The document discusses the importance of making distance education accessible for marginalized learners, including those with disabilities and others facing various barriers to education. It emphasizes the use of technology, universal design for learning principles, and collaborative course designs to enhance accessibility and engagement in learning. The need for supportive policies and practices is highlighted as essential for ensuring equal educational opportunities for all individuals.

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Can Learning Be AccessibletoAll –Script
Policies, practices and processes in reaching marginalized learners
Presentation to 2015 Athabasca University Graduate Student Conference
September 25 – 27, 2015
PresentationunderCreative Commons.:someimagesare fairuse
Slide 1 – Can Learning Be AccessibletoAll?
Big Question – Big Issue - Big Opportunity
This is a Big Question! I believe Distance Education is one answer. DE allows people to
learn – and earn – a certificate, diploma or degree (almost) where ever they live.
Technology has increased its reach, however in order to reach the increasing number of
people who are not able to find sustainable employment, or to attend school full-time,
DE could be expanded, and instructional models and technologies improved. This
literature review explores many questions to expand DE’s reach.
Topic interests me in a variety of ways:
• Beneficiary of distance education
• Doctoral student in AU D. Distance Education program
• Huge topic
• Focus on marginalized pop/learners (mostly disabled) although touching on
others.
• Define characteristics of people who are marginalized and how they learn
• Pedagogies and technologies
• Rethink learning
• Accessibility for learners
• Policies, practices and processes to help different learners
Slide 2 – MarginalizedLearners –Who are these learners?
Can you recognize marginalized learners with the naked eye?
• Some perhaps that may be physically disabled – mobility, visually impaired,
• Could you easily recognize someone who was hearing impaired?
• Someone who with learning disability? Someone whose first language was not
English?
• Some marginalized populations are protected by Section 15 – Equality Rights
section of 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• That protects the rights of every individual as equal with the right to equal
protection and benefit of the law without discrimination based on race, national
or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability; and
also prohibits discrimination other grounds of sexual orientation. Section 15(2)
allows creation of laws or programs to targeted toward disadvantages groups

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such as women, Aboriginal People, visible minorities, or those with physical or
mental disabilities
• People with families that cannot attend post-secondary full-time?
• People who live in rural areas?
• People with no access to technology?
• Youth who are marginalized through their lack of power as youth, plus may be
marginalized in other ways as well
Slide 3 – Wheel inthe Sand
Wheel chair in the sand – visual reminder of difficulties faced by people with disabilities
- workable for limited time but it takes huge effort to make it work
Jane Seale’s = learning mismatch between person’s abilities (strengths) and how
learning is available to them?
•
Slide 4 – How Do We Learn? Pedagogy and Technology
Images represent learning.
The pictures on this slide are a visual representation of young adults learn by reading
books; children learning with “shared” computer in library; a computer with assistive
technology; adults sharing information with books and papers/notes; adults sharing
information on tablets; and young adults using mobile devices to share information.
Technology has been used to help those with vision, auditory, or physical disabilities;
people with learning disabilities, or people returning to school after a long absence,
access learning materials in a format that helps them “read” or “hear” the required
information, and keeping their materials organized (Durham College Café). Other
solutions that are promoted are universal design for learning (UDL) principles that help
all learners access and absorb information. This definition by Kurzweil Educational
Systems, a designer of assistive technology suggests:
 Multiple means of representation (learns have different ways to acquire
information and knowledge)

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 Multiple means of expression (design alternative ways for learners to
demonstrate what they know)
 Multiple means of engagement (create interesting and challenging ways to
motivate learners) (para. 3)
The definition is not just about technology; it represents different ways for instructions
to design how information is presented to and gathered from students.
Specific technology is used for people with disabilities, using UDL increases motivation
for all learners to acquire, organize and demonstrate their knowledge: it helps improve
learning for all.
Slide 5:Rethink Learning
Images represent different ways of learning:
- demonstration
- hands-on
- apprenticeship
- mobile phones (increasingly used in Africa, China, and other countries where
internet connection is spotty)
- robotics
Rethink Learning – Mismatch between labour market and learning / learning and
employment
- Most learning occurs in classroom – other methods are being used to prepare
students outside the classroom. Increased technology such as computers, iPads,
and mobile phones allow students to learn online, or anywhere.
- Learning collaboratively with peer-learning
Slide 6 – Accessibility inLearning
Images – accessibility tools; mobility; not about technology
The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) notes that the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (2006) recognizes Web accessibility as a basic human right.
This initiative outlines the social, technical, financial, legal and policy factors that are
important in developing a business case for organizations. The business case looks at
potential return on investment that may offset costs in implementing Web accessibility.
Sometimes, the cost of not doing something is higher than the cost of doing something
– for example, non-compliance with government regulations; and what is the cost of not
providing assistive technology and processes that prevents people form leading full
personal and professional lives? From a business perspective, it is an opportunity lost
for educational institutions from a marketing perspective – using .
Slide 7 – Assistive Technology:tools for learners
This next slide talks about the types of assistive technologies that exist.

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• Alternative interface: screen readers; key-guards; keyboard alternatives and
mouse alternatives
• Visualization: video and animation
• Reading: audio narration; colour/front options; comprehension tools; outlining;
text-to-speech
• Recording: video; portable keyboards; digital camera; voice recording
• Writing: handwriting alternatives or handwriting recognition: e.g. word
prediction; word banks
• Planning, organizing or summarising:e.g. mind-mapping
software
• Communication: synthetic speech; symbol systems
(JISC TechDis, 2007a)
Source: Seale, J. 2014, p. 7
Athabasca University’s Dr. Linda Chmillar and Carrie Anton are engaged in multiple
levels of an iPad project to provide an iPad to students that are registered with AU’s
Assistance for Students with Disabilities program.
How to incorporate UDL principles into regular program or courses?
- course accommodation to enable alternative methods to demonstrate
assignments and exams.
- provide assistive technology for impairments to help organize or absorb learning
- Read & Write Gold program provided to students (and tutors) that helps 1)
awareness, 2) attention to structure of documents prior to production, 3) free
MOODLE products like compiler and text to speech that helps annotate
How does this help students whose first language is not English? Products that are
accessible and searchable with attention paid to cultural aspects.
- Special attention for tutors to recognize cultural aspects of written asignments
(grammar or lack of attention to citations)
- Aboriginal students – FNMI support (elders and staff) to make contact with
students. At NAIT, recruiter Derek Thunder goes to the reserve prior to
enrollment to meet family and help develop a support system for the student
Slide 8 – Policies, Practices, andProcesses –OER, MOOCs, Collaboration
Developing policies to provide accessible technologies, collaborative course design,
open education resources (OER), MOOCs and different instructional models takes time,
money, and consideration by stakeholders both inside and outside educational
institutions.
OER allows an institution, and its students, to lower the cost of resources and allow
more flexible learning styles to emerge. OERs are available on sites like Creative
Commons - (users post images, articles, videos, music, etc that can be reused by others
(for free) by attributing authorship of the resource through Creative Commons licensing.

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Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), although ripe with pedagogical issues, may be
another low cost way for education institutions to offer courses. Although much is
made of xMOOCs such as those designed by MIT, Coursera, Udacity, etc. there are
cultural and pedagogical issues that do not make xMOOCs attractive to learners.
Collaborative learning approaches such as George Siemens’ and Stephen Downes’
(collaborative) c-MOOC use an open source learning platform with content provided by
academics using a peer-learning pedagogical model (often used in graduate co-hort
learning).
Slide 9 DisabledLearner – adaptedfrom J. Seale. (2014) p. 12.
Disabled learner: someone with a mismatch between their impairment and their
environment. Dr. Jane Seale citesfouraspectsto practicesthat enable learnerswith
impairments toobtainaqualityeducationorlearningexperience at the centre of principlesand
practices.
Source: Seale, J. 2014, p. 12
Slide 10;Learner Success
Image represents “Learner Success”
Learner + Educational Institution + Government + Community +
Employer = Learner Success
BIG ISSUE – played out globally?
StakeholdersInternal to Educational
Institution
- Disabledstudents
- Lecturers
- Learningtechnologists
- Studentsupportservices
- Staff developers
- Seniormanagers
StakeholdersExternal to
Educational Institution
- Government
- Community
- employers
MediatingPhilosophy
- Philosophyarounddisability,
accessibility,integrationand
segregation,dutyand
responsibility,teamsand
community,autonomy,and
compliance
Drivers
- Legislation
- Guidelines
- Standards
Disabled
Learner

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World Bank leader in many projects
Ecuador – train health care workers in dealing with environment crisis
Mongolia – low cost rural distance learning project/ mobile content development
African – Distance Education – mobile technology – skill development
Spain – work with grads who are overqualified and underemployed
Slide 11:Can Learning Be AccessibletoAll?
Absolutely.
As Jane Seale notes to pay attention to stakeholders internal and external to the
educational institution; what mediates the discussion?: what is prevailing attitude or
philosophy of the organization around disability, accessibility, integration and
segregation, duty and responsibility, teams and community, autonomy, and compliance
Pay attention to:
a) needs of learners
b) adapt universal design for learning (UDL) principles – start small
c) work together – keep researching and asking questions
Slide 12:References
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Bates,T. (2011) Distance LearninginMongolia.Openlearninganddistance educationresources.
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Bersin,Josh.March 22, 2013. Chief LearningOfficer. TheEducationalMismatch.
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Guide to CanadianCharterof Rightsand Freedoms.Section15 – EqualityRights.
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Hannum,W.H., Irvin,M.J.,Bank,S.B.,& Farmer, T.W.(2009). Distance educationuse
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