Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Accessibility and Digital Equity
Prior to reading the article AIM for Digital Equality, I knew of the importance of making class material and lessons accessible to all students so that they all have the same opportunities to succeed. The thought that this must include all online/digital materials as well hadn't occurred to me. I think the accessibility it allows for new/struggling readers and students with disabilities is one of the undeniable advantages of technology in the classroom. With that said, I think that the teacher is responsible for reflecting on if the intended help could actually be hurting or doing a disservice to students. The example the article gives is of Dylan V., the student who took over 2 hours to complete math homework because he had difficulty with reading and comprehension of the written directions. By the teacher introducing the textbook's speaker icon tool to the whole class, she provided the same opportunity to utilize the tool for all of her students. Dylan V.'s homework time was significanlty lowered and he achieved the curricular goal in Math assignments, but my concern is if he is able to achieve the same goal in reading comprehension without the use of a text-reading tool. I don't think that the main issue of a struggling reader can be covered up with the use of a tool that is not available all the time in the real world. The words being highlighted as they are spoken I would imagine assists with word recognition, but can not replace the much needed reading lessons for the student in my opinion.
By law and morals, I will ensure online accessibility for all of my digital content by informing myself on the accessibility tools that are available to students with a variety of disabilities. Like we discussed in class, I will make transcripts to videos and other media that can be listened to by students who are visually impaired. Also using captions and lots of visual material for students who are hearing impaired. Doing research on the resources provided in the article, like the AIM Center and NIMAC, would be a good starting point.
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Bowser, Gayl, and Joy Smiley Zabala. "AIM for Digital Equity." Learning & Leading with Technology 39.7 (2012): 16-19.
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I really liked that you talked about the issue with Dylan. I wrote about this as well but I didn't see one of the points you mentioned. I didn't really think about how this is sort of a temporary option as far as helping Dylan succeed. Ya, the online reading tool helped him finish his math homework quicker but he still continues to struggle with comprehension. So, it is fixing one issue while masking the other one. I didn't really think about this until I read your post. Thanks for bringing this to my attention! Also I really liked how you used specific examples to how you will make your online content accessible to all of your students. You have good ideas and good alternatives to making sure all the students are included.
ReplyDeleteI am in the same boat as you Stephanie, I too will try my best to make sure each and every student needs are met or modified towards her/his learning style. It is going to be interesting and a challenge trying to figure out what works best for the educators teaching practice and methods, but nothing remains the same right? Everything is always changing, including technology. By the time you start to get the hang of some tool you like, here comes some new technology ready to take its place making the tool somewhat obsolete.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that they're not really solving the problem of Dylan's reading comprehension, I still think that this is an important use of technology. While it's true that he also needs to develop his reading skills, his difficulties were leading to a perception that he was struggling with math, which means that resources that could have been addressed to his issues may have been deployed to help him in areas where he didn't need help. Let his struggles with reading comprehension be dealt with in an english class, not in mathematics.
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