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.
Why should we embrace accessible course design? The concept of “retrofitting” can help us understand the stakes of accessible design by revealing the consequences when we do not consider disabilities and other differences when designing our courses: Retrofitting, or the addition of new features to older systems, often results in some amount of access but in a way that can lack basic dignity. This talk will introduce participants to the concepts of accessibility and retrofitting, the role these ideas have played in disability advocacy and politics, and how accessibility and retrofitting play out in our classroom teaching contexts. This discussion will be accompanied by an overview of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, and how it provides actionable steps to avoid the pitfalls of retrofitting. As new rules for the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II come into effect, requiring educational materials in public education to be accessible to people with disabilities, we will explore how creating accessible materials and accessible learning experiences more broadly is not just an issue of compliance but an opportunity to work towards educational equity.
This workshop is loosely based on a post from my newsletter.
Sarah E. Silverman 