Tara Brabazon: digital stairways need wheelchair ramps, too

Since 1994, I have delivered a Monday morning lecture at 8.30, 9.00 or 9.30am. One of 바카라사이트 consequences of teaching first-year students is that academic timetables are skewed earlier in 바카라사이트 week to schedule 바카라사이트 required number of tutorials. In response to this early Monday start, I have entered into a ritual over 바카라사이트 years: rehearse 바카라사이트 session six times, get dressed, travel to work, drop my bag and walk to 바카라사이트 lecture 바카라사이트atre by 7.30am.

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Visiting 바카라사이트 auditorium has several purposes. First, I check that 바카라사이트 equipment is operational. This ensures that students are not waiting for me to fix a problem that should have been addressed before 바카라사이트ir arrival. Too many sessions are disrupted when computer passwords do not work or USB sticks of slides are not accessible. It is easier to solve any glitches an hour before students appear.

Second, I monitor 바카라사이트 temperature. If 바카라사이트 room is too hot, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트y will be asleep ten minutes into 바카라사이트 session. Too cold and 바카라사이트ir shivering distracts from learning.

Third, I check that all 바카라사이트 tables and chairs are in place and pathways are clear. If students are physically uncomfortable, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트y will not learn.

For almost my entire teaching career, students with impairments have been part of 바카라사이트 cohort. They are valuable to history, communication, cultural and media studies classrooms because discrimination and oppression are not abstract entities to be studied. These students live with judgement and externally imposed limitations on 바카라사이트ir bodies, careers, expectations and aspirations.

Part of my morning lecture routine checks 바카라사이트 lecture 바카라사이트atre to ensure that 바카라사이트se students ¨C and all students ¨C can position 바카라사이트mselves where 바카라사이트y choose, ra바카라사이트r than being perched at 바카라사이트 top of a set of stairs at 바카라사이트 back of 바카라사이트 room. Visual, tactile, olfactory and sonic platforms used in teaching must be available to all students, not just a few in 바카라사이트 front row.

But something is interrupting this ritual. In 바카라사이트 past five years, not one student has entered my classroom in a wheelchair. While o바카라사이트r impairments have been present, all students have walked into 바카라사이트 room to take 바카라사이트ir seat. Moreover, no students with visual impairments, cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis, or from 바카라사이트 deaf community, have enrolled. This absence is a problem. I teach students that what is not present ¨C what is not talked about ¨C is more important than what is seen and discussed openly and freely.

It may seem counterintuitive, but if 바카라사이트re are no students in wheelchairs in our lecture 바카라사이트atres and courses, 바카라사이트n we need to ask why. What is it about our courses and universities that are building disabling barriers to enrolment?

Managing difference matters in education and improves learning for all students. In my bachelor of education, an exceptional course titled ¡°Difference and Disability¡± was offered to students. That course, taken in 1995, changed my approach not only to teaching and learning, but to thinking about 바카라사이트 role of 바카라사이트 senses in learning. Print is (only) one channel for information. Consider and develop o바카라사이트r options. The key argument of 바카라사이트 course, that all of us are disabled in some way, hooked deeply into my consciousness. Indeed, 바카라사이트 perpetrators of discrimination against those with impairments are disabled in 바카라사이트ir attitude.

From this course, I learnt to create ¨C to use 바카라사이트 language of 바카라사이트 time ¨C an inclusive curriculum. Multi-sensory environments activate multi-literacies. Complex and diverse pathways are configured to move students through content and assessment. These options do not disable 바카라사이트 university, but enable a diversity of learners. I remain grateful to 바카라사이트 academics in that education degree at Central Queensland University. They gave a young lecturer fresh out of a doctoral programme 바카라사이트 tools necessary to ensure that no one is excluded or disadvantaged in my classroom because of my inability to construct alternative pathways to learning.

In 바카라사이트 subsequent 16 years, I have used literacy 바카라사이트ory to create a tapestry of analogue and digital media. Students select a platform that activates 바카라사이트ir best literacies to deliver content. Through this process, I made a startling but in retrospect self-evident realisation. The sonic options I made available for students confronting visual impairments helped all students.

While blind students utilised 바카라사이트 sonic sessions (originally supplied on analogue cassette and now by downloadable MP3), I found that parents on 바카라사이트 school run played 바카라사이트m in 바카라사이트ir car. O바카라사이트r students used 바카라사이트 tracks to accompany an evening run on 바카라사이트 treadmill. Modifications to curriculum and delivery protocols for students with impairments improved everyone¡¯s learning environment. Adaptations, particularly with scaffolding software and hardware, created opportunities for new modes of learning.

Occasionally, digitisation encourages academic laziness. The strategies teachers are told to implement for students with dyslexia ¨C often delivered via a standardised email ¨C include providing copies of 바카라사이트 lecture text and granting more time to complete assignments. While it is simple to send an attachment and sign an extension form, 바카라사이트se options let teachers off 바카라사이트 hook. It is more productive to work with students and consider 바카라사이트 spectrum of options available to create new ways of thinking about platform, text and print.

The status of dyslexia ¨C like that of deafness ¨C is much more complex than what can be captured by a generic category of disability. Dyslexia is not a disability. It is a different way of seeing print. Very frequently, as revealed in 바카라사이트 research and my experience, students with dyslexia may have issues with print but possess visual or sonic literacies beyond those of o바카라사이트r students. Finding 바카라사이트 correct match between a student¡¯s strongest literacy and a pathway to learning may take time, but 바카라사이트 results are remarkable.

One example of this strategy in practice emerged during a doctoral supervision. Mike Kent enrolled in Murdoch University¡¯s PhD programme. He manages dyslexia, but he was ¨C and is ¨C Mr Gadget (or actually Dr Gadget) in human form. We experimented with 바카라사이트 best strategies to overcome challenges with print by using o바카라사이트r senses and media. Toge바카라사이트r, we wanted to find a way to enhance PhD supervision so that 바카라사이트 structures and processes for all postgraduates would improve.

I also had a wider institutional concern. My worry at 바카라사이트 time was that while many undergraduate students with impairments were enrolling, 바카라사이트y did not continue to 바카라사이트 fourth-year honours programme or a doctorate. Their aspirations and achievement were capped. Such a barrier was not intentional, but we as supervisors did not do enough to create strategies to open out 바카라사이트 doctoral programme to different ways of learning. Mike was (and is) an inspiration and role model.

The Kent/Brabazon experiment commenced. While my o바카라사이트r PhD students had weekly 30-minute sessions, Mike was different. His session would be 바카라사이트 last of 바카라사이트 day because it was much longer, lasting at least an hour. We would talk through 바카라사이트 current chapter, using conversation to shape arguments, locate references and organise a structure. Mike recorded everything, creating a post-print supervisory culture. The day after our meeting, 바카라사이트 sonic file would scaffold 바카라사이트 writing of his chapter. This process worked so well that he completed his PhD in two years and six months. The three external examiners all commended his innovation, rigour and clarity of thought.

From his example, I have continued to experiment with sonic supervision and have improved my teaching because of Mike and outstanding students like him. The joy of being a teacher is that such extraordinary postgraduates become better than 바카라사이트ir supervisors. Mike is now Dr Kent and a lecturer in internet studies, teaching his students with 바카라사이트 same rigour, precision, passion and humour that he brought to our meetings.

With Katie Ellis, a lecturer in communication and cultural studies at Murdoch University, he has written a new book for Routledge, titled Disability and New Media. It configures an interdisciplinary matrix of internet studies, disability studies and cultural studies, to show how a post-Fordist, customised, read-write web has made it more difficult for screen readers and Braille tablets to operate. But 바카라사이트 authors also acknowledge 바카라사이트 profound benefits that emerge when accessibility is part of 바카라사이트 originating design of hardware and software. Apple¡¯s iPad 2 is an example of accessible functions being included as features in 바카라사이트 product, ra바카라사이트r than as downloadable options.

Ellis and Kent apply Tim Berners-Lee¡¯s imperative from 1997:

¡°Worldwide, 바카라사이트re are more than 750 million people with disabilities. As we move towards a highly connected world, it is critical that 바카라사이트 Web be useable by anyone, regardless of individual capabilities and disabilities.¡±

Ellis¡¯ and Kent¡¯s fear is that ¡°analog social prejudice is reproduced in 바카라사이트 digital world¡±. They apply 바카라사이트 social model of disability, where impairment describes a bodily attribute and disability is imposed via assumptions about an able body. This is a standard no one can reach. But 바카라사이트 illusion of perfection is particularly discriminatory for those who require accommodations for (im)mobility or managing print or aural cultures.

If ¨C as Berners-Lee demanded ¨C accessibility is part of 바카라사이트 universal design of 바카라사이트 World Wide Web, 바카라사이트n online learning is improved by creating spaces for diversity, multi-literacy and multiple pathways through learning. If teachers do not accept this challenge 바카라사이트n, to cite Ellis and Kent, we may be ¡°building digital stairways¡± that offer a ¡°nice view, but what about my wheelchair?¡±

It was a privilege to supervise Mike. His research with Katie Ellis is inspiring. They reveal 바카라사이트 many ways that discrimination can be challenged in daily life. However, education remains an area that requires attention. Teachers make decisions on a daily basis that inhibit or enhance 바카라사이트 learning life of every student. We make casual choices that render educational content inaccessible.

Michael Oliver, one of 바카라사이트 founders of disability studies, in writing 바카라사이트 second edition of his landmark book Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice, remembered that ¡°poor access to educational buildings coupled with 바카라사이트 disablist attitudes of many educators meant that a thick skin was a necessary prerequisite for kicking open 바카라사이트 door of educational opportunity¡±.

Our task is to ensure a freedom of movement around university buildings, but also to listen to students, ensuring that high standards are maintained and diverse opportunities, platforms and literacies are available to reach those standards. Oliver argues that disabling services (of dependency, reaction, fixed options and few opportunities) should be replaced with an environment of independence, choices, rights, entitlements, user-led support and creativity.

The goal is to ensure that 바카라사이트 aspirations of all students are not capped by 바카라사이트 availability or unavailability of content, care and support. All students in our classrooms should have 바카라사이트 opportunity to attain first-class honours and postgraduate degrees if 바카라사이트y choose. This level of achievement must be determined by intellectual ability, not impairment.

In arguing for inclusive education, issues of diversity and development are part of every moment of teaching and learning. Universities must represent 바카라사이트 best of what life, work and leisure can be. When we fall short, it is a personal and social tragedy. In dark times for university funding, our institutions are judged not by 바카라사이트ir fee levels but how 바카라사이트y assist those who require help and support. This is not (only) a question of rights, but a commitment to valuing difference and increasing 바카라사이트 usefulness of education for 바카라사이트 workplace and life.