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Accessible and Cultrurally Responsive Learning Design

Inclusive design is one of the many ways that learning designers can build and create learning experiences for all students. Without accessible and inclusive design practices, students with learning disabilities or even just students who need information presented differently to them so that they can learn best may suffer and may not reach their fullest potential when it comes to how much they will learn.

Accessibility is one topic that, based on my experience with learning design before, I knew was important. Still, as someone studying learning design, I felt as though I had no clue how I could implement accessible practices in my design. This semester in my LDT 508 class, I have had the opportunity to be involved in empathy challenges that put me in the shoes of someone with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, color blindness, hearing loss, and upper body dexterity. This semester I have also had the opportunity to learn new ways to implement more accessible practices in my design projects, and today I will reflect on and review those projects.

Unit Two: POUR Infographic

First, for my first assignment, I got the chance to create an infographic that reviews the WCAG accessibility principles. I got the chance to study the WCAG accessibility principles and create my own definitions for the four principles, which were definitions for perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust, and create an engaging and informative infographic that reviews those principles.

See the infographic below:


 

One of the POUR principles is the word "perceivable" My definition of the word perceivable states, 

Perceivable: Perceivable content allows students to change how information is displayed in their online courses to better suit their learning needs, such as with text descriptions, large text, closed captions, color coding, etc.

I chose to write this definition the way I did because if we allow students to change the way their content is presented to them, this can help a wide variety of students with learning disabilities learn the way that is best for them. For example, during one of my empathy challenges, I had to see the challenges of having a student who had hearing loss. I quickly learned how powerful having optional things in a course for videos such as "closed captions" could impact that student because it would allow the students to read the captions to better understand the video since they would have had trouble hearing the sound. 

More steps to adhere to this principle:

  • Use large text in learning modules, such as with large headings, and don't use fonts that are hard to read.
  • When you use images, add a text description next to the picture to discuss what the picture is displaying.
  • Use colors that are easy to read in text and learning material.

Unit Three: Instructional Program Accessibility Evaluation

Second, for the next assignment, I got the opportunity to act as the instructional designer for a company called GreenPath Forward. My job was to do an evaluation of the current accessibility of their volunteer training module and provide feedback for improvement. 

Below are the results: 

 





Based on the results, many areas of the module did not pass the accessibility checks. Such as typefaces and fonts (see below).

 


I think that having an instructional designer perform an accessibility check is a huge asset for companies to ensure that all employees are supported. I will say that performing an accessibility check was very time-consuming. I would say that a challenge could be time constraints. If the company needed the content available immediately, this would be harder to do.

Unit Four: Making Digital Learning Content Accessible 

The next step after the accessibility check was to fix the issues that I found during the accessibility check. 

For example, during the accessibility check, the homepage failed to have normal and large text ratios, and the color of the text was difficult to read. I changed the color of the font from green to black and used highlights to highlight the font on the title and the other headings on the homepage. I also implemented headings and increased the text size.

Before:


 

After:



These simple changes allow the volunteers to be able to read the content better and understand where important information is located much better than they could before. These changes have the potential to deepen the reader's understanding of the content. 

Unit Five: UDL Implementation

My next task was to identify Universal Design barriers on the GreenPath Forward website. "...to apply UD to teaching and learning activities, this basic definition can be modified to "the design of teaching and learning products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design." (Burgstahler, 2021). One thing that I noticed was a lack of learning objectives throughout the GreenPath learning modules. The website also did not have a lot of checks for understanding the course content. On the website, to combat these challenges, I added a learning objective to each module and added checks for understanding.

See below:

Before:


 

After






This allows learners to have a clear understanding of what they need to learn by the end of the module and helps learners make sure they understand the module content after they complete the module.

Cultural Responsiveness:

Culturally responsive teaching allows students to direct their learning in ways that matter to them" (FCPS, 2021). Being culturally responsive to students needs allows learners to be interested in the content and allows teachers to consider "multiple perspectives, relevance, critical lens, rigor, and building relationships" (FCPS, 2021). If we are culturally responsive during the design process, this can help students stay engaged in the content and see the content as relevant to them.

Some ideas to consider in learning design to be more culturally responsive could be:

  • Designers can help instructors engage in self-diologue to help instructors reflect on their current practice and how they respond to cultural differences.
  • For example, if you use a visual from pop culture, consider adding a text description so that the learner can understand what the image is about if they are unfamiliar with it.
  • Diversify the curriculum to include more diverse perspectives. 

Additionally, when reviewing the GreenPath Forward website, some enhancements could be made to make the website more culturally responsive, such as, 

  • Add pictures of current GreenPath volunteers to show diversity among volunteers.
  • Meet with the GreenPath volunteer coordinator to set up a meeting to help with self-reflection on cultural responsiveness to help the volunteers in the program.
  • Add more ways on the Community Engagement page to show how GreenPath volunteers work with diverse groups.

Going forward to enhance a connection among volunteers, you could establish a connection through meetings or by establishing a Slack channel where volunteers can interact with each other, and incorporate more team-building activities through the volunteer experience, such as discussions, get-to-know-you sessions, or other fun activities. 

Conclusion:

Overall, through my learning experience, I have gained more insight into accessibility practices and how to make learning inclusive for all. The principles of universal design must be followed in all my future design projects so that learners feel supported and stay engaged. It is also important to be culturally responsive in course design so that learners from different cultural backgrounds can understand the information and make the information relevant to them. Including culturally diverse practices in my design is something that I want to do going forward to enhance my course design and foster a positive community among instructors and learners, such as through diverse visuals, self-reflection, and creating a diverse curriculum. I believe that doing these things going forward will make me a better learning designer and help positively impact more students.

References:

 

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