Accessibility is a practice, and one that constantly changes as technology evolves. Just as we encourage you to approach equity with the “just one thing” mindset, we advocate for this approach to accessibility. You can (and should) also identify who on your campuses can help you with accessibility in your teaching and where key resources are to guide you.

Making your classes accessible tends to benefit all students, but it’s particularly crucial for students with disabilities. In a recent OER Community Conversation: Student Accessibility Panel, Minnesota State students described the importance of proactively making courses accessible and how this makes an incredible difference in their ability to pursue their educational goals.

Accessibility Resource Document

Compiled by Brock Behling, Program Director for Instructional Technology and key contributor to a number of Minnesota State initiatives around accessibility, this resource provides a Minnesota State-specific perspective on how to approach accessibility in our classroom and across the system.

WebAIM, Introduction to Web Accessibility

This concise overview of accessibility is a great place to start if you’re new to the topic. A wide variety of resources are provided from the webpage so that you can explore the specific topics of interest to you.

D2L Brightspace Accessibility Lab

Wanting to explore what accessibility looks like in our Learning Management System? Consider the D2L Accessibility Lab course! This is a great resource that really applies accessibility principles to the learning environment we use most often with students.

Microsoft’s Accessibility Fundamentals

Who wants a systematic look at accessibility in Office 365 apps and a badge to go with it? This course takes an estimated 2.5 hours to complete, providing a walk-through of how to make the most of automated support in Office 365 while also breaking down key considerations for accessibility in the materials you create.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, has three key areas:

• Multiple Means of Engagement: offering different ways for students to become motivated to engage with your course
• Multiple Means of Representation: providing the learning materials in different formats/modalities
• Multiple Means of Expression: allowing students to demonstrate their competency with your course outcomes via different delivery methods

UDL not only supports students with disabilities, but also is a culturally responsive practice that brings greater equity to learning environments for all students. You can read more about culturally-responsive UDL practices in 10 Strategies for Engaging Learners with Universal Design for Learning and Antiracism, by Jess Schomberg and Elizabeth Harsma. Many thanks to Elizabeth Harsma for also recommending the video series below.

[COMING SOON]

Affordability

There are many affordability challenges facing Minnesota State students, but one particularly applicable to our work in this community is the cost of course materials. To quote materials from the Open Textbook Pilot grant project at Minnesota State:

Expensive textbooks are a burden for all students, but especially those who are economically disadvantaged. A 2018 Florida Textbook Survey found that high textbook costs led to students not purchasing required textbooks (64.2%), taking fewer courses (42.8%), earning a low grade (35.6%), or dropping a course (22.9%). Another survey found that 85% of respondents ranked textbooks and course materials as the most significant financial stressor after tuition. This stress affects students of color disproportionately due to persistent wealth gaps. As a result, students may take fewer courses or do poorly in courses needed for their major. These can cause delayed program completion or lead to students switching majors or dropping out.

Sources for above information

• “2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey.” Florida Virtual Campus, 8 Mar. 2019.
• “New Survey: College Students Consider Buying Course Materials a Top Source of Financial Stress.” Cengage, Cengage, 26 July 2018.
• “Today’s Learner: Student Views 2018.” Cengage, Cengage, 26 July 2018.

What Can Faculty Do to Improve Affordability?

When faculty actively seek low- or no-cost course materials, they significantly improve retention, student performance, and overall equity in their learning environments. Concerns from a decade ago around the quality of this kind of material are no longer as prevalent, as many of these resources are now peer-reviewed, and the breadth and quality of selection is vast. Below are some resources to get you started in identifying low- or no-cost approaches to selecting course materials.

Open Educational Resources (OER) Guide (link)

Northeast Iowa created this comprehensive guide to what OER is, how to think about OER usage, and where to find the materials you need. The top material is an excellent overview of the world of OER; starting on page 4, you can begin to find OER by subject, need, file type (pictures, etc.), interaction (yes, there are great interactive OER out there!), and package (whole courses, whole textbooks, etc.).

But What About Quality?

One of the most common concerns faculty express about using OER in their classes is that the quality of an OER text might be lower than that of a publisher textbook. Correspondingly, faculty worry that student learning will suffer. But research around OER and student learning indicates that most student perform as well or better in classes using OER than in similar classes using publisher-originated materials.^[1]

Support from Minnesota State

Minnesota State has committed to addressing affordability issues through supporting the adoption of low- and no-cost materials in courses across our campuses. You can read more about these many initiatives and even join the OER Community Teamsite via the Open Educational Resources page.

Questions about Copyright/Licensing?

Did you know that all materials from the United States federal government are considered “public domain”? Did you know that the same is true for many state government documents, and that there are extensive collections of primary (and other materials) freely available for use in your classrooms?

Modeling academic integrity and ethical use of materials is crucial in our classes, but determining permissions can be tricky. Here are a few resources to help you out.

• Fair Use Tutorial: You can complete this brief tutorial from the University of Arizona Libraries to gain clarity about the often misapplied concept of “Fair Use.”
• IP/Copyright Tools and Forms: resources from Minnesota State to guide your ethical and legal use of materials
• Digital Copyright Decision-Maker: use this interactive tool to help you determine if your item can be used or whether you should request permission
• Creative Commons Licensing: this resource breaks down the CC license, which is becoming increasingly common
• State Copyright Resource Center: If you’re looking at materials from a state government, this resource will help you determine whether or not you need to ask permission

Need help finding just the right thing?

Try using this worksheet to refine your search for just the right OER for your classes.

Inclusive Technology Use

Remember the heated debate in academic circles when a 2014 study asserted that students learned better taking notes by hand? Some faculty went so far as to ban laptops in their classrooms. A few years later, after multiple studies failed to replicate the results, the furor died down (although, similar to other “hot concepts” in learning, the myth has persisted in many circles). If you’d like a refresher on the debate, here’s a nice summary: New Findings Inform the Laptop versus Longhand Note-Taking Debate

But what very few people seemed to note in the midst of this debate was the implication for students who were unable to take notes by hand, or to take timely or effective notes with pencil and paper. If laptops were banned, what would a student who used assistive technologies do? (Sure, they could get an accommodation, but their laptop use in the classroom would subsequently “out” them as having a registered disability, thereby violating their privacy.) What about students who haven’t developed notetaking skills–are we suggested that “taking notes” is the only way to learn? Doesn’t this suggest a passive learning model, in which the student has very little agency in their learning path?

We start this section on Inclusive Technology Use with this example to show that the question isn’t whether technology is “good” or “bad,” but how guided choices about technology use, informed by pedagogy and structured for maximum access, can make all the difference for our students.

Below are three resources that can help you think about technology use through an equity lens. Click on the titles to access them.

Example Student Technology Orientation

This course, originally created by Kathleen Coate (Normandale) and revised by Caroline Toscano and Sarah Johnson (Century), models accessible, interactive resources that teach students how to use the technologies available to everyone at Minnesota State. Whether you use an H5P interactive or two, a helpful module, or the entire course, or even if it just provides inspiration for you to create your own resources, these examples show how you can empower students to make the most of the learning technologies available to them, all the while ensuring equitable access and transparent learning.

Technology is NOT the Solution to Cheating

Available in an inaccessible-but-pretty PDF version as well, Torrey Trust has compiled a document that suggests alternatives to the online proctoring and other monitoring technologies that have become so prevalent in higher education.

A Rubric for Selecting Active Learning Technologies

Effective technology choices can enhance equity in learning. Hasty or inaccessible (due to cost, training, or disability) technology choices, on the other hand, can be disastrous to student learning. Read about and apply the Rubric for Active Learning Technology Evaluation; it’s structured as a spreadsheet, includes instructions, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (so you can use it and share it with anyone!).