An alternative to retro-fitting learning environments

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Universal design - not retrofit

Making learning spaces and resources work for users is an ongoing challenge. Everyone has different needs and learning styles, and there is definitely no one-size-fits-all.

But one thing we can do, is raise the bar, so that from the outset, our ways of working and the presentation of our resources is the best that it can be.

Universal Design for Learning and Design for All

Two approaches to learning are gaining momentum in education. In the US, Universal Design for Learning is beginning to become a touchstone for education departments looking to underpin ways of working that are more inclusive. In Europe, a similar approach known as Design for All, is cutting a similar path, and which also places an emphasis on the need to collaborate with a cross-section of users in the design of environments, resources and services.

The retro fit

Underpinning both approaches is the belief that, if we consider the needs of all users at the outset, rather than an “illusory” group of homogenous mainstream users, we can avoid a massive effort in retrofitting environments and resources for individuals. This approach doesn’t negate the need to personalise environments for very particular needs, but we may have to make many less adaptations if we have planned for diversity in the beginning.

In education, one obvious example, in a property context, would be the inclusion of wheelchair access to all parts of a new school when it is first built, even if there are no members of the first cohort of learners who use a wheelchair for mobility. The rationale underpinning this design decision would be the understanding that parents, whānau, a staff member or visitor to the school, a new student or a current student following a sporting accident may at some point use a wheelchair.

E-learning and eAccessibility

Avoiding the retro fit is also applicable in the area of e-learning. Our use of ICTs in our classrooms and learning-communities is increasing, and there are great examples of schools using technology to improve outcomes for learners. Also, many teachers are confident in their ability to differentiate learning activities. But the concept of eAccessibility may still be unfamiliar.

Yet, if we are going to avoid having to retrofit resources, we need to collectively get our heads around new ways of thinking about access to learning. Again, it is the planning at the outset that makes a difference.

A tangible example of where we can make a difference and model eAccessibility in teaching and learning is in our use of video. When working alongside students or colleagues who are making a video, initiate a discussion around audience and purpose. If the intention is to share the video publicly, draw into the discussion the need to make a resource that will be meaningful to an audience with a range of access preferences. Some people can see but not hear; some people use only their hearing. Some people read more slowly than others. The video needs to work for everyone.

Use of captions and transcripts to assist users who have a hearing impairment to have access to the same material as sighted learners seems like common sense. But captions and transcripts also provide access to the video content in an alternative visual medium and provide opportunities for increasing understanding for all users. For learners who may have cognitive or second-language needs, a transcript provides an opportunity to access the content at their preferred pace, or pause on unfamiliar words. As a sighted user, I will often scan a transcript for a quote, or re-read something I want to clarify.

Both in and outside education, the awareness and the ability to create more inclusive video is increasing. In New Zealand, the Curriculum Stories on NZ Curriculum Online site provide a sophisticated example of how to provide a range of access options for users. Each video is captioned, and has the transcript placed below the video—the preferred option, so that users don’t have to jump backwards and forwards between pages.

YouTube and Blip TV also now enable video producers to add captions to uploaded movies. Both services are a little clunky, but it is worth honing some captioning skills now, and passing them onto your colleagues and students.

Useful links for further reading

Universal Design for Learning – the website for the National Centre for UDL in the US
UDL examples and resources – link to implementation support page at the National Centre for Universal Design for Learning (CAST).
Design for All – the website for the European Design for All e-Accessibility Network.

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Equity in practice: You don’t know what you don’t know

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Universal Design

Embracing the concept of Universal Design is taking the lid off my own understanding of equity.

Like many primary trained teachers, I came to technology bringing my aesthetic of making things look gorgeous to engage learners in my back pocket. Getting my first laptop was heavenly, and many hours were spent making work sheets and parent newsletters with wicked borders and multi-coloured, multi-patterned headers.

Jumping online just widened the playing field, as all of a sudden there were blogs and wikis to plaster with images and videos and animations and banners. The possibilities seemed endless. And initially, no-one whispered in my ear, “Do you think this is good practice?”, they just said, “Wow, that looks cool”.

Thankfully, as the years have progressed, my understanding around Inquiry and Digital Literacy has evolved, and I am much more attentive to the way in which I construct learning environments.

But only recently have I turned around to face my elephant in the room—the challenge to commit to a philosophy of Universal Design.

Universal Design

The thing is, you don’t know what you don’t know.

In my head and heart I have strived to practice equitably and I have always had a bit of yen for finding ways to create engaging learning environments for those learners that are labelled as “undeserved”.

But Universal Design is more than that. It is about the design of resources and environments created to meet the needs of everyone, to the greatest extent possible, from the start.

But getting my head around Universal Design has been like learning to live in a new country where the first language is the same as my own but the culture is distinctly different.

An illustration

I showed my partner a lovingly crafted document I had made, illustrated with coloured tables and graphics, photos and charts. It had been used to facilitate a very successful professional development session.

I asked him, if he thought the document could be accessed by someone who couldn’t see. He said he didn’t know, and what did it matter if no-one in the session was blind.

New thinking prompted by Universal Design principles:

  • Am I modeling to colleagues a way of working that has as it’s baseline the premise that everyone has a right to access learning resources?
  • Time is precious. If at a later date, I want to use this resource again and a participant in a session uses a screen reader, will I have to remake it?
  • Time is precious. If I want to share this resource online or on a staff intranet, will I have to remake it so that it is searchable and accessible?
  • Am I passing on inclusive equitable ideals to students in the classroom?

Until recently, it had never occurred to me that my practice could be more equitable, if at the outset I created resources and environments that made every effort to include everyone.

Text documents and best practice

MS Word and Pages styles feature

And I’m not re-inventing the wheel here. For example, the tools for making more accessible documents are built into software like Microsoft Word or Apple’s Pages. I just needed someone to tell me to use the Style guide to format documents, rather than making titles and sub-titles big, bold and underlined. That simple change of practice makes most documents more readable by a screen reader. Also, if I copy that text and upload it to a web page, the good formatting travels with it, saving lots of time editing online.

Also, pictures and images need captions, and, if possible, alt-text. It’s not a big job. In fact it’s really just a courtesy, but easy to miss if no-one has pointed it out.

PowerPoint and best practice

My other immediate learning curve has been around my use of presentation tools, such as PowerPoint. On the “making” front, it never occurred to me that the templates are there not just for beginners, or to create balance on the screen. They also provide hidden cues for a screen reader, allowing a person who is blind to listen to the text and the image descriptions.

PowerPoint templates

But the biggest change has been around my consciousness of what I say when I’m presenting. In the past, when I have used a slide with just a quote on it, I have heard myself say, “I won’t read out the text, I’ll just let you read it yourselves”. Great concept, but not if you can’t see. Instead, I will now put the best quotes up to see and say them aloud. Also, I am learning to use the same principle when sharing images in a presentation. I cannot assume that everyone has 20/20 vision and can see what I can see. So now I am learning to describe the important images that are integral to my story-telling, but pass over the visual description if the image is just there for decoration.

Conclusion

I feel very much the novice in this brave new world of Universal Design, but, actually, it is a huge relief to have this heads-up. At least now I have a renewed consciousness around my practice. Also the thought of sharing these ideas with young learners as they find their feet with technology is really exciting. At least they will have the chance to befriend the elephant in the room and who knows how that will shape how we learn and live together.

If you are interested in finding out more about Universal Design and following up some of the brief examples of ways to make a difference, check out the links below. Also, if you would like to chat about some of the ideas, just get in touch.

Useful links

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The merits of the professional punt – the iPad in learning

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The use of Apple’s iPad in learning environments is a topic that is already eating column inches. Yet pinning down why something new might be worth testing or investing in is often difficult.

Use of iPad in learning

So it is with much anticipation that I watch two groups of teachers pushing the boat out.

iPad tests by BLENNZ excites

Firstly in Wellington, two teachers from the Blind and Low Vision Education Network NZ (BLENNZ) have begun to document the use of an iPad with students who have low vision. They are at the “toes in the water” stage and have only facilitated taster sessions (the iPads are personally owned by the teachers) but the initial footage is raising enough excitement that the documentation was shared across the whole school. From chatting to the teachers, it is one of those scenario’s that when you know the student, and you see the level of attention and engagement, it makes your heart sing.

iPad research in literacy skills

At the other end of the country, the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the the Blind (RNZFB) is in the initial stages of a partnership project with BLENNZ where they are purchasing four iPads as a resource for an action research project around access to literacy skills. Again it’s a punt, the technology is relatively new, and there is no research base from which to draw evidence with any longevity.

But just as Toni Twiss committed her eFellowship to investigating “the use of mobile phones in classrooms“, someone has to break the ground, and the more that do, the more variables we can bring together.

iPad suited to the school environment

The iPad is a big step forward to the school environment

My own first impression on handling an iPad is that it is sleek, light and will fit neatly wedged behind a lunch box in a school bag. These may sound like flippant observations, but in the land of assistive technology, such attributes are a good start.

For those of us who spend much of our day trying to support the adaption of learning spaces, the advent of technology that is flexible, functional, and good looking is enough to make us cheer.

For so long, technology solutions have been clunky, weighed a ton, and often the learner had to sit apart from their peers because they needed an extra desk to set up all their gear. Plus, assistive technology is notoriously “specialist” and uncollaborative because no-one, other than the learner, knows how to operate it, and by default it becomes the exclusive domain of the learner with the disability, a great model for inclusion!

What other stories and thoughts out there?

So to anyone out there reading this, I’d love to hear if you are using an iPad in the classroom as a tool for you, and/or with your students, or if you have stumbled on interesting stories from colleagues or from reading around.

One of my current favorites, covered by the New York Times describes the the introduction of an iPad into the world of a young boy called Owen Cain. What I love about it, is that it demonstrates how if the adults alongside learners are bold and prepared to take a bit of a punt, all sorts of unexpected learning opportunities can happen – check out the video and see what you think.

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