Equal Access to the Digital World!

Equal Access to the Digital World!

What does it mean to "provide equal access to the digital world"?

To provide equal access to the digital world means that all students, regardless of ability, have the same access to resources online, and resources embodied by specialized technologies (digital cameras, scanners, etc). The digital world itself contains most of the software technologies necessary to equalize access. A student for whom typing is difficult can use transcription programs like Dragon. Students with low vision can take advantage of intra-device vision enhancing software. A blind student might use a screen reader. A student with hearing issues can take use the closed-captioning feature of internet videos. A teacher's role in providing equal access to digital media is to ensure that the resources she is selecting for her lesson plan either fit, or can be modified to fit her students' abilities.

Teachers need training in providing equal access. They need training in digital lesson planning for multiple ability levels, and they need training in the programs and software that are available online that will enhance UDL lesson planning. However, it is administrators and politicians (from the Secretary of Education to local school boards) who make the final decisions about whether a school or district provides their students with equal access to the digital world. Equal access costs money. Equal access to the digital world for all students will come only when the people who control the budgets develop the political will to promote and ensure it.

Training teachers in digital lesson planning for multiple ability levels takes time and money. Time has to made for teachers not only to train, and renew they're training at frequent intervals, but also time has to be made in their planning schedules. A lesson crafted on the principles embodied in UD learning takes longer to craft than a lesson using a reading from the textbook and an end-of-chapter written quiz. Teacher prep-time needs to reflect that - and while the unions might do what they can, ultimately it is administrators and school-boards that will have to understand that.

Equal access to the digital world takes hardware, and that takes money. A child might need a keyboard with larger keys, or a computer desk that a wheelchair can fit under - or a wheelchair attached tablet holder. The blind student using the screen reader may also require a braille keyboard. A student with limited hand mobility could require a typing aid,  as could a student who needed to type using her feet or her mouth. All those devices take money. Special devices would most likely be coming out of the special education department's budget. In these cases, the law would most likely mandate their purchase. Administrators need to be prepared to adjust budgets accordingly.

Finally, are administrators and politicians willing to spend the time, sweat, and money it will take to reconcile UD equal access learning with their rigid adherence to standardized testing? Standardized tests are not universal design. Most of us have probably seen this cartoon:

Yes, certain supports and modifications can be enacted for the child with coded disabilities who is taking the high stakes standardized test, but is that really equal access? Are standardized tests equally accessible to all students, all learning styles, or all of the different "intelligences". The cartoon is an excellent way of pointing out that the answer to that question in no. Universal design learning is by it's nature a pedagogical approach that encourages higher order thinking. Using multiple but equal assessments or final products for the same lesson is a significant part of UDL, but entirely antithetical to standardized testing, where as the name implies, the idea is that students will be able to produce a standardized answer. I believe that public education, Janus-like, currently has two faces. Students and teachers suffer as a result. One face is convinced that reliable data on student progress can only be gleaned by traditional standardized testing. this face is strongly supported by, among others, the very profitable standardized testing industry. The other face of public education pedagogy is interested in providing the best possible education for each individual student. That education of necessity employs universal access UD learning. There are good people with the best of intentions on either side of this rift, but until political will at the local, state, and national level supports it, equal access to the digital world for all of our students will not happen.

Sources:

Edtechdigest (2013).Student access to digital learning devices. [Infographic]. Retrieved from: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/462393086712113698/

For a fair selection. [Comic] Artist & date unknown. Retrieved from: http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2012/08/cartoons-climb-that-tree.html#.U-wRwKMvPng