Equity In Education

By Talitha Batts & Rasheda Kelley

Making learning environments inclusive for students is a critical need in education. With the growth and advancement of digital learning tools, educators must sustain the overall accessible atmosphere in classrooms. Organizations that produce digital learning tools must evaluate and measure the accessibility and inclusive design of digital learning tools. Accessibility is the practice of making information available for use to individuals. However, accessibility can be in other ways, like web access only to different organizations. In research from Persson et al. (2015), it is imperative that the term and meaning of accessibility promote the inclusive design of interactive systems. The overall purpose of accessibility can impact the inclusive design of digital learning tools.

 Notability is a digital learning tool that allows students, educators, and learners to record notes digitally. The note replay feature is an excellent step in inclusive design because the audio automatically synchronizes with recorded messages. An audio replay is a beautiful feature for individuals with learning disabilities. This statement speaks to Persson et al. (2015) analysis of comprehending the concept of accessibility to ensure the inclusive design of technology products.

 The priority step in ensuring the accessible and inclusive design of digital learning tools is to understand accessibility. There are many layers of accessibility, such as socioeconomic status to access technology, physical disabilities, and learning disabilities. Organizations must consider the full scope of accessibility of individuals to maintain inclusive development and design of digital learning tools.

References:

Notability. (2022). https://notability.com/

Persson, H. W., Åhman, H., Yngling, A., & Gulliksen, J. (2015). Universal design, inclusive design, accessible design, design for all: different concepts—one goal? On the concept of accessibility—historical, methodological and philosophical aspects. Universal Access in the Information Society14(4), 505–526. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-014-0358-z