Accessibility training for teachers, faculty, and staff

These notes are part of a series for the book. This chapter looks at what training university faculty and staff say they would like to have about accessibility, how well the the training they’ve received is working, and what types of training (in terms of content and modes of delivery) are common.

Seale, J. (2014) ‘Ch. 10: The call for more accessibility training and the silences surrounding what works’ in E-Learning and Disability in Higher Education: Accessibility research and practice, 2nd ed., New York, Routledge.

Outline

Introduction
A call for training
What kind of training is required?
1. A review of accessibility training content
  1. Training content that focuses on technical issues
  2. Training content that focuses on disability awareness
  3. Training content that focuses on design approaches
2. A review of the pedagogical strategies employed within accessibility training courses
3. A review of the different ways in which accessibility training is delivered
  1. Online courses
  2. Second Life
  3. Simulations
Does training work?
Conclusion

Notes

This chapter looks at what training university faculty and staff say they would like to have about accessibility, how well the the training they’ve received is working, and what types of training (in terms of content and modes of delivery) are common.

Topics

Seale surveys several studies and provides lists of the topics covered in the accessibility training offered to university faculty and staff.

Conceptual awareness
- Disability awareness
- Evidence-based information about specific disabilities such as learning disabilities, psychiatric issues, and other invisible disabilities, plus accommodations for these
Laws, standards, policies
- Legislation and policy
- Standards and guidelines
Design
- Design approaches (such as universal design)
- Accessibility tools
Technology experiences
- Accessibility awareness and awareness of assistive technologies, including hands-on practice
- Ways to make sure that technology-based activities are accessible

Some of the papers Seale surveyed mentioned that there had been discussion about how much to teach the faculty — should they learn about how to create accessible content, or should those details be left to the specialist teams that usually do the work.

Surely this depends on whether or not they are creating resources and providing them to students directly?

Some universities train their faculty on accessibility topics separately. Others embed accessibility topics within other training.

Modes of delivery

There’s nothing surprising here. Faculty and staff report having accessibility training via face-to-face courses, online courses, workshops, and coaching with experts. Online courses had the benefit of teaching while simultaneously offering an example of accessible distance learning resources.

Effectiveness

This is where it gets interesting! One study asked faculty before and after training how they felt about their experience and this had a response that is somewhat typical of smile sheets: ‘satisfaction data tells us very little about the actual impact of training on practice’ (Seale, 2014, p. 172).

Another study looked at a group of web developers who were provided face-to-face training and outreach training by accessibility experts. The websites they created were then scrutinized to see if they were improved. On the whole, the training didn’t make substantial improvement to the work. ‘[T]raining and professional development is not just about changing individual practice it is about changing institutional culture (Seale, 2014, p. 173).

Katherine Hinchey