Report: Making Knowledge Accessible in the Digital Age

Busy busy week and finally some time to catch up on events - reflection will come later and typically occurs during my daily commute when the caffeine kicks in. Tuesday was the David Rose, Thomas Hehir, Ron Stewart panel presentation and discussion University Teaching and the Challenge of Universal Design: Making Knowledge Accessible in the Digital Age.

Video and audio recording was in place and as soon as I have information on where (and if) the presentation is available on-line I will be posting it here. Eveyone in attendance recieved a copy of The Universally Designed Classroom: Accessible Curriculum and Digital Technologies - the latest work edited by Rose, Meyer, and Hitchcock of CAST. Thanks to the LD Access Foundation which donated the funds for the book give away and to AHEAD contributing for the reception alongside LD Access.

Eileen Berger, ATHEN Treasurer and Assistant Director of the Office of Student affairs at Harvard Graduate School of Education [and Head of Access and Disability Services] introduced the topic and speakers. I should stop here for a moment and explain that this seminar could easily have been a full day (or more). In fact, all three speakers were asked about their availability to return and present again. All three agreed and planning is apparently underway.

Over the first hour, David Rose squeezed out a synopsis of his Harvard Graduate course on Universal Design. He covered the three basic tenants of Universal Design:

1. Use multiple means for representation - "Disability is not inherent in the individual as much as it is about the individuals interaction with the environment."
2. Use multiple means for action and expression.
3. Use multiple means for engagement - seek what motivates and engages students.

As an example he used an unexpected source - a GPS navigation program from Hertz Rental Car called Neverlost. Professor Rose does a lot of traveling for speaking engagements and uses this system everytime he rents a car. He discussed the system in somewhat whistful terms wondering what it would be like if education followed similar principles. For example:

• Neverlost asks the user (learner) "Where are we now?" and sets an individualized starting point.
• The system recognizes there is more than one way to get from point A to point B.
• Recalculating routes (learning paths) is effortless and non-judgmental.
• However, Neverlost is not a curriculum as the user does not "learn" so much as follow a route. It is very linear and rote and drivers come to rely upon the GPS rather than learn about the general area.

Professor Rose also does something interesting in his course, each week he rotationally assigns a handful of students to be the notetaker for the entire class. This individual has the responsibility of compiling the course notes and providing them for classmates. Not only does this free-up most tof the class to focus on discussion - but demonstrates how and what different individuals take notes, share notes, and consider important.

Ron Stewart spoke to how technology is used in the Postsecondary arena and briefly covered the Big-5 with accessibility as an overlay:

1. Information Retrieval, Use, and Dissemination
2. Distance Education
3. Information Technologies
4. The Internet and WWW
5. Covering the cost of accessibility (who pays?)

Ron introduced the audience to one my favorite of his terms - "Ah ... Duh ... Research" which is the act of actually doing research to confirm what we already know. He briefly reviewed the major access related laws (504, 508, ADA, IDEA, Tech-Act, Telecommunications Act) as well as some of the more important OCR cases of late. Asking the question "what is accessibility?" led to a four point answer:

• Code Based - letter of the law accessibility
• Access Board policies and procedures - bench marks of accessibility
• Functional accessibility (common sense and individualized)
• Universal Design - trying to cover the majority of the bellcurve with the knowledge that we cannot possibly attend to every outlier.

Ron spoke of the need for institutions to perform honest and accurate assessments of accessibility - and warned that unless we plan to act upon the findings we should not bother. Few things irk the OCR more than a school knowing where it needs to address issues and failing to do so [however, it is not recommended you remain ignorant]. Such an assessment includes:

• both formal and informal inquiry
• data driven and need driven reviews
• facilities assessment
• technology assessment
• individual assessment
• references to requirements (federal, state, local, international)

One should also be prepared to plan for implementing changes. In the scope of his remarks Ron focused on access and technology and stated what many of us already know or could easily find out via ah...duh...research and that is "infusing technology into the accommodation paradigm (for disabilities) saves money." And isn't saving money really what it is all about?

Bullet points abounded with Ron. I hope a podcast will be available soon as Ron provides better explanations that I can - but here are three lists to consider:

Promoting Independence

• Use unmodified technology whenever possible
• Implement modifications that can be rapidly learned and independently used
• Implement modifications that are easily transferred to the work environment ouside the academy
• Implement modifications that are easily generalizable - not domain or content specific

Cost Effectiveness

• Analyze needs and implement strategically
• Leverage existing systems
• Target acquisition needs to meet the higest demands
• Develop long term strategies based upon assessments
• Think Ahead! but remain flexible.

How to Lower Costs

• Use off-the-shelf solutions when and where possible
• Replace "labor intensive" with "universally applicable"
• Analyze learning situations and make modifications based on pedagogy
• Use multipurpose tools where possible

The final speaker was Thomas Hehir, Harvard Professor and OSEP Director during the Clinton Administration. He spoke to the role of education for students with disabilities and the impact on and of public policy and introduced us to the concept of ableism:

• Schools often reflect the attitudes and behaviors of the broader society in which disability is devalued and persons with disabilities do not enjoy equality of rights and opportunities.
• Children and young adults with disabilities need to be allowed to be disabled - need to become comfortable with themselves and their disability - their abilities and limitations and how to accomplish the same as their non-disabled peers albeit in a different manner.
• Universal Design allows students to access the curriculum as equals - approaching the same materials in different manners and modes.

Defining "disability", according to Professor Hehir, should not come from the standards point-of-view of the non-disabled. Individuals should embrace and understand their personal disability and work with it - not against it. Go with the current and do not try to swim against it (so to speak). Ron Stewart recommends that IT becomes the purveyors of AT. The institution needs to recognize that perhaps it is the curriculum that is disabled and not the students accessing it.

Afterwards there was a nice reception with wine an cheese and such. David Rose is my kinda teacher as he gathered up many leftovers for his students that evening.

Next up will be a report on the AHEAD E-Text Institute at Babson College.

Some follow-up notes. Apparently getting these three speakers together has its own backstory. According to Eileen Berger:

It was an unusual, and I think, unique convening of these great people for the benefit of the rest of us. When I heard from Erin [Evans of Babson College] a few months ago that Ron was going to be around this past week I called Ron and David about the possibility of a lecture together- David was on it immediately since he had wanted to do this presentation [on Universal Design] at Harvard for a while and Ron was gracious and interested as well. We (LD Access) had brought Ron onto the program at a UPenn conference 2 years ago with David but this time the focus would be on Higher Ed. Tom Hehir was available to give the policy and attitudes perspective/caveats as discussant after the how-to experts presented. It just so happened they were all available at the same time... it was fate!! What an experience to get all that information and know how from their 3 different perspectives in one place.