Embracing equity in a public health emergency: the role of UDL in guiding instructors as they adapt to an unprecedented reliance on online and hybrid teaching.

1. Embracingequity in a publichealth emergency:the role of
UDLin guiding instructorsas they adaptto an unprecedented
reliance on online and hybridteaching.
AHEAD Conference 2021, Dublin: Reconnection - Placing inclusion at the
heart of online learning and support
Live Workshop, Friday April 9th, 2021 (14.00-15.20)
Frederic Fovet, School of Education and Technology, RRU

2. Objectives of the Session
• Examine the context of post-pandemic Higher Ed and the implications in terms of
equity
• Explore specific risks which have arisen in the classroom with respect to EDI during
the COVID crisis
• Consider the immediate relevance of UDL in this changing landscape
• Acknowledge the subtlety required when addressing equity in this post-pandemic
climate

3. Interactive interlude
• We will use Menti to quickly get a feel for the composition of the
audience as we work together in this workshop on sharing
perspectives.
• Please go to Menti.com and use code 87348271

4. Format of Workshop
• It is always difficult to be fully interactive when online. It can also be challenging to
be entirely UDL (hence the topic of this session!).
• I have nevertheless tried to incorporate as many inclusive features as possible:
• Use of interactive activities with Menti.com
• Will also be monitoring the conference hashtag through the session
• Happy to engage with all participants one on one beyond the session via email or
social media.
• The slides of the presentation will be available on SlideShare immediately after the
workshop (and appear on my LinkedIn and Twitter accounts)

5. Interactive Interlude
• Interactive activity – Share with us on Menti what your
biggest concern is about the COVID pivot to online and
blended instruction and assessment.
• Go to Menti.com and use code
19102673

6. Context
• Unprecedented conjuncture for Higher/ Further Education:
• The post-pandemic world is not likely to resemble the pre-pandemic
landscape
• Beyond the COVID panic, the changes that have been occurring reveal
intentions that have been a long time coming in the Higher Ed landscape;
they reflect a pressure to hyper-commercialize Higher Ed
• Hyper-competition among institutions, desire to increase class sizes, rethink
of campus space and its cost-effectiveness, hazing of work-time/ time off
boundaries for faculty, shift in the scheduling of semesters and increase
productivity through year-round course offerings, gaining wider catchment
beyond geographical borders, etc.

7. Context (Contd.)
• At the same time the formats of pedagogy being developed and prioritized in this
pandemic and post-pandemic settings place unprecedented pressure on faculty to
take charge of accessibility issues.
• In the overnight pivot, there has been less reliance on accessibility services –
themselves overwhelmed
• It is not always clear for accessibility services and students where tension exists with
regards to accessibility, as so many practices are being re-invented or created from
scratch.
• Faculty themselves often have had to create these practices just-in-time and have
not had the opportunity to reflect on the barriers they may create for students.
• As faculty require time and space to reflect on this, they are simultaneously
overwhelmed by new and unprecedented pressures.
• For faculty, working from home has created a hazing of work vs. private life
boundaries, and a general increase in workload.

8. Thegreatdebate
HastheCOVIDcrisisincreasedaccessibilityandequityissues,orhasit
easedthepressureondiverselearners?
• Eased accessibility and equity
issues
• “I doubt, for example, that our
current preoccupation with equity
and inclusion would have occurred
in the absence of the health crisis
(…). However painful and
wrenching the pandemic has been,
colleges and universities now have
an opportunity to rethink time-
honored but outmoded traditions
and adopt practices better suited
to meeting today’s challenges.”
• (Mintz, 2020)
• Worsened accessibility and equity
issues
• “Students with disabilities and
their advocates say access to
equitable education has been
abandoned in the scramble to
move classes online (…). Some
faculty members might just be
overwhelmed by the pressure to
rapidly convert to online classes
and overlook accessibility.”
(Anderson, 2020)

9. Interactive poll
• Do you feel that the global health crisis has led to an increased focused on
equity and accessibility, or do you feel that equity and accessibility has
suffered in this climate?
• Please go to Menti.com and use the code 16373146 to use the poll.

10. Subtlety of the current conjuncture
• Scholars have taken pains to argue one side of the argument or the other.
• The reality of the matter is that this is time that is characterized by increased
risks with regards to accessibility and equity, but also by specific
opportunities.
• We will examine the crucial role UDL can play in guiding faculty as they
navigate this unchartered landscape.

11. The danger zones in terms of Equity
• Insistence of synchronous participation
• Insistence on synchronous participation with cameras on
• Overreliance on un-monitored group work
• Embracing delivery models that are more akin to distance ed than to online learning
– these practices isolate students and do not allow for the development of social
capital
• Overreliance on a flipped classroom model where the resources are not all
accessible
• Considerable issues emerging from the use of online proctoring services that breach
student privacy, data protection rights, and impose the sequential completion of
questions.
• Fewer opportunities for direct interaction with instructors.

12. Also some gains…
• Greater flexibility generally for some students unable to attend class physically.
• Has enabled some students who have difficulties with social interaction to avoid
group work.
• Has led to more flexibility with regards to field work and practicum – elimination of
many experiential components.
• Has led to much wider access to the recordings of sessions. Zoom recordings have
included captions.
• Greater awareness of accessibility of content and resources because all students are
facing challenges.
• Caveat: None of these practices represent outright gains in terms of accessibility.
They remove barriers for some students but create new barriers for other students.
• The online pivot has created a grey area where accessibility is much more difficult
to grasp, even for experts in inclusion. The situation is pressing and dangerous.

13. How might UDL become immediately
relevant in this delicate landscape?
• It is clear there are no overall beneficial or detrimental practices in this new
online environment. The art is in the detail.
• These practices are all generally beneficial to some degree in moderation.
• The key is a healthy diversity of practices and choices – this is where UDL
becomes key in the design of these experiences (All three UDL principles).
• In terms of assessment, challenges during the pivot have been significant and
caused considerable harm to students with disabilities, but the current crisis
has shown for good the limitations of summative assessment.
• UDL will be key in guiding instructors as they design new formative
assignments (multiple means of action and expression)

14. Presenting UDL effectively to faculty in
this climate
• “UDL is a lens for inclusive design which will allow you to avoid frequent
pitfalls in the COVID landscape. There usually are no immediately and
inherently bad designs within this new online and blended environment. The
art lies in the detail. A practice can be inclusive to some degree, depending
on your degree of reliance on it, but can also create accessibility issues if you
adopt it as the only alternative to your f2f instruction or assessment. UDL will
keep you solidly focused on the need to create multiple pathways for each of
your objectives.”

15. Treading lightly in the twilight zone
• The subtlety of the current climate means that we also need to be careful as to how we
introduce UDL to the classroom in this COVID landscape.
• Innovative pedagogical approaches can be unsettling for students who are not used to them.
• This can occur with constructivist practices such as curriculum co-creation, with active
learning practices such as the flipped classroom, and it definitely occurs with the overnight
introduction of UDL to students who may have always operated within a conventional f2f
classroom.
• I call this “transitional friction” and it requires very specific and subtle reflection and
handling, otherwise even inclusive pedagogy such as UDL can backfire simply because
students perceive it as ‘uncomfortable’.
• This means that there rarely are immediate solutions that ‘jump up’ at instructors. Instead
faculty will require very subtle support while they negotiate the difficult task of reaching the
correct balance/ degree of reliance between practices in order to meet the needs of all
students.

16. Treading lightly in the twilight zone
(contd.)
• It is also important to acknowledge that UDL is not the sole lens required in
this landscape.
• During the pivot, students have emphasized the importance of having
individual access to instructors.
• I have myself systematically integrated one to one tutorials in all my courses.
• This personalized pedagogical dimension is not strictly speaking aligned with
UDL, but it is crucial that it be integrated into our post-pandemic practices.
• It is important to consider UDL as one of several pedagogical lenses that must
work in unison to create inclusive and ‘hospitable’ online and blended
teaching

17. Creating new faculty-accessibility services
alliances in the post-pandemic world
• The post-pandemic landscape is radically different and we will need to entirely
rethink our roles and collaborations
• Faculty are more isolated than they have ever been. They have few networks to
discuss EDI daily in practical terms (meetings are reduced to a minimum, water
cooler chats are a thing of the past, Some colleagues have never physically met their
peers)
• Faculty are more overwhelmed than ever, and have less time for dialogue.
Accessibility service personnel are also facing increasing demand (particularly with
regards to MH)
• The gap between faculty and accessibility services has never been greater now that
most faculty have but remote contact with campus.
• The guidance required by faculty is much more subtle and nuanced than
recommendations for accommodations. It is an organic, moving landscape where
decisions have to be made just-in time, and reassessed over time.

18. Interactive activity
• If you had to reinvent your relationship with faculty (or accessibility services,
vice versa if your are faculty), where would you start?
• What might be a way to create new opportunities for discussions about
inclusion, pedagogical design, and UDL?
• Please visit Menti.com and use the code 31 47 43 2

19. Some suggestions
• Move away from just an accommodations approach and support which is
increasingly obsolete in this climate
• Create new alliances which may mean pre-delivery discussions with instructors
about design
• Collaboration with an increasingly wide array of stakeholders will become key
(instructional designers, teaching and learning support, international students
support services, Indigenous students support services, etc.)
• Funding models are going to very quickly become inadequate and there will need to
be a degree of creativity with regards to the funding of these initiatives

20. References
Anderson, G. (2020, April 6) Accessibility Suffers During Pandemic. Inside Higher Ed.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/06/remote-learning-shift-leaves-
students-disabilities-behind
Mintz, S. (2020, December 17) The Crisis Higher Education Needs. Inside Higher Ed.
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/crisis-higher-education-
needs

21. Interactive activity
• Are there any recent resources that have been particularly helpful to you in
the current climate that you might want to share with the other participants?
• Please visit Menti.com and use the code 54 73 23 66

22. Contact details
• Frederic Fovet (PhD.)
• Associate Professor, School of Education and Technology, Royal Roads
University
• Frederic.fovet@royalroads.ca
• @Ffovet
• www.implementudl.com