Berkeley Takes Down Videos over ADA Violations

Berkeley is claiming that they have to remove a lot of online videos because captioning them all would be too expensive.

To which I say: Please build accessibility into everything you do. Deaf people, in fact, have the right to learn. And please don't blame disabled people when your lack of foresight means you're in violation of the law.

Also, Inside Higher Ed - Berkeley is the mothership of the Independent living movement. There are disabled profs and organizations you should have, and could have, contacted for comment here.

Adventures in Universal Design: A Farewell to In-Class Tests

I have decided to stop giving in-class tests under any circumstances. Here's my essay, from the Chronicle:

I’ve been inching away from the blue book for years, but it’s time to go cold turkey and match my praxis to my principles. Whatever pedagogical gains the in-class test might bring — and I’ll argue they are few and increasingly less relevant — I can no longer justify forcing people with disabilities to disclose their conditions in order to receive basic test-related accommodations....

It’s become routine, rather than rare, for students to begin the semester by presenting their professors with documented requests for accommodation.

That it’s become routine is great but far from perfect. Not only do students have to disclose disability to their professors —who are no more immune to ableism than to any other sort of bias — but the most common form of accommodation extends the disclosure to classmates. Many students with invisible disabilities (such as anxiety disorders or ADHD) require quiet rooms and extra time to work on a test. I’m thrilled to provide both. On the other hand, when the whole class gathers to take an exam, with one student conspicuously absent, everyone notices.

If there were important benefits to taking HISTORY classes in the room, then the accommodation model might be relevant. There aren't, I argue, so I'm done.

That doesn't mean you have to be done, but I guess I would like you to think about it.

Adventures in Universal Design: That Viral Picture of Ramps set in Stairs

Many of my friends on Facebook and elsewhere kindly sent me a cool picture of a ramp that zig-zags through a set of stairs. As the picture permeated Facebook, though, I noted an important phenomenon - every single one of my wheelchair-using friends reacted negatively. 

Description: A set of stairs with a ramp moving diagonally through the middle.
If you need this image description, this stairs/ramp would be very difficult for you.

Thanks to a number of my friends in the disability world, I saw this great essay on "the problem with ramps blended into stairs" from Nicolas Steenhout, an expert on accessibility (and a wheelchair user).

The ramp in question is in Vancouver:

The first set of stairs/ramp is at Robson Square in Vancouver, BC. It is a design I’ve used in the past to illustrate potential failures of Universal Design...

WHO IS AFFECTED?

Wheelchair users
People using canes or crutches
People with low vision
People who are blind
People who are distracted
Parents with prams
People on skates/bikes/etc

PROBLEMS WITH THIS DESIGN

STEP COLOURS
It is very difficult to distinguish where one step ends and the other begins. If you have less than perfect vision, this could quickly become dangerous. There are no contrasting strips to signify the edge of the step...
HANDRAILS
There are very few handrails. It is good that there are some, but more handrails would be better. If you are able to walk, but unsteady on your feet, you have to either walk to one end of the stairs, or the other to find handrails....
NO FLAT LANDING
UNEVEN HEIGHT OF RISERS
STEEP RAMP
It’s difficult to tell from photos exactly how steep the ramp is...The point is here that a steep slope requires quite a bit of strength to go up. And a good amount of control to go down. This is true of wheelchair users in manual wheelchairs, of people using canes or crutches, but also of parents pushing prams, or kids on skates.

The whole post is a great example of the challenges of effective universal design.

To me the lesson is this - before investing lots of money building some cool universal design installation, you'd better talk to actual disabled people, and let them test it. The fact that every wheelchair user I know, at a glance, could see the problems with that ramp/stairs is telling.

Universal Design for T-Shirts

My son, like many children with disabilities, has some acute sensory issues. T-shirt tags bother him incessantly, and the advent of the printed label is wonderful. We try not to buy shirts that have tags, and when we do ...

Universal design for T-shirts is: no tags! #Sensory pic.twitter.com/iLnupk1fZ8

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) December 18, 2015 

(Image Description: three tags cut off a shirt)

This is trivial, but it's also annoying and not needed. No one likes tags! No one things a shirt is better because it has multiple tags. Printing labels on the fabric works.

Universal design always makes things better both for the people with specific needs (i.e. my son, for whom shirts with tags are terrible) and, in less acute ways, for everyone else.

Universal design, hooray!

Pajama day. Hooray! pic.twitter.com/JieTVII2ch

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) December 18, 2015

(Image: Two kids, hands up, wearing Minion Christmas Pjs).

Actually, I hate pajama day. But that's another story.

Adventures in Universal Design: Handwriting Notes and In-class Exams

We cannot say: The best pedagogy is handwriting because science, if that "best pedagogy" excludes so many people with disabilities. #ableism

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) October 26, 2015

We must say: Let's figure out what it is about handwriting (means) that produces good learning (ends) and universalize those ends. #pedagogy

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) October 26, 2015

Last night I had a long twitter argument about universal design in the classroom. Here's my position:

I do not intend to ever give another in-class exam, even though I acknowledge there is research that being forced to memorize and study may have beneficial results on learning. I will also not ban laptops in the classroom (I have experimented with turning off wi-fi in the classroom, but I'm not convinced that's the right away forward), despite the research suggesting that handwriting is better for learning than laptops.

The problem is that we, as teachers, make these decisions based on surface-level reactions to highly mediated studies. We see - handwriting better! We respond - ban laptops! And since we don't really like our students clacking away on keys and using Facebook, having a study to confirm our pre-existing biases against laptops. And similarly many of us found the process of having to study for exams then sit them in a classroom clarifying and powerful

But there are problems - First, technology is becoming so deeply embedded in our lives that it's increasingly unlikely we can hermetically seal the classroom from it. Sure, we can ban laptops. But not "fingernail computers" or "eye contact computers" or whatever the future holds.

Second, whatever comes next tech wise, right now there are millions of disabled students for whom handwriting is either sub-optimal or impossible. The ADA gives people with clearly diagnosed conditions the power to accommodate, and that's an awesome power indeed, but first it leaves people out, and second it suggests that disabled students are doomed to a "second-best" pedagogy. That's not acceptable to me.

Importantly, I think these studies (if true. Remember the replication issue in psych) do not demand we limit our pedagogy to reward one type of neurotypical student. Instead, these studies say figure out WHY in-class tests have advantages and figure out WHY handwriting and has advantages - then work very hard to achieve those advantages in diverse ways.

For my take home exams, I try to replicate some of the pressures of the in-class exam, because my understanding of the research is that the in-class exam is a useful way to push students to internalize information. For note-taking, I discuss why and how

For note-taking, here's Josh Eyler (a man who knows vastly more about the scholarship of learning than I do):

@Lollardfish Oh, I like this! Ends = allowing for selectivity & synthesis. So let's help students learn to take notes like this on laptops.

— Joshua Eyler (@joshua_r_eyler) October 26, 2015

There's nothing magical about a pen and paper. What happens is that when using a pen and paper, students can write less, so they think harder about what to write, and thus take better notes and begin the process of internalizing what's important. This can be replicated with laptops.

We can do this. We can focus on ends - better learning - and not the means we figured out in eras past to achieve those ends.

Accessible Conferences - Learning from Fandom Cons

I am working on a piece about accessible academic conferences and am, intentionally, focusing on academia. But there are two speculative fiction conventions that deserve mention.

Convergence holds a special place in my heart. I've never been deeply involved with it, but have gone and performed there many times, especially in the early years before it exploded and became one of the premier cons in the country (to my mind). I'm pretty sure one of my bands (Tramps and Hawkers, maybe?) played the very first Convergence fundraiser.

Here's their policy. It's excellent overall, while acknowledging that some barrier remain.

WisCon, the feminist speculative fiction convention in Madison, has even stronger language.

Universal Design: Disability Access at WisCon
The Disability Inclusion Services offered by WisCon are informed by universal design and disability rights activism. Universal design benefits people of all ages and abilities, by making schedules, communications, and the physical environment usable by as many people as possible. We strive to create an event that works for members in all our physical and mental variety. We must balance that goal against limited fiscal resources, the paradox that sometimes one member's accommodation is another member's barrier, and an entirely volunteer work force. We always welcome discussion exploring how we can better accommodate our members.

Outstanding things.

1. Embrace of universal design.
2. Acknowledgement of challenges and the "paradox."
3. Desire to always find ways to improve.

Everyone else hosting any kind of professional and/or fan gathering anywhere could learn from this.

More to come!