This document discusses an approach to making open educational resources (OER) accessible to all learners by allowing them to express their individual needs and matching them with flexible resources. It proposes a three-part system: 1) tools for learners to discover and express needs and preferences, 2) a service to transform or find alternative resources to meet those needs, and 3) growing a community of "producers" to create resources. This approach aims to address problems with digital technology design, accessibility legislation and special education services by focusing on individual needs rather than categories. It is presented as being aligned with OER principles and having potential benefits for inclusion and economic growth.

1. If you want to change the world - look to the
margins
Jutta Treviranus
FLOE Project
Inclusive Design Research Centre
OCAD University

2. Renovations ...
• the doable task
• that uncovers the need to
rebuild the foundations

3. Our doable task:
• make OER accessible to
students with disabilities
• ensure that OER will meet
accessibility legislation
globally so this won’t be an
impediment to adoption

4. Straightforward
approach:
• fix all the resources
• but....
• how many resources are
there?
• how many can be fixed?
• is fixing them a good thing?
• will this serve the learners?

5. This is not just about
OER
Connected to:
• how digital technologies are
designed
• accessibility legislation and policy
• special service delivery processes
globally

6. How digital technologies
are developed
• standard digital technology design goes
as far as the typical or average user
• assistive technologies are meant to bridge
the gap
• but assistive technology is crumbling
• not technically viable
• not a viable business model
• cannot keep up with development
• cost, availability, functionality, reliability

7. Legislation and Policy
• accessibility interpreted as an
absolute binary issue
• “one-size-fits-all”
requirements
• laws are an inflexible and blunt
instrument for a complex
domain
• hard to update and keep
current
• constraining innovation in
curriculum and delivery

8. Special Service
Delivery
• Spending more on excluding
individuals from service and
policing service than on
service delivery
• Only eligible individuals for
only authorized resources
• Criteria tightened to contain
costs- then squeezed-out
group advocates for new
eligibility categories
• even fewer funds to deliver
service

9. But this is not a
renovation nightmare
story.....
There is a bright side.

10. The bright side...
• What we have developed to
“fix” the doable task is very
useful for addressing the
foundations - and then some
• There is a growing community
that like the idea and want to
pitch in

11. • every learner learns differently
• digital resources and delivery
mechanisms can be easily
reconfigured
• we all learn better if the
education environment and
content matches our individual
needs
• disability is relative
• we can deliver “one-size-fits-
one” learning

12. • a matching service for learning
Three main parts:
1. Pluggable utilities to enable learners to
discover and express individual needs
2. A service that transforms resources,
augments resources or finds alternative
resources to match the individual
needs
3. A demand-supply pipeline of possible
“producers” to meet the demands and
fill the gaps

13. In our toolkit ..
• An extensible, common, machine-
readable language for expressing
learner needs and preferences
• A system for cumulatively labelling
resources with information about
what needs are met by the resource
• Supports for creating flexible,
reconfigurable resources
• Supports for translating resources -
to other modes and languages

14. Powered by ...
• Expanded, diverse community
of producers
• Peer producers
• Derivatives, reuse and sharing

15. Why does it
resonate...
• completely in line with OER
principles and goals
• encourages innovation and
diversification of OER
• learners don’t need to qualify
for special services, fit into
categories, or compromise
their learning needs
• invites broader, more diverse
engagement in OER

16. Helping to fix the
foundations...
• Addressing the problems of
digital technology
development
• Global Public Inclusive
Infrastructure
• Applying the FLOE concept to
address Digital Inclusion
• See: gpii.org

18. Good for inclusive prosperity and
sustainable economic growth..
• We are in an extreme push
market
• Large barrier to entry for any
new idea
• Must focus on selling, not
producing or innovating
• Provide a direct pipeline
between diverse demand and
diverse supply
• Supports inclusive prosperity

19. The margins are not
marginal...
They encompass
everything we do.

20. How can you help?
1. Remember, all learners learn
differently - we need to stop
designing for the average or
typical learner and help
learners discover and
express their individual
learner needs.
2. Create reconfigurable,
flexible OER and encourage a
diversity of derivatives.
3. Collect information about the
usefulness of each resource.

21. How can you be part of this?
Looking for partners for pilots:
• OER developers and
producers
• OER delivery projects
• OER implementers
See: floeproject.org