: my disabled friends and colleagues have encouraged me to move toward “identity-first” language choices when describing folks who identify as having a disability. An alternative choice is “person-first” language (i.e., “students with disabilities”). Within the disabled community, this is a very political, personal, and individual choice. Whenever possible, I defer to individuals’ choices in the same way that I honor individuals’ pronouns (e.g., I use the pronouns she/her).
Caitlin Cornell 