Episode 21- How to Keep Accessibility Momentum
0-0:12 Orthotonics Accessible as Gravity plays and fades out
0:13 Hello and welcome to Accessagogy a podcast about accessibility and pedagogy. I’m your host Ann Gagné and this podcast is recorded on land covered by the Upper Canada Treaties and within land protected by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Agreement, which is the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples.
0:34 Welcome to episode twenty-one. This episode is going to be a bit different. By the time this episode is published we will be close to reading week, or spring break time in most places in North America. This is usually the time when people reflect on half of the term that has already passed and what needs to be put in place for the term to end in a somewhat successful way. So I want to use this time and space to think about what quick wins we can put into our assessment and activity design to get to the end of term and what you can do to keep accessibility momentum going for you.
1:14 This episode is inspired a lot by what is going on in accessibility right now, in particular around web accessibility. I’m seeing so many people leave web accessibility spaces and work or start supporting what could only be understood as the antithesis of accessibility work. And it’s so confusing, and it’s capitalism, it’s burnout, it’s all of those things. Equity work is hard. It’s rarely supported by the systems that we find ourselves working in, because those very same systems have created the very same inequity and inaccessibility in the first place that we’re trying to work against.
1:53 So today I want to give three things that you could do to keep that accessibility momentum going, and replenish your accessibility and your accessible pedagogy loving soul. This is my attempt at trying to find some joy. I had some of my friends text me recently and say, “can you do an episode on finding joy?” and I was like ugh, I don’t know if I can do joy, but I can do momentum, so let’s try momentum. So here are the three things that I’m going to suggest.
2:25 One, find a group of folk outside of your institution to talk accessible and inclusive pedagogy with. That outside of your institution part is key. Having different perspectives on the work that we do is important and maintaining connections and networks outside of your institution is also important. I know that so many are still lamenting the loss of academic Twitter, and I still remind people that disability Twitter is still there and never went anywhere, because you didn’t want us anywhere.
2:56 But now I see a lot of people on LinkedIn sharing ideas and thoughts in different ways and that may be one place to connect with accessible pedagogy folk. I know that I’m lucky that I have you know two separate groups that I meet with on a semi-regular basis that support this kind of work. One is a disability reading group, and the other is a trauma-informed UDL group. Both of these are international in scope and I’ve been doing these meetings with these folk for about 3 years now which is a life time actually when it comes to academic type groups.
3:29 So this maybe takes me to point one and half which is, if you can’t find a group that is interested in a particular thing that you want to talk about, build one. And again reach out to me or others to see if you know or we know of people that are already talking about the things that you care about and that you want to talk about. The amount of soul support that having those conversations with people who don’t work where you work cannot be under estimated. And this of course is where I’m going to give my podcast shout out to Thomas and to Kate, because gosh the convos that I had with them over the past two weeks or so have been so great. And yes sometimes you have to do calendar jenga if you want to figure out how Canada and Australia and Ireland can meet at a time that is convenient for everyone, but it’s so so worth it.
4:22 Two, avoid the big groups and associations. Usually the ones with 3 or 4 letter acronyms. Trust me, it’s not in the big groups and associations that you’re going to find the solidarity that you’re looking for and definitely not for the work you’re doing. And in fact, chances are those groups will make you feel even worse about the seeming impossibility of accessible pedagogy and will cast you out if you note how they function like an insulated pod. Big associations are often just extensions of the big kind of policy and bureaucracy that we see in higher education institutions. What we need is smaller and trustworthy, not larger and covid-y.
5:05 And three, scan the remaining weeks of your syllabus and look week by week for something that you can add, an activity, a conversation, a discussion board, an opportunity to create a resource or an artifact that can increase the possibilities of accessibility wins and give you something to build on for next term or next year. I’m not talking about big overhauls here, just small additions that can be feasibly done to make accessibility and inclusion part of your conversation that is happening in the class. The more we have the opportunities for the learners to think and talk about accessibility in the context of your courses that you’re teaching, the more accessibility will seem less like an add on to them and to the people that are in your near circles at work.
5:50 There are opportunities to add these kinds of discussions or activities, regardless of discipline that you’re in and regardless of the topics that you need to cover for the remainder of the term. And if you’re stuck and you think, “how can I possibly add an accessibility conversation to this?”, please reach out and I would love to have that conversation with you and see what we could do together.
6:11 So that’s it, that’s episode 21 of Accessagogy, with a bit of a mini-sode if you will, and a discussion of how to replenish your soul with this work. I see you, I know it is so so hard, but you’re not alone, we just need to find our group of people who get it and who want to support others in getting it.
6:35 Remember as well that I also want this to be a space where you can ask questions and share concepts that you’d like me to discuss. So if there’s anything that I mentioned here, that you would like me to clarify, or expand upon please ask.
6:46 As always if you have any ideas or aspects of your pedagogy that you would like me to address in this podcast, please feel free to send me an email at Accessagogy so that’s acc e ss a gogy at gmail dot com. I will try to include as many suggestions as possible in the podcast because ultimately, this podcast is for you. So that’s it, that’s episode 21 of Accessagogy, thanks so much for following along and asking how can I make my space more accessible today? Have a great week!