A Final Thought
Instructors are in a tremendously powerful position to shape the context of learning. By the time students reach post-secondary, they have developed a rich network of experiences, perspectives, and knowledge. The more instructors can tune into experience explanations over ability explanations, the more readily they are able to come to accessible teaching through design.
When asked about accessible or inclusive instructors, most students spoke about the mindset of that instructor, not about the specific accommodations offered. In our opinion, this is why stories are so important. Instructors who understand the “why” of accommodations will find a way to accommodate. The ones who do not will see it as a chore.
Sofia underscores what it means to change the environment and finally receive support in her PhD.
It wasn’t until I removed myself from that situation, and went to my PhD, which was a much more supportive environment. My advisor here is leagues better than my advisor in my master’s. And so once I went to that supportive environment, I was able to kind of take a step back and say, oh, this isn’t me. This is the situation. Um and it’s not my fault that I’m not thriving in the system because the system as a setup is crappy.
Some truly touching experiences between students and instructors came through in these interviews.
Sue: I think what made my most supportive instructor, like the best person ever, the person I still talk to today, I guess they truly believed in me, which is really nice. They saw past like, the disability of the anxiety and they, sorry, I’m crying now and I’m sorry.
Sue: What made them really fantastic was that they saw past the disability and the anxiety, and they saw the potential for who I was. And I think that’s a really touching for a person who’s always been kind of categorized in this very, in this particular way like having a disability, like “Oh she has a disability, we should treat her this way,” but she’s never, but the instructor never did that.
Claire: At the end of every class, she’s always just like, “Just remember that each one of you is here for a reason and I care about you” and just like, some people might find that cheesy but I just felt very cared for by her, like she just could tell that we were all stressed. She was like “I’m stressed too but we’re getting through this and we’re doing a great job.”
Amandeep: Learning your student, knowing your student is a big one. … I think any instructor can … go to a student and be like, how can I best support you, how can we collaborate to make this more accessible for you I think that’s a very easy way, because that way you don’t have to, you know, figure out the solution on your own, you can ask the student themselves, and most of us are generally okay answering that.
Through your accessible design of multiple pathways, through your openness and planning, you have the opportunity to not only create good experiences and a depth of understanding, but to truly turn learning around for students and create accessible learning. UDL is not only a list of tools but an ongoing disposition to be committed to learning and caring for your students. There are no perfect solutions. There is a need for self-reflection, reflexivity in our relationships, and an ongoing effort to design, redesign, get feedback, and improve in ways that make sense to us and our students together.
