When I ran my post through the WAVE, I chose my posting for my EDCI 338 class. At first I was confused what it even was, but now I understand that is a tool designed to identify ways to make a webpage more accessible to people with disabilities. I honestly never would of thought about this if I hadn’t ran it through the WAVE detector. When I ran it through the detector there were actually quite a few problems with my page. I have really bad contrast that may make my page difficult to navigate for someone who has contrast sensitivity. A few examples of contrast sensitive disabilities are; glaucoma, cataract, age-related macular degeneration, myopia, and optic neuritis (WebAim). Other flags I had were empty buttons, redundant links, and skipped headings. Now that I know of these issues I am going to deligate the time to try and fix them.
I have used text to speech many times, and often use it as a learning tool. As someone who has used this function quite often, and has the ability to use it in exam settings, it’s more about hearing it to me rather than the tone. Obviously I would never use a distracting voice, but a majority of what’s offered I find helpful. One thing I’ve noticed about voice to text is that I personally only find it helpful to use for study purposes, but during tests I find it quite overwhelming.
Multimedia plays a huge role in a learning environment designed with the UDL guidelines. Engagement, representation, action and expression make up the UDL guidelines, and each include the use of text, images, and video. These guidelines are in place to ensure that every kind of learner has a place in the classroom, and ensures that everyone has a chance to learn. I think multimedia learning is often very good at covering these guidelines. I have been in a few online classes and have always been offered videos to watch, articles to read, and often images (this is less common). Representation recognized the ‘what’ of learning. This includes alt tags, captions, headings, controls, and speed of presentation. This gives learners ability to customize their work. t’s helpful for people who relay heavily on one learning style, this way they can focus heavily on one area than another. Engagement recognizes the ‘why’ of learning. This controls speed and frequency of learning. The benefits off this is removing dense loads of work, reduced distractions, and promotes collaboration. Lastly, action and expression covers the ‘how’ of learning. This lets students express their learning and assignments through text, audio, videos and images. This promotes a way more inclusive way of learning, and overall benefits each student. Giving kids the ability to choose their way of learning, and how to present their findings keeps things interesting, and a unique perspective of learning.
To me inclusive design means thinking consciously about each student and their learning style. It is extremely important to have an inclusive classroom and let each student learn in their own way. We all know that everyone is unique and special, and this also applies to our learning. You cannot expect as an educator that your students will like your preferred style of learning. Although this may work for one student, you may be doing another a disservice. As someone who relies heavily on imaging and video to learn, I am not sure where I would be in my education if this wasn’t an option.
https://webaim.org/articles/visual/lowvision
That’s very well said, Morgan. I particularly liked what you had to say about how “you cannot expect as an educator that your students will like your preferred style of learning”. This was a great point I did not think of. I think this is an excellent perspective and an important point educators should always stay conscious of when creating content. Although they might think it is the “best” or “only” option to teach the material, they should always expect the unexpected as everyone responds differently to learning new content. Keeping an open mind is the best thing I think educators can do when approaching new situations and how they present their material to that learners.