Dive Brief:
- K-12 administrators are struggling to make sure online lessons are accessible for students with disabilities.
- The problem is also felt in higher education, where MIT and Harvard were recently sued for violating anti-discrimination laws when their online lectures and various digital educational materials failed to have closed captioning.
- In order for online curriculum to truly be welcoming for all students, school board members, administrators, and tech directors must be on board with a “top-down” approach to accessibility, George Mason University IT Accessibility Coordinator Kara Zirkle told eSchool News.
Dive Insight:
Zirkle recommends that K-12 schools pay attention to what schools are doing well to ensure all students are reached with online materials. She also says it's a good idea to pay attention to the schools that are not doing such a good job (and may have even been slapped with a lawsuit) in order to discern what they should avoid.
Making sure districts are properly accommodating their special needs students is incredibly important, especially as so many trudge into the still considerably uncharted waters of the connected classroom. Some ways to ensure inclusivity is to start at the professional development level and make sure all educators are aware of the hurdles special education students must overcome. MindPlay for example, recently unveiled a new PD that gives K-12 educators strategies for spotting and teaching dyslexic students.
Just making educators and administrators aware is the first step so they can recognize when their curriculums or teaching methods are failing to reach all students.
