Please find a description of this workshop below and contact me if you are interested in bringing this learning opportunity to your campus or organization.
Even instructors who are very committed to inclusive teaching experience friction in their practice: One student is highly sensitive to the volume of amplified sound while another is hard of hearing. An instructor communicates most effectively in writing while a student is dyslexic and prefers a face-to-face conversation. In this participatory workshop, participants will explore the idea that inclusive teaching is not only about implementing specific inclusive strategies, but also about navigating complex learning situations in which there are multiple competing needs. Participants will begin by defining access friction, a term derived from the disability community that describes situations in which there are two or more competing access needs. Then, examples of access friction from participants’ own contexts will be shared and analyzed. Lastly, participants will use the concept of access friction to consider how to talk about inclusive and accessible teaching with students and colleagues: Instead of assuming that we can easily “include all students” with a few simple strategies, we expect and constructively engage with the friction that is part of our inclusive teaching journey.
