Best Practices in Designing Instructional Presentations for Diverse Learners

Handouts Media

Scheduled at 4:15 pm in Penrose 1 on Wednesday, November 13.

Speaker(s)

• Joseph Feria-Galicia, Accessibility Team Lead, UC Berkeley
• Robert Hold, Senior Visual Designer, UC Berkeley

Session Details

• Length of Session: 1-hr
• Format: Lecture
• Expertise Level: Beginner
• Type of session: General Conference

Summary

This workshop advocates for integrating accessibility best practices in higher education multimedia, emphasizing narrated content, visual descriptions, font, and color choices. It aims to create inclusive instructional materials, shifting focus from disabilities as deficits to recognizing environmental barriers to inclusivity.

Abstract

Resilient multimedia in higher education promotes inclusion for diverse learners historically excluded from curricular design. Achieving this goal involves planning for audiences with vision, hearing, learning, and cognitive challenges. Attend this session to learn how implementing accessibility best practices in the multimedia development process removes barriers encountered by learners with diverse needs, resulting in instructional materials that are accessible to everyone. Lecture recording of a slideshow presentation using software such as PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides benefit from inclusive practices. Because charts, graphs, and images are often included as content in multimedia production in higher education, it is strategic to apply accessibility best practices within these contexts. For example, it is beneficial for voice-over narrators to describe meaningful content on slides, so the audio track, caption, or transcript offers another way to distinguish meaningful visual elements. This content should also use the suggested font types and sizes, have sufficient color contrast between the foreground and background, and use color strategically. The workshop provides resources participants can later access and refer to as they continue applying multimedia best practices within their local context. The goal is to promote strategies for creating accessible instructional materials for all learners regardless of their ability status. In this way, we encourage content creators to see the “built environment” as the obstacle to equal access instead of enacting a deficit approach that penalizes individuals with disabilities and users with diverse learning needs and preferences.

Keypoints

1. Integrating digital accessibility best practices in higher education supports historically excluded learners.
2. Emphasis on narrated content in lecture recordings enhances inclusivity.
3. Adherence to recommended fonts, sufficient color contrast, and strategic color use improve accessibility.

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Psychological, Vision

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Faculty Development & Support, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Joseph Feria-Galicia

As the Accessibility Team Lead with Research Teaching and Learning at UC Berkeley, Joe promotes the creation of accessible instructional materials that provide access to online content for all users. He contextualizes this role within a civil rights lens impacting historically excluded communities. Joe enjoys family outings, long walks, mountain biking, and watching the NBA in his free time.

Robert Hold

Robert Hold is the Senior Visual Designer at Digital Learning Services in Research, Teaching, and Learning at UC Berkeley. He has worked for various brands and companies, including Condé Nast, Gap Inc., and San Francisco Ballet. He was first introduced to accessibility when he began his tenure at UC Berkeley in 2015, and now accessibility is a core part of his work and design. His creativity is fueled by an addiction to tea, obsessive gardening, and listening to music.

Handout(s)

• Best Practices in Designing Instructional Presentations for Diverse Learners