Accessible Education - Special Education

"In my travels all over the world, I have come to realize that what distinguishes one child from another is not ability, but access. Access to education, access to opportunity, access to love." Accessible Education?is the process of designing courses and developing a teaching style to meet the needs of people from a variety of backgrounds, abilities and learning styles. Just as there is no single way to teach, people learn in a variety of ways; using different instructional methods will help meet the needs of the greatest number of learners. The Educator’s Accessibility Toolkit provides guidelines and tips on how to make your courses and your teaching more accessible to students. These tips are in line with research on best practices in teaching and learning.

Characteristics of Accessible Education

• Takes into account a variety of student characteristics, including ethnicity, race, abilities, disabilities, age, gender, language abilities and preferred learning style.
• Does not compromise academic rigor.
• Is a proactive and inclusive way of teaching and designing courses and curricula.
• Removes barriers to learning before they can affect anyone.
• Reduces the need for specialized accommodations.
• Identifies and clearly expresses the essential course content, while recognizing that students can express understanding of essential course content in multiple ways.
• Is consistent with universally recognized principles of good teachingiv.
• Is consistent with the spirit of the Accessibility of Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005.

Advantages for educators

(such as faculty, teaching assistants, course instructors and developers)

• Often improves student learning.
• Reduces the work associated with arranging individual and specialized accommodations.
• May improve student engagement as it reaches a broader audience, which could lead to improved course evaluations.

Advantages for students

• Less time spent on figuring out individual accommodations and more time focusing on course content.
• Greater inclusion of students from a variety of backgrounds and abilities, which could lead to increased student retention.
• Students are not singled out for being different.

Accessible Education is based on the social model of disability, as opposed to the medical model. "When education and resources are available to all without a price tag, there will be no limit to the human potential."