Kim Ashbourne
Kim Ashbourne’s BCcampus Fellowship research investigates the intersections of digital accessibility, disability justice, digital practices, and praxis in post-secondary. Kim began digital accessibility advocacy as an instructor in Humber College’s Professional Writing and Communications program. Then, while pursuing her Master of Education in Educational Technology from the University of Victoria, she worked as a learning experience designer focused on accessibility. She experienced the COVID pivot online and back again from three perspectives: as a disabled learner, as a digital accessibility in education researcher, and as a learning designer supporting educators who at first struggled to get courses online, let alone meet the digital accessibility needs of disabled learners. This unique experience continues to inform her research, as does her personal experience of disability, as does the paid and unpaid, centred, and marginalized work of disability rights and disability justice activists, artists and scholars. Kim is the editor of candare.ca, she writes, and delivers workshops on transformative digital accessibility at conferences and universities in Canada and the US.
A Praxis-Informed Approach to Digital Accessibility for Educators: Transformative Digital Accessibility
You are doing what you can to engage learners, but are your day-to-day digital practices, digital technology choices, and pedagogical practices inadvertently disabling or marginalizing learners with disabilities? Digital accessibility in education is often framed as a technical/compliance issue. However, that framing has done learners and educators a disservice by sidelining the educative considerations, and the potential for digital accessibility practices to foster transformative learning experiences.
This interactive workshop shares research and tools for educators to develop a transformative digital accessibility praxis. It draws on the liberatory pedagogical perspectives, transformative research methodology, disabled learner voices and the Disability Justice movement.
Intended Audience: Educators who are, or want to be, mindful of how the digital practices of a learning community affect the learning experiences of students with disabilities, and students who use assistive technologies in learning environments. This session assumer a basic understanding of Trent's responsibilities to meet digital accessibility standards under the AODA.
What Participants Can Expect: This session is a space to discuss digital practices in post-secondary through liberatory pedagogy and Disability Justice lenses. It isn't a techie session. We'll use our time to share strategies for centering digital accessibility in our teaching praxis, and talk about opportunities to skill build, and make meaningful changes for learners. Educators with disabilities, and people who use assistive technologies in their daily workflow will find you experiences will be valuable here.