Episode 30- Accessible Research
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.
0:35 Welcome to episode thirty. Wow it is hard to believe that I’ve made it to thirty episodes of this podcast. When I started in March of 2023, I wasn’t sure how the direction would go or how sustainable this format would be, but here we are in a third season with more ideas about accessibility and pedagogy to discuss. In this episode I’m going to talk about research and in particular I’m going to talk about ways that research could be considered in terms of accessibility but also how accessible research connects to accessible pedagogy.
1:11 Often in academe there’s a tendency to make research be like two siblings that coexist in one space but do different things. But in fact these two aspects can and should work together to support accessible teaching and learning practices and inclusive eduspaces. We are definitely in a time right now where research seems to be getting a bit of a shinning light and so strategic and academic plans are emphasizing the importance of research as a way to connect to larger communities and a way to connect globally. This episode is a bit of a reminder that if we are going to turn our attention to research more readily then we need to ensure that that research is designed with accessibility in mind and is there to create inclusive outcomes that support accessible pedagogy.
2:00 I’m sure that many have some insight on this aspect of academic work and I’ve had many conversations with folk over the years that in fact there are some barriers built in to the research process that are supposed to support inclusion and ethics but in fact can exclude disabled learners and disabled researchers and even exclude certain kinds of research that can be supportive of accessible pedagogy. So I’m going to talk about some considerations here that can support that accessible research in service of accessible pedagogy.
2:32 So consideration one, inclusive research design has many parts. I cannot count how many times I open an article that talks about something that relates to research about a new pedagogical strategy or activity and then I do the ctrl+f for a string like disabled with an asterisk at the end (disab*)or access with an asterisk at the end (access*) desperately looking for any kind of mention of disabled learners, or accessibility and then I find absolutely nothing. You see this a lot with research around the differences between note taking on paper and screen, which is a whole other thing. They never ask disabled folk. They just make the assumption that this will work for everyone. And then what happens is that you end up with cel phone or computer bans in classrooms because they will say well the research says that pen and paper is better for everyone, and they don’t recognize that there’s folk that have fine motor disabilities, or many other disabilities that would require screen support.
3:33 So the best way to avoid being the “hi it’s me, I’m the problem it’s me” in your research in terms of perpetuating ableist assumptions is to design in a more inclusive approach or do more inclusive research. This in some ways falls to the primary investigator on a research project, but is also part of the research ethics board should oversee that the research proposal is actually not excluding folk that they should be including. Often REBs or IRBs which are institutional research boards will forget an important demographic in their research review because that demographic is actually not part of the research ethics board. And so you see there’s like these ableist turtles all the way down.
4:22 So the REB may not catch those important representation gaps in research because they don’t have that representation on their board and that in turn creates research that is ableist and that can in turn inform more ableist pedagogical practices. So if you’re deciding to do research try to remember to be as inclusive as possible in your research design.
4:45 This takes me to I guess part one and a half which is why, you know thinking about, what kind of tools are you going to use to do your research and if those tools accessible so that disabled participants can participate. This is an important consideration as well because I have seen many times where forms and the like are used that are not screen reader accessible or actively exclude folk that are Deaf, hard of hearing or blind in their research design. So I would suggest that you use the resources that you have on campus to make sure that you are working on research that can be as inclusive to many as possible.
5:24 Consideration two, use your research in service of accessible and inclusive pedagogy, not instead of doing the pedagogy. I know that many see research and pedagogy as either ors. And in fact some tenure conditions specify the time that you should be directing or dedicating to research, teaching, and service. And I’m here to argue that there’s a whole area of research and scholarship, the scholarship of teaching and learning, or SoTL that can actually support accessible practices in eduspaces because it is research by and from the eduspace. There will definitely be more research in the future about pedagogical practices, and my consideration two is here to remind you that there are many ways to bring forward accessible pedagogical practices through that research.
6:12 This is where I go back to the bit of a theme from this season of Accessagogy and remind folk that they can have students be the initiators and support ideas about what sort of accessible research and accessible pedagogy is needed in the classroom. I’ve already seen some great projects around Open Educational Resources or Open Educational Pedagogy where there’s students that are part of that research and they create artifacts that can create more inclusive and community connection to what is happening in the classroom.
6:43 And then finally consideration three, reflect on where your research funding is coming from but also going. Where is the money that you’re using coming from? Is from a place that historically has done work that actually harms disabled learners and instructors? These kinds of ethical decisions around your research priority areas are not often talked about, but they have a similar impact to the research itself. This is of course because who funds your research gets to say and have a say about what the research is about. And sometimes it’s more difficult to find out the inside story about a funder especially if it’s a private funder and not governmental or public or community-based. I want to leave you with this ask of just asking yourself or maybe the folk that support research in your institution a bit about where that money is coming from so that you can support inclusion and accessibility in that way as well.
7:39 So that’s it, that’s episode 30 of Accessagogy, with a discussion of accessible research and how that connects to accessible pedagogy.
7:47 Remember that I want this to be a space where we can ask questions and share concepts that you’d like to discuss. So if there’s anything that I mentioned here or you would like me to extend about accessible research or anything else that you would like me to discuss around accessible research and research design please ask.
8:04 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. So that’s it, that’s episode 30 of Accessagogy, thanks so much for following along and asking how can I make my space more accessible today? Have a great week!