How will your interactive learning resource specifically ensure that the needs of all learners can be met?

We designed our Interactive Learning Resource (ILR) with a Universal Design Learning (UDL) to remove as many learning barriers as possible, making it as accessible as we could. We focused on multiple means of representation by incorporating both texts and videos into our lesson plan. Since designing for English Language Learners (ELL) was one of our learning contexts, we chose to use simple and clear language in the lesson plan, aiming to make it accessible and applicable to students of all English levels. As well, all of the video resources we used have closed captioning and/or transcripts available making them more accessible to not only ELL, but also to Deaf/hard of hearing learners and learners with devices that have poor audio quality, who may find an exclusively audio-based means of representation inaccessible.

Our second learning context was learners who are colourblind. To design an accessible ILR for them, we did not utilize colour-coding methods and chose a website design that is not colour-dependent for navigation. For example, our menu bar highlights with a block shape to indicate clickable links rather than just colour, and we made links in the post text identifiable by putting square brackets around them so that there is no reliance on colour difference to notice links (except in reference lists which present links with “Accessible at” before the link.)

As a web-based platform we also chose to exclusively use learning tools and learning resources that are free and publicly available, consistent with an open learning pedagogy approach. Using free resources, as well as making the lesson free to access and use, removes financial barriers that may restrict learners for participating.

All these design choices were made to remove as many barriers as possible in order to create an accessible ILR! We also outlined out choices for accessible design for our specific contexts here.

 

– SC