Classroom Accommodation & Accessibility Co-Design
In partnership with Accessibility Services (St. George), the Classroom Accommodations & Accessibility Co-Design project built on our previous project exploring student and instructor needs in navigating the classroom accommodations process which aimed at enhancing universal design of learning at the University. As part of this project, the Innovation Hub developed and facilitated a series of design thinking sessions, sharing back our research findings and the Province of Ontario’s Postsecondary Education Standards for Accessibility initial recommendations with the community, and brainstorming ways of bringing these to life at the University.
Summer 2021
What are student and instructor experiences of navigating accomodations?
Students are increasingly seeking Accessibility Services in order to be supported in their learning needs and accommodations with coursework. Part of this process of seeking support is arranged between instructors and students, which can be complex given the diversity of students and instructors' needs. The Innovation Hub partnered with Accessibility Services to better understand the experience of accessibility and the accommodations process in the classroom between instructors and students. While Accessibility Services collects student feedback on the support it provides, less is known about how students experience accessibility issues in the classroom, with their coursework, and with instructors.
KEY FINDINGS
When instructors and students collaborate, everyone is empowered to create accessible classrooms
We found that when there is mutual respect, human connection, empathetic communication, and human-centered change in classroom accommodations and accessibility, students and instructors are empowered to create more accessible classrooms.
The Empowering Role of Mutual Respect: Students and instructors shared that when they felt their learning and teaching needs were valued through mutual respect, they felt empowered to collaborate in making classrooms and coursework accessible together.
Access Through Human Connection: Both students and instructors reported caring about accessibility but they felt the process of accommodation can sometimes be bureaucratic. When accessibility is about partnership and supporting both students and instructors in the learning and teaching process, all stakeholders form human connection that makes accessibility possible.
Empathetic Communication Strengthens Relationships: Students explained that despite accessibility being more open to discussion, they may struggle with feelings of stigma and that their learning needs were being met with distrust every so often/at times/now and again. Empathetic communication and understanding led students to be able to overcome such challenges and begin to have open conversations with instructors.
Human-Centered Change: When instructors build in accessibility in everyday, small, and often creative ways at the outset, these gradual changes can build up to larger, more meaningful and long-lasting change that highlight how accessibility is everyone’s everyday responsibility.