Love this digest? Check out the lineup of companion
Accessibility Matters LIVE! webinars.
Welcome to the first edition of Accessibility Matters Digest, where we discuss the benefits of designing accessible courses, acknowledge the complexities in that process, and highlight the research and tools that can support delivering accessible courses in Canvas. This month, we’re exploring how a collaborative approach to accessible learning makes the work more manageable and effective.
Your accessibility work doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it’s happening in Canvas. To that end, we’re excited to launch the first edition of the Accessibility Matters blog in partnership with Instructure, providers of Canvas LMS and its Rich Content Editor that can support accessible learning and design.
“…it is not possible to achieve fully accessible learning experiences without the ‘concerted effort of all stakeholders…working together’”
(Fisseler & Schaten, 2010, as cited in Seal et al., 2020).
With an increased sense of urgency to provide accessible learning experiences for all students, the accessibility conversation is shifting from a focus on all the reasons that it’s important to all the ways that we can make the important work of accessibility more achievable.
At Cidi Labs, we see accessibility as a shared responsibility–not just the job of instructional designers or disability services, but a collaborative effort across educators, administrators, support staff, and even software and service providers. And accessibility experts and researchers agree: the way to provide inclusive, accessible learning experiences is by engaging a range of stakeholders and leveraging their respective skillsets for a holistic, scalable, and sustainable solution (Burgstahler, 2023; Kaspi-Tsahor, 2020).
Let’s explore a few tips and tools that make embracing an “it takes a village” philosophy not just a nice concept but a practical, manageable process to achieve more accessible Canvas courses, together:
Remember how we said we’ve partnered with Instructure for this blog post? You can read the rest of this edition on their website!
To keep the digest, well, digestible, each month we’ll deliver a bite-sized solution for a common accessibility challenge. We hope these small but mighty tips will empower you and provide momentum on your journey of developing and delivering accessible Canvas courses!
You’re working hard to make your Canvas courses accessible, but course clutter has made the process overwhelming!
Kickstart your accessibility work using TidyUP to identify and delete unused course files and content in a flash! No more spending time unnecessarily remediating unused files and content.
“Thanks to Cidi Labs, I can quickly create stunning, professional courses that make learning engaging and accessible for all students.”
– Karen Kaya, Instructional Technology Facilitator, Broward County Public Schools
To see this Digest come to life, join us for our first Accessibility Matters Live! “Many Hands, Lighter Work: Scaling Accessibility in Canvas LMS” on May 15th at 12pm MT. We’ve partnered with Instructure and three institutions to highlight practical strategies, real-world insights, and the right tools to scale accessibility in Canvas through collaboration and a shared commitment to accessible course design. Learn how these institutions equipped all parts of their ‘village’ to make real accessibility progress and how Cidi Labs tools empowered the effort. You’ll walk away inspired to tackle your accessibility initiatives and knowing you need not do it alone!
Can’t wait to see what’s coming in the Accessibility Matters lineup? Then check out the rest of our upcoming Accessibility Matters LIVE! webinar series. Register today to fill your calendar through the end of the year with practical strategies and powerful tools to help achieve your course accessibility goals in Canvas.
Citations:
Castro-Alonso, J.C., de Koning, B.B., Fiorella, L. et al. Five Strategies for Optimizing Instructional Burgstahler, S. (2023). Applying a UDHE Framework to an Online Learning Program. The Northwest ELearning Journal, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.5399/osu/nwelearn.3.1.6010
Kaspi-Tsahor, D. (2020). New Perspectives on Stakeholders: Who Needs to Step Up to the Plate and How?. Improving Accessible Digital Practices in Higher Education: Challenges and New Practices for Inclusion, 73.
Seale, J., King, L., Jorgensen, M., Havel, A., Asuncion, J., & Fichten, C. (2020). Engaging ignored stakeholders of higher education accessibility practice: analysing the experiences of an international network of practitioners and researchers. Journal of Enabling Technologies, 14(1), 15-29.
© 2023 Cidi Labs, LLC All Rights Reserved
Description