Episode 27- Season Three Intro Accessible Syllabi
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-seven, and the first episode of season three. In this episode, I want to talk about something that folk are in the process of completing right as I’m recording this episode, or have just finished completing a few weeks ago, which are their course syllabi or outlines, and how to make them more accessible to learners and for instructors.
0:59 I’m going to be honest and say there was a time, well actually many times, over the summer break where I wasn’t sure if I was going to have a season three. I think one of the things that folk appreciate about these podcast episodes is that they’re short and that they can be consumed quickly, but also that I try to provide actionable suggestions and resources on a particular topic. What I’m suggesting can often work in a just-in-time sort of way, but can also work in a larger inclusive design framework, and that just-in-timeness seems to be very appreciated right now.
1:37 So, one of the other things that I think folk appreciate about this podcast, based on the feedback and conversations that I’ve had with folks who engage from around the world, Canada, the United States, England, Ireland, India, Australia, and many other places, is that folk appreciate my honesty. Those of you who know me, either as a real live human because we’re colleagues or were colleagues, or met me at conferences, or know me as this internet entity that lives in the ether shaking fists at the accessibility fails that surround us, know that I take this work really seriously.
2:17 I try to be the most ethical human I can in the decisions that I make, the words that I put out into the world, and the support that I provide in-person, online or in hybrid formats. But we also sadly live in a world where folk don’t want to engage with the ethics or realities of inclusion, and the work that is needed within different systems to support accessibility. They would rather have someone who doesn’t say the things, or at least where they don’t have to face the things that are being said.
2:48 So that’s why for many moments, not so brief, over the summer I thought of just not doing this anymore. I questioned why a podcast like this was important, and how many people still wanted to engage with these ideas, and in this way. I thought of the many conversations that I’ve had with neurodivergent friends about how there’s a script in academe, and how if you don’t follow the script that somehow the doors close even tighter, the ramps disappear, the ability to be in community evaporates.
3:21 And that’s not the kind of eduspace that I want to be in, but sadly is often the eduspace that we are in. So the mathematics loving person in me kicked in and I did the permutations and combinations of how much easier it would be to be the voice that disappears, where that disappearance is not noticed, than to be the voice that sticks around saying the hard things. So I weighed things like my own bodymind wellness, and also the privilege that I know that I have as a white woman, albeit a white queer disabled woman to say the accessibility things that need to be said, when there are other more privileged folk who would love for me to just not say them, or at least to say them in the scripty diluted urgency way they prefer. So here I am, season three, ready to say the things some folk don’t want to acknowledge, at least for another season.
4:17 So I’ll start the season with an exploration of syllabi considerations that can support accessibility, both in the design of the document, but also in terms of the kinds of ways the document can be co-created with learners so they feel some agency around their learning experience. I will highlight 4 considerations and examples of what you may want to think about with your syllabus design.
4:42 So consideration one, think about the overall accessibility of the document before you even start putting it together. To do this you need to reflect on where this document is going to live, and whether it makes sense in the context of your course or your institution for it to be a document at all, and maybe it would work better as a webpage. Or even still maybe you want to present that information in different ways, in a more Universal Design for Learning approach to your syllabus.
5:09 So what accessible options do you have? Again this is very dependent on the policies and the formats of your institution so please always check with your teaching and learning centre, if you have one, or your vice-provost or dean of teaching, or their office, if you have one. The most common container for syllabi is some sort of Word document or Google docs. This will allow for textual information to be shared fairly easily and in an accessible manner if the document accessibility workflow is maintained. And so I would suggest that you go back to episode 6 on Word and PDF documents if you’d like more information on how to create an accessible Word document and if your institution requires a PDF to be submitted instead it’s a lot easier to create an accessible as possible PDF from an accessible Word document than it is to remediate a PDF.
6:03 The Word document can also include images that could either be explanatory images, or even decorative images, depending on the context of your course. Some instructors like using icons in their syllabus to help guide learners to different parts of the syllabus, for example where assignment information lives, or where policy information lives, and then they use that same icon in their learning management system to create a visual consistency to their documents and course. This of course will all be need to be alt-texted or marked as decorative as appropriate and if you need support with that you can go back to episode 2 and all the resources that are there about alt texts.
6:44 If you create the document as its own web page, like a liquid syllabus for example, or part of a module page in the learning management system, as an HTML page, it’s important to make sure that page itself is accessible and uses good accessible page design around headers, font size and type, colour contrast and any images that you choose of course should be alt-texted and if you link to any resources please make sure that those hyperlinks are descriptive and not a series of “click heres” and I can link to a resource that will help with that if this is your first time that you are hearing about descriptive links. Accessibility checkers can also support the overall accessibility of what you’ve created, but always remember that those are a tool and not necessarily a guarantee for accessibility.
7:36 So there’s a lot that can be done with the Word document to support accessibility, however one of the things that makes them inaccessible is simply the amount of boiler plate that you’re probably being asked to put in your outline by your institution or department. This can make syllabi reach 10 or 12 pages or more, which is a lot of information to process and not an accessible way for a lot of learners to learn about things about your course for different reasons.
8:03 So this takes me to point two, which is reflect on what really needs to be in that syllabi or outline. What is the purpose of this document or webpage. Sometimes we need to reflect on how it cannot be all things for all people and we need to be okay with that. The more that policy suggests we have to put in statements for this and that thing the longer it becomes and less it becomes a take away for the core purpose of the syllabus or the outline which is an overview of the course expectations and key take aways to give the learner a more robust idea of the context of your course.
8:41 If the boilerplate is taking over content related to information or any guidance about assessments or activities or expectations of the course then think about how you want to organize this information in a way that actually highlights who you are as an instructor or facilitator and basically the feel of your course as an inclusive space. Hard decisions are going to be made with this document and maybe you will not have the opportunity to change anything because they’ll say it all needs to be in there. And if that’s the case then that takes me to point three.
9:14 Point three, is model in your syllabi or outline, the accessible pedagogy that you believe in, make the document or website be a representation of what your course design strategies are like, and ultimately what your interaction into your discipline or topic is about. I’ll use myself as an example, if I’m teaching Professional Communications, there’s no way that accessibility of the document, is not going to be you know, front and centre, and not going to be part of every module in that course. It also means that accessibility statements that go beyond the boilerplate about student accessibility services or disability services and will be closer to the beginning of the document because this is the kind of tone that I want to send with this document.
9:59 If accessibility is but one consideration that is a priority in your teaching and learning then echo that as well. I talk a lot in my classes about space and how space informs who we are and what we know. This allows me to have conversations about land acknowledgements in class and Indigenous ways of knowing as inclusive considerations. The real emphasis of points two and three here is that once you have decided what the outline or syllabus will look like, and the choices of what needs to stay (if you even have the opportunity to make that choice) ultimately how it’s arranged will help a lot.
10:34 And remember, if you’re using a website or a learning management system as an anchor for the syllabus document, the accessible benefit to this is that learners can in turn navigate that information in a way that is meaningful to them and not necessarily in a linear fashion and we need to both be okay with that and also keep that in mind when we design the document itself.
10:59 Finally, the last point that I want to make about the syllabus, point four, before this episode becomes a little bit too long, is that I’m seeing a lot more of this semester of having students have a say in the syllabus document and ultimately having a say the course design. This means that the syllabus then becomes, comes to class first as an incomplete kind of document and allows the students to discuss what topics and activities they would like to add to their learning journey. The incompleteness of the syllabus may not be condoned in the different spaces that you’re in, but providing learners with a real agency in terms of meeting their learning goals, especially if they are in third and fourth year courses, can really take some pressure off of having the syllabus as a perfect day one document.
11:43 So that’s it, that’s episode 27 of Accessagogy, with a discussion of some things to consider to make your syllabi more inclusive and accessible, and strategies that can be brought in to support co-creation with some of those aspects as well.
11:58 Remember as well that I 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, or anything else that you feel I should need to discuss around accessible syllabi please let me know.
12:11 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 of these suggestions as possible in the podcast because ultimately, this podcast is for you. And as I said at the beginning, you’re stuck with me for a little while longer. So that’s it, that’s episode 27 of Accessagogy, thanks so much for following along and asking how can I make my space more accessible today? Have a great week!