#39555
Speaker(s)
- Luis Perez, Disability and Digital Inclusion Lead, CAST
- Joanna Schimizzi, , ISKME
- Melissa Elston, Coordinator of Measurement and Evaluation, Associate Professor of English, Palo Alto College
- Aaron Smith, Adjunct Instructor of Art History, Palo Alto College
Session Details
- Length of Session: 1-hr
- Format: Panel
- Expertise Level: Beginner
- Type of session: General Conference
Summary
This session will focus on a collaborative effort between ISKME and CAST to promote Universal Design for Learning (UDL) through the Accessible OER Academy, which aims to equip faculty and staff with the skills to create and adapt Open Educational Resources that are inclusive from the outset. Participants will get insights from a cross-departmental team that has embraced UDL principles to transform educational materials and practices with accessible OER.
Abstract
As numerous disability scholars have noted, North American colleges and universities have too often approached disability as an issue to be addressed after the fact (Dolmage 66, Navarrete and Lujan-Mora 25). Universal Design for Learning, an instructional design framework pioneered at CAST, in contrast, focuses on proactive design to uncover and address barriers in the curriculum from the start to ensure all learners have a positive learning experience. The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management (ISKME) and CAST’s National Center on Accessible Educational Materials have collaborated over several semesters to work with invited teams of faculty and staff to learn how to use accessible Open Educational Resources (OER) to make learning more equitable and bust the barriers to learning that millions of learners experience every day, the goal with UDL. This session will highlight the Accessible OER Academy series provided at no-cost to faculty and staff at Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) through cohorts leveraging openly licensed resources as key levers for both adapting existing resources to increase digital accessibility and designing resources that are accessible for learners with disabilities from the start. Participants also gained an understanding of how accessibility relates to Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
Along with ISKME and CAST staff who will share information about the intentional design of the OER Academy based on UDL principles and accessibility best practices, you will hear from participants within a cross departmental OER program established over a decade earlier, on their experiences as it strives to move from a “retrofit” to a Universal Design (UD) model – shifting faculty-development programming and curricular-design processes to reflect this change. After examining challenges and insight
Keypoints
- Explain the three big ideas that are foundational to the Universal Design for Learning framework.
- Use a simple mnemonic (SLIDE) to support faculty in getting started with accessibility best practices.
- Implement strategies for securing faculty buy in and engagement to improve accessibility of OER
Disability Areas
All Areas
Topic Areas
Accessible Course Design, Alternate Format, Faculty Development & Support, Uncategorized
Speaker Bio(s)
Luis Perez
As the Disability & Digital Inclusion Lead for CAST, Luis promotes the creation, delivery and use of high quality accessible educational materials and technologies to support equitable learning opportunities for all students. Luis is embedded with the Postsecondary and Workforce Development group at CAST that works to increase access to middle- and high-income careers for populations underrepresented in the workforce, including people with disabilities. Luis’s perspective is informed by his own lived experience as a person with a disability and multilingual learner.
Joanna Schimizzi
Joanna is a Professional Learning Specialist at ISKME, with a focus on supporting Higher Education faculty and PK-12 educators in finding, evaluating and adapting Open Education Resources (OER). Joanna supports educators in using ISKME’s OER repository, OER Commons, with a focus on adapting resources to meet the needs of all learners. Joanna’s engagement with accessibility is influenced by her continued teaching of 9-12 Biology to students with disabilities and her experiences raising a child with multiple disabilities.
Melissa Elston
Dr. M. Melissa Elston is the Coordinator of Measurement and Evaluation at Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas. Previously, she worked in faculty roles at PAC and Northwest Missouri State University, as well as administrative roles in several university writing centers. In addition to assessment, her professional interests include OER design and implementation, faculty development, and UD (universal design) and institutional accessibility measures. Melissa’s perspective is shaped not only by her formal academic training, but by her personal experiences as a multidisabled scholar. Her previous publications on disability can be found in Praxis: A Writing Center Journal and Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature.
Aaron Smith
Aaron Smith is an Adjunct Instructor in the Arts at Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas. During their time at PAC, Aaron has been instrumental in the transition to and creation of Open Education Resources (OER) for the college’s Art History survey courses and advocates for the creation of equitable and accessible educational programs and materials in arts education.