6 Is Online Education Accessible?
Hann Bingham Brunner
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 sent K-12 and higher education alike scrambling to move classes and instruction online. While most schools and universities have returned to in-person classes and instruction, disability rights activists and disability studies scholars tout online education as a more accessible option for students with disabilities. Students with mental health disabilities, physical disabilities, and neurodivergent students can all benefit from online classes, especially asynchronous online classes with flexible due dates.
Moreover, as schools and universities began a “return to normal,” educators began to consider whether all in-person classes are the best fit for all students, or whether some courses should be offered online each semester for students with disabilities.
However, proponents of in-person learning say that students do not learn as much online as they do in a physical classroom setting. Some disability scholars also point out that not all instructors know how to make their online classes accessible for deaf/Deaf students, or for blind and low-vision students, who need additional accommodations and access measures to make online classes accessible.
In short, advocates on both sides of the debate have strong opinions about whether online education is more accessible for disabled students. In this simulation, you will become one of those advocates. In the next section of this chapter, you will learn how the Accessible Online Education Simulation works in practical terms and about the important skills you will gain by participating in this simulation.
Overview
This simulation engages you in critical discussions about accessibility as well as disability justice in higher education contexts. The chapter begins with an opportunity for you to discuss how the themes of the simulation relate to your own lived experience. You will also engage with reading, listening, and research activities to help build your knowledge of debates around accessibility and online education. You will then take a position on the accessibility of online education by adopting a persona in the role-play phase. After reflecting on the role-play, you will either write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper or produce a podcast about whether online education is more accessible for people with disabilities. As shown below, the simulation has five distinct phases.
How the simulation works
| Phase | Phase Description | Activities |
| 1 | Activation | Discussion 1
Listening 1 |
| 2 | Comprehension | Listening 2
Reading 1 & 2 Role Assignment / Role Preparation |
| 3 | Simulation | Role Play |
| 4 | Reflection | Debriefing Activity
Critical Reflections |
| 5 | Application | Letter to the Dean or Podcast |
You will gain a number of important skills as you participate in the simulation. These skills are sequenced from simple tasks such as defining and describing to more complex tasks such as synthesizing and evaluating.
After completing this simulation, you will be able to:
- make connections between your own lived experience and disability.
- define key terms relating to accessibility and disability justice.
- describe the central arguments around whether online education is accessible for everyone.
- make predictions about the key factors that influence teachers and students to prefer in-person versus online education.
- summarize issues related to accessibility and online education.
- synthesize knowledge on disability access.
- evaluate the positions taken in the simulation.
Phase 1: Activation
In this phase of the simulation, you will draw on your background knowledge of in-person education, online education, and disability accessibility. This will help prepare you for the listening, reading and research activities in Phase 2 of the simulation. It will also allow you to share your experiences and ideas with your classmates.
Discussion Activity 1
Work in a small group. Discuss the following questions and be ready to share your responses with the class.
- What kinds of disabilities are you familiar with?
- What do you know about accessibility and accommodations for people with disabilities?
- What kind of accommodations do you know about for people with disabilities?
- Have you or a friend ever needed an accommodation to make school more accessible?
- What kind of accessibility do you think students with disabilities need in in-person classes?
- What kind of accessibility do you think students with disabilities need in online classes?
- Do you think in-person classes or online classes would be more accessible for students with disabilities? Why?
Listening Activity 1
Watch selection (0:00-4:36) from the Video “Creating an Accessible Digital Future” Creating an Accessible Digital Future (Brewer, 2019) and answer the following questions:
- Timestamp – 00-1:33
- According to Judy Brewer, how many people in the world have disabilities?
- What is accessibility for people with disabilities?
- What example does Judy Brewer give for accessibility in the physical world?
- Timestamp – 1:34-3:07
- What is inclusive design?
- What are some examples of inclusive design on the web that Judy Brewer gives?
- What other areas (besides on the Internet) can digital accessibility affect?
- Timestamp – 3:08-4:36
- Why does Judy Brewer claim that awareness is one of the most important elements for creating an accessible world?
- How does a lack of awareness of disability perpetuate the exclusion of disabled people?
Phase 2: Comprehension
The purpose of this phase is to help you expand your knowledge of the debates around online education and accessibility. You will watch one short video and read two texts. In Listening Activity 2, The video will provide you with some background information on accessibility. Review the questions below before watching the video. For Reading Activity 1, you will answer a series of comprehension questions. For Reading Activity 2, you will define some key terms and write a descriptive summary of the text.
Listening Activity 2
Watch the selected sections of the video (0:00-7:07) To Care & Comply: Accessibility of Online Course Content (Portland Community College, 2019) and answer the following questions:
- Timestamp – 00-2:17
- What example challenge does the opening of the video depict?
- Why does Tanya say that some students with disabilities are unable to complete their assignments?
- Timestamp – 2:18-3:29
- What problems does Vanessa Robinson have with online class content?
- Why does Vanessa have to go to campus in order to complete the online classwork?
- Timestamp – 3:30-6:03
- What kinds of programs does Bryan say are inaccessible for him to use?
- What tool does Bryan use instead of a mouse?
- Timestamp – 6:04-7:07
- What reason does Tanya give for instructors to be ready and prepared for students with disabilities and different access needs?
Reading Activity 1
Read Flexible Online Education for Students with Disabilities (Lunsmann, 2023), then answer the following questions.
- Comprehension Questions
- What were some of the “barriers to learning” from switching rapidly to all-online education during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
- Along with students with disabilities, what other groups of college students may benefit from online learning?
- What aspects of online learning may be difficult for students with disabilities?
- Why did people with health conditions and physical disabilities find online learning beneficial?
- What kind of assistive technology is useful for blind students, as well as dyslexic students?
- What are some of the social benefits of online education?
Reading Activity 2
DEFINITIONS
Before reading the text by Jesse Rice-Evans (2020), in a notebook or on a piece of paper, use a dictionary or your phone’s search engine to define the key terms: open digital pedagogy, open access, open educational resources (OER), intersectional, praxis, accommodation, accessibility
- How many of these did you know before?
- Are there any of these terms you thought you knew the definition for and learned a new or broader definition?
SUMMARY
Read Open Access Pedagogy: A Manifesto by Jesse Rice-Evans (2020), then write a summary using the prompt provided:
- Based on the reading, explain the concept “access pedagogy” and summarize why Rice-Evans argues that “when students ask for help, we must believe them” (word limit: 200-400 words).
Phase 3: Simulation
In this phase, you will be given a role to play in a simulated discussion event (e.g., 45 -minute panel discussion). It is important that you understand the context and your role to prepare for the role playing.
The Context
You are sitting on an advisory panel for your college to decide whether sections of general education courses should be offered online each semester for students with disabilities. The university you are affiliated with is holding a series of panel discussions for students, faculty, staff and other stakeholders to discuss whether it should increase the number of online general education courses in order to make classes more accessible for students with disabilities.
Agenda: Should the university offer more online general education courses to benefit students with disabilities?
Roles
You will be assigned a role to play in this phase of the simulation. There are five participant roles on each side of the debate and one moderator role.
Moderator: University President
Your task is to introduce the issue at the beginning of the panel discussion, welcome the participants, and moderate the discussions. Allow every participant (role) about 3-5 minutes to talk and make sure that everyone gets a turn to express their opinion. Develop one question for each group’s presentation and ask the question after their presentations. The moderator role can be played by students or the instructor of the course.
IN FAVOR OF ADDITIONAL ONLINE GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSES
Role 1. Associate Professor of Disability Studies
Description
- You are in favor of offering online general education classes as an access measure for students with disabilities, because you saw that students with unseen disabilities like mental health conditions, neurodivergence, and chronic illnesses benefitted from online classes during the COVID pandemic. You believe that more online general education classes can offer more flexibility to these students with diverse access needs which in-person classes, even with disability accommodations, cannot always offer.
Potential Sources
Role 2. Student with psychiatric disabilities
Description
- You are in favor of more online classes, because your disability changes from day-to-day, making it hard to make it to in-person class all the time, which can affect your grades for classes that take attendance. More online general education classes will help you make progress in your degree, as well as help you to build confidence in your ability to complete college-level school work.
Potential Sources
Role 3. Director of Student Accessibility Services
Description
- You are for more online general education classes as an accessibility measure for students with disabilities. Many of the accommodations your office can offer students are relegated to in-person classes and test-taking accommodations, and many students’ accommodations are unnecessary in online classes. Online learning allows students with disabilities to have more control over what they do or do not tell their professor or classmates about their disability(ies), allowing more privacy than for in-person classes.
Potential Sources
Role 4. Head of Inclusion
Description
- You are in favor of more online general education classes, because you believe that these classes can be beneficial for a variety of students like people with full-time jobs, people who have to care for their families during the day, people who are not close to campus, as well as people with disabilities. More online general education classes will help a variety of students succeed in their academics.
Potential Source
Role 5. Neurodivergent student
Description
- You are in favor of online classes, because the flexibility of online classes makes it easier for you to keep up with your work without being distracted or overwhelmed during in-person classes. Since going online in spring 2020, you have had better grades and have felt more accomplished with your classes, and you want other students to be able to feel the same way by being able to take their general education requirements online.
Potential Sources
AGAINST ADDITIONAL ONLINE GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSES
Role 6. Associate Dean of Academics
Description
- You are against more online classes because you believe that students learn best in in-person classrooms. In addition, you heard that some students with disabilities had more, not fewer, access needs in online classes during COVID, so you don’t want to create more problems for those students.
Potential Sources:
Role 7. Assistant Professor of Deaf studies
Description
- You are against more online general education classes because you believe that online classes are not always more accessible for students with disabilities, like d/Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students, as well as blind and low-vision students. Online courses may add extra barriers for these students, especially when professors are not trained to make their online course materials accessible for screen readers, or to make sure all their audio and video content is captioned.
Potential Sources:
Role 8. Deaf Student
Description
- You are against moving more general education classes online because these classes are not more accessible for you as a Deaf person. Although some technology has improved since 2020 like more accurate live captions in Zoom, many professors upload video lectures that do not have accurate closed captions, if any, and videos they post for students to watch have the same issues. In-person classes allow for you to have an ASL translator with you to ensure you can understand videos and lectures, but being at home at the computer you miss valuable course content.
Potential Sources
Role 9. Visually impaired student
Description
- You are against plans to increase the number of online general education classes because during COVID-19 your coursework was harder for you to access as someone with low-vision. Professors did not know how to make PDFs accessible for your screen reading software, making it difficult and time-consuming to complete your homework and reading tasks, as well as not being able to use your screen reader for powerpoint slides and other learning materials.
Potential Sources
Role 10. International student
Description
- You are against more online classes because it means that fewer classes will be offered in-person, making it harder for you to get the in-person classroom hours that your visa requires. You also know that many of your friends had a hard time understanding their homework assignments when they had to talk to their professors through Zoom.
Potential Sources
Phase 4: Reflection
Debriefing Activity: In small groups, discuss the following questions. Be prepared to share your thoughts with the whole class.
- What did you think about the topic for this simulation? Were you already familiar with it?
- Was it easy or difficult to create an argument for your side of the issue? Why?
- What did you think of your role in the simulation? Did you personally agree or disagree with your role’s required stance on the issue?
Critical Reflection Activity
- Did any of the participants/ groups make particularly persuasive arguments? If so, which one/s? What made the arguments more persuasive?
- Did any of the participants/groups make arguments that you thought were weak? If so, what were the arguments? What made them weak?
- Which individual participant did you find the most knowledgeable / most persuasive in the role play? Why?
- Which group did you find most persuasive? Why?
Phase 5: Application
OPTION 1: Letter to the University President
You are writing an opinion letter to the University President after hearing both sides of the arguments for and against online general education classes at the advisory panel.
Prompt: In the form of an opinion letter, write to the University President either in favor or against more online general education specifically from the perspective of disability access. Write to convince the President to support or deny the proposal, using sources from your role, others roles, and outside sources to support online education as more or less accessible than traditional in-person classes.
OPTION 2: Podcast (Edmon Lowe Creative Studios)
You are the host of a weekly podcast for your university newspaper, where each week you focus on one campus issue to talk about and give your perspective on.
Prompt: Using the sources from your role, others roles, and sources you find on your own, write, create and record a 8-10 minute podcast episode (with a written transcript) about whether you think that more online general education classes would be a good way to make your school more accessible for students with disabilities.
Option 3: Advantages/Disadvantages Essay
Prompt: Examine the advantages and disadvantages of having online general education classes as an accessibility measure for students with disabilities. Then, formulate a recommendation for the best path forward for general ed classes, using specific examples to support your discussion and your recommendation. You should use at least two sources from the references as well as one source you find on your own.
References
Ashford, M. (2022, July 5). Digital Accessibility: Neurodiversity. Accessibility.com: Empowering digital accessibility for businesses. https://www.accessibility.com/blog/digital-accessibility-neurodiversity
Brewer, J. (2019). Creating an Accessible Digital Future. YouTube. Retrieved July 3, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb2X9kYEvXc&feature=youtu.be.
Dwyer, D., & Yoo, J. (2020, April 29). Facing coronavirus while deaf and blind: “Everything relies on touch.” ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/facing-coronavirus-deaf-blind-relies-touch/story?id=70274235
Granados, A. (2020, April 7). How is covid-19 affecting esl students? EdNC.Org. Retrieved July 3, 2023, from https://www.ednc.org/how-is-covid-19-affecting-esl-students/.
Kotera, Y., Cockerill, V., Green, P., Hutchinson, L., Shaw, P., & Bowskill, N. (2019). Towards another kind of borderlessness: Online students with disabilities. Distance Education, 40(2), 170–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2019.1600369
Livingstone, K. (2021, May 18). The challenge of teaching students with visual disabilities from afar. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/the-challenge-of-teaching-students-with-visual-disabilities-from-afar/2021/05
Lunsmann, C. J. (2023, March 6). Flexible online education for students with disabilities. University of Maryland Global Campus Blog. https://www.umgc.edu/blog/flexible-education-students-disabilities
Meleo-Erwin, Z., Kollia, B., Fera, J., Jahren, A., & Basch, C. (2021). Online support information for students with disabilities in colleges and universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Disability and Health Journal, 14(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2020.101013
Morris, A., & Anthes, E. (2021, August 23). For some college students, remote learning is a game changer. The New York Times. Retrieved July 3, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/23/health/covid-college-disabilities-students.html.
Portland Community College. (2019). To Care & Comply: Accessibility of Online Course Content. Youtube. Retrieved July 3, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb2X9kYEvXc&feature=youtu.be.
Rice-Evans, J. (2020, November 13). Open Access Pedagogy: A Manifesto. Retrieved July 3, 2023, from https://antiableistcomposition.wordpress.com/2020/11/13/open-access-pedagogy-a-manifesto/.
University of Cincinatti. (n.d.). Covid creates academic gap for English language learners. University of Cincinnati Online. https://online.uc.edu/covid-creates-academic-gap-for-english-language-learners/
Why studying online can be more accessible to those with disabilities and neurodiversity. University College of Estate Management. (2021, February 11). https://www.ucem.ac.uk/whats-happening/articles/why-studying-online-can-be-more-accessible-to-those-with-disabilities-and-neurodiversity/
About the author
name: Hann Bingham Brunner
institution: Oklahoma State University
Hann Bingham Brunner is a PhD Candidate in Applied Linguistics at Oklahoma State University with a focus on disability and identity. They are Associate Director of the International Composition program and Assistant Director of First Year Composition.