Take A Nature Walk with an Ecologist and a Linguist: Accessibility at the Edge of Interdisciplinarity

Workshop

An edge effect in ecology is where two ecosystems adjoin. Each ecosystem is an entity in its own right. In this session participants will explore the concept of "accessible disciplinarity," where the treatment of accessibility is as a field of study, given equal credence as the discipline it is being applied to and not merely treated as an add-on task. Building off the TPaCK model for teacher education, we explore how typical approaches in training educators in designing accessible curriculum falls into either an accessible ecosystem focused on empathy and experience, or into the discipline ecosystem focused on knowledge of disability and checklists. We would argue that neither of these create sustainable and effective educators. By treating accessibility as a discipline, where you apply the tenets to your disciplinarity approaches, you start to design educational experiences that are more equitable. Only by living in the intersection of the two do you actually create a sustainable accessible environment for both faculty and students.

Given the metaphor of ecological edge effects as promoting diversity, we are left with the question, If the physical conditions of the environment drive the species diversity at edges...what environment lives at the edge of accessibility and disciplinarity that will allow for a sustainable diversity of student experience? Is that environment design?

Timetable

Three 12 minute sections that each begin with a quick discussion and sharing of ideas, followed by small group work. The session will conclude with a 10 minute open Q&A discussion. (Refer to 'How will you encourage interaction with the audience?' section of this proposal for more information)

Interaction

Throughout the workshop, attendees will be in small groups working through three exercises. Each of the exercises has participants experience educator training from one of three ecosystem perspectives: strict accessibility, strict disciplinarity, and the edge effect between the two. After each exercise there will be reporting out and collation of ideas. Then after the three exercises, presenters will work with the group to synthesize the central message exploring the role of design in facilitating interdisciplinarity and accessibility.

Takeaway

The goal of this session is for participants to understand the design process as a means of gaining empathy and essential knowledge for creating accessible experiences in any discipline.

Outcomes

Attendees' comments will be recorded and used as part of a blog post to be featured on the Hub for Learning and Technology at Michigan State University. We will encourage further feedback and conversation to this blog post and will continue to develop this approach to be shared in other spaces such as conferences, white papers, articles, etc. We will also use this presentation and subsequent feedback as the basis for trainings and workshops we will facilitate with our faculty.

Abstract

Under what conditions can one find the elusive Academia accessibilii? It is a species that does not seem to thrive in either accessibility-centered or discipline-centered ecosystems. However, at the edge between these two ecosystems, the environment seems to promote a type of instructor that is more inclusive and equitable.

Currently, higher learning institutions are being held accountable for being more accessible to persons with disabilities. The challenge is how to do this with faculty so that they do not view it as just another "unfunded mandate." Various methods for professional development have been tested to foster empathy as well as the skills needed to remediate or create accessible curriculum. These approaches can focus on affective goals of empathy or cognitive goals of understanding disability and the necessary changes for remediation. At Michigan State University, we have tried many of these approaches, and the one that we have seen notable success is one that is in the overlap between one's disciplinarity and accessibility knowledge and expertise.

In this session you will join an ecologist and a linguist as they take you through experiences in faculty training that explore the ecosystem of professional development for accessibility. Having experienced a range of approaches, we will reflect as a group to qualify the various experiences to see if we can describe the habitat that best supports the accessible academic and how we might recreate more opportunities for this endangered species.