By NMWS Assistant Director Jackie Hoermann-Elliott
Digital humanists have been leading the charge in growing Disability Studies as a significant and meaningful area of research and pedagogical development. If you’re unfamiliar with Disability Studies, scroll down this page to learn more.
Why pursue Disability Studies?
One of the most significant outcomes that arose from our 2016 NMWS Digital Research Roundtable was this idea: “We are all temporarily able-bodied people.” At any point in time, injury, sickness, or learning challenges can alter how we learn in the academy. More often than not, our students are challenged by disabilities we cannot see and will never know about, so involvement in this growing discipline is becoming increasingly relevant to many higher education professionals.
Who can Disability Studies support?
Everybody can be helped by disability studies research and practice. If you’re interested in the types of disabilities we might better support, here are a few:
- Low-Vision or Blind
- Color-Blind
- Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing
- Limited Mobility
- Neurodiversity
How can we make our classrooms more accessible?
Roundtable speaker Ashley Hughes shared with our community a list of ideas to get us started. Her Learning in Online Environments handout also models the formatting and style of an accessible handout. Check out her work by clicking on this document link or read this list she shared with us:
- Proper HTML and headings (for screen readers)
- Try CodeSniffer to make sure you are within Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
- High contrast colors (for low vision/color-blind)
- Try CheckMyColours to make sure your project has sufficient color contrast
- Include alternate text and descriptive captions for all images
- Try the WAVE Chrome Extension to evaluate your web content for accessibility issues
- Use large, Sans Serif fonts like Arial, Verdana, and Helvetica
- Offer handouts and other materials in accessible formats such as HTML (avoid PDFs if possible)
- Present information in a variety of ways: visual, verbal, auditory, callisthenic, so people have options.
- Make this information accessible during and after a session
Where can I learn more?
More resources are becoming available online every day, but you can get started by checking out this Accessible Syllabus Example or have a look at The Acessible Campus or The Digital Commons.