ACCESS

Developing an Inclusive Classroom for Blind Students

In keeping with the spirit of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's stated Value of Inclusion - which charges our community to create "a welcoming and supportive environment…[open] to the rich diversity of humankind" - it must be our shared goal that your course content be accessible to all students the instant the course opens. Imagine for a moment what it must be like to arrive to your first day of school, ready to learn, and to be unable to participate simply because your needs were not considered or anticipated: this is the reality too many of our students with disabilities encounter, semester after semester.

Introduction

It is important to make your classroom environment as accessible and inclusive as possible. Constructing your classroom with universal design in mind is not only ethical, but also the law. Equal access and reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities are legal rights enshrined under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. As such, you the instructor - as an agent of the university - are legally obligated to do your part in fulfilling a student's university approved accommodations.

If one of your students this semester is Blind or has low vision or a visual impairment, please review the following guidance carefully so you can begin to think about how to ensure your classroom provides all your students with equal access.

Certain program-specific assignments and experiences might require reasonable adaptations to provide an inclusive learning experience for your students. In many cases, course accessibility issues such as these have already been addressed by your colleagues within the broader profession. To that end, there is a wealth of information online about best practices for how you might make your course materials and experiences accessible to a student who is Blind or possesses low vision.

Because some of your course content might require considerable remediation to be accessible to all your students, it is imperative that you begin the process of reviewing your course materials as soon as possible to determine what actions might be necessary to ensure accessibility. Depending on the course content, these remediation could be as straightforward as locating a better copy of a text, or as involved as contracting a third-party vendor to create accessible content.

If you are ever uncertain about how to adapt course materials to meet a student's needs, please contact the ACCESS office by email (myaccess@siue.edu) or by phone: (618) 650-3726

General Etiquette

• Always use the student's first name when addressing them. This way they will know you are talking to them and not someone else. It is also helpful to identify yourself. (e.g. "Good morning, Sam. It's Professor Murphy. How are you today?") Prompt fellow students to do the same whenever possible, as this not only normalizes accessibility, but fosters community as well.
• Likewise, say the name of the person you're speaking to when responding to questions so your students will know who you are speaking to and who is participating.
• Don't gesture; always verbalize. Read information aloud as you write it on the board or projection. When using technical terms, remember to spell them out or give descriptions if appropriate. Use positional and directional concepts like above/under, on top of, behind/in front of, left/right, etc. in descriptive sentences. Avoid phrases like "(over) here," "(over) there," "this/that way," and gestures that provide direction.
• Try to speak directly to the class; remember that turning your head away can muffle sound.
• Make every effort possible to create an environment that is inclusive and accessible for all.

Curriculum & Instruction

• Discuss accommodations and reasonable course adaptations with your student and ACCESS well prior to the beginning of the semester, or during the first week.
• Provide the student with accessible lecture slides in advance of class so that they may follow along in-class the same as their sighted peers.
• It is your responsibility to ensure that all course materials - apart from the textbooks you have listed for the course through Textbook Service - are accessible to your students. This includes (but is not limited to) in-class hand-outs, unofficial textbooks, supplemental readings, forms, homework, quizzes, exams, etc. All course materials must be made available to your students in either accessible digital formats, or - as needed - alternative analogue formats (Braille or tactile maps, for instance). Utilize Blackboard Ally and its automated accessibility scoring to ensure digital materials you provide are accessible to your students. Contact Instructional Design & Learning Technology or ACCESS if you need assistance with remediating a document's accessibility.
• Be prepared to aid in interpreting graphics, pictures, and other visual content.
• Provide appropriate written and verbal descriptions to accompany any visual aids, diagrams, films, or videos that you might use in class - not only during lectures, but also in all your course content.
• When demonstrating how to do something on a computer, provide step-by-step instructions, saying the names of button, icons, etc. rather than referencing their appearance.
• Be open to students recording your lectures.

Instructional Design

• Certain students may require text content that is more complicated than basic text - for example, formulae, equations, tables, graphs, spreadsheets, labelled maps, etc. - to be converted into Braille or another accessible analogue format. Please review your course materials carefully to determine whether your course might include such content; if it does, please contact ACCESS immediately for further consultation. Please note that the turnaround time to produce Braille is typically on a magnitude of several weeks, so it is extremely important for you to review these matters well before the start of the semester and communicate your concerns to ACCESS immediately.
• Utilize Blackboard Ally and its automated accessibility scoring to ensure digital materials you provide are accessible to your students. Contact Instructional Design & Learning Technology or ACCESS if you need assistance with remediating a document's accessibility.
• All image files you share will also need to be meaningfully described utilizing alternative text ("alt text") features. Here is how to add alt text in Blackboard and Microsoft Office suite (Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint). Because alt text must accurately represent a non-decorative image, it is important for alternative text to be meaningful; please review Microsoft's guide "Everything You Need To Know To Write Effective Alt Text" for guidance on how to write meaningful alt text.
• Determine whether any of the video content in your course will need to be described for students who may not be able to see the materials; the Web Accessibility Initiative provides a guide ("Does My Media Need Description?") that can help you determine this, as well as ideas for how to provide these descriptions ("Options For Creating Description").
• Consider offering comparable alternatives to assignments which would require students to cull data from massive datasets. Otherwise, please provide extensions to students for whom it might take a considerably longer amount of time to digest such datasets.
• Whenever possible, provide students with direct links to video content, rather than embedded videos, as these can be difficult to play using keyboard navigation.
• Because individuals with low vision sometimes require larger fonts to see what they're writing, establish word counts as opposed to page-number requirements as a uniform standard for assignment parameters.

Orientation & Safety

• Be a confident sighted guide. If you have agreed to serve as a sighted guide, offer your arm just above your elbow toward the student's dominant hand.
• Pay attention to the physical arrangement of the classroom and remove unexpected obstacles that may be introduced to the environment. Ensure the aisles are kept clear of backpacks, umbrellas, etc. If there are changes to the classroom, walk the student through alone so they know where things are.
• Notify your students at the start of the semester about any class events which might take place outside of the regular classroom space. Events taking place outside the classroom must be reasonably accessible to all students, so plan accordingly in advance in consultation with the student and their ACCESS advocates.
• Service animals must be allowed in public places and situations. If a service animal is serving this student, know that it is trained and well-behaved. You do not need to worry that the animal will disturb your class, so don't draw attention to it as being anything other than normal in the class. Service animals may require special consideration when you plan laboratory exercises and field trips.
• Discuss emergency evacuation procedures during the first week of classes, preferably on or before the first day. For specific guidance on formulating such plans, please review the "Evacuations and Students with Disabilities" section of the ACCESS Faculty Resources webpage.