Accessibility Study Experience_沙巴体育官网

Chris Kernion
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 17:00:31 +0000
Best practices, Distance Education, Faculty, a11y, accessibility

Communications instructor Chris Kernion shares his experience with the recent Subject Area Accessibility Study.

For this blog post I was approached to offer my experience in participating with the Communication and Journalism Accessibility Study. For this post I was asked two questions which I have provided responses below.

What did the Communication and Journalism SAC do that you found useful?

First of all, we teach many courses that cover media studies and dimensions of verbal and nonverbal communication. Most of our instructors in Communication Studies and Journalism use film, television, images, print, etc., as teaching tools, illustrations, and case studies. The major aspect that I found useful was to develop our courses that meet the needs of all students to enhance not only the quality and accessibility of our online courses, but also the face-to-face classes. One primary goal that we achieved was to develop a procedure for using descriptive details about images or auditory components central to course content that mitigate inference, so students may make their own interpretations using course material. We found this useful for all student learners rather than a segment of our student population.

Was the experience of participating in the study useful to you as an educator? If yes, how?

The Communication and Journalism Subject Area Accessibility Study was one of the most beneficial professional development projects I have been a part of. The reason I say this is that it allowed us to analyze our courses through a different lens. We prepare our courses as content experts with guidelines from the SAC, Accessible Ed & Disability Resources, etc. What we were able to do in this study was to look at our courses through the lens of accessibility and make necessary suggestions and revisions to the way we teach.

One important take away from this study is in our course design. Many times, when receiving an accommodation request from PCC Accessible Ed & Disability Resources, an instructor may feel they have to scramble at the last minute to try and develop an assignment or multiple assignments for the student. We can now take more of a holistic approach to our teaching to accommodate all student learners rather than waiting for an accommodation request. Instead of a reactive approach to accommodations, we can be proactive in developing and revising our courses so that we meet the outcomes of the assignment, course, and PCC’s core outcomes. If we can revise assignments and teaching strategies, then we have tools in place that will assist in our teaching and meeting the needs of all our students.

Final Thoughts

My hope is that other instructors take advantage of this opportunity as this not only provided tools to improve our courses, but also improved my teaching to meet the needs of all my students. I am very excited to share our findings from this study with our SAC this fall and know that our faculty will benefit from the tools and suggestions provided.

Best,

Chris Kernion