Abstract

This paper describes five orientations informing the efforts of postsecondary educators to teach more accessibly, including commitments to accessibility as the mandated, right, pedagogically effective, nice, and/or profitable thing to do. These orientations emerged from focus groups and interviews with instructors and teaching assistants at a research-intensive Canadian university. By attending to these underlying orientations, we can grapple with important, but often unexamined, complexities, such as messages we may be inadvertently endorsing and contradictions between intentions and potential outcomes and their ramifications. We encourage support for educators to reflect on the limitations and complications of their orientations and associated efforts to advance accessibility, as well as cross-pollination with other areas of critical scholarship beyond that focusing on Universal Design and accessibility-specific principles.

• Points of interest

• University instructors and teaching assistants seek to teach more accessibly for a number of reasons.

• This paper describes five reasons – or ‘orientations’ – for teaching more accessibly informed by: (1) legislative or university requirements; (2) equity and social justice; (3) effective teaching practices; (4) kindness; and/or (5) profit.

• Paying attention to these orientations for teaching more accessibly is important because they may impact which accessibility practices are implemented, when and under what conditions, and for whose benefit.

• Some orientations may also promote negative ideas of disability, such as disability as costly or a burden, even while they encourage teaching more accessibly.

• We reflect on the challenges and limitations of applying ‘accessibility’ language and principles broadly to ‘all’ students, instead of intentionally focusing on reducing barriers for students with disabilities.

摘要

本文描述了五个方向，告知中学后教育工作者努力提高无障碍教学，包括承诺将无障碍作为强制性的、正确的、教学有效的、好的和/或有利可图的事情。这些方向来自焦点小组以及对研究密集型加拿大大学的讲师和助教的采访。通过关注这些潜在的方向，我们可以应对重要但通常未经审查的复杂性，例如我们可能无意中认可的信息以及意图与潜在结果及其后果之间的矛盾。我们鼓励支持教育工作者反思他们的方向的局限性和复杂性以及促进可访问性的相关努力，

• 兴趣点

• 出于多种原因，大学教师和助教寻求更易于教学。

• 本文描述了五个原因 - 或“方向” - 让教学更易于了解：（1）立法或大学要求；(2) 公平和社会正义；(3) 有效的教学实践；(4) 善良；和/或 (5) 利润。

• 关注这些更易于教学的方向很重要，因为它们可能会影响实施哪些无障碍实践、何时、在什么条件下以及为谁受益。

• 一些方向也可能会促进对残疾的负面看法，例如残疾是代价高昂或负担的，即使它们鼓励教学更容易获得。

• 我们反思了将“无障碍”语言和原则广泛应用于“所有”学生的挑战和局限性，而不是有意专注于减少残疾学生的障碍。