ACE May Newsletter - Accessible Learning Environments
Aug 3, 2021 | Academic Centre of Excellence
Accessible learning environments are ones that all students, regardless of their ability, can participate, interact, and learn in with others. In Ontario, all public College learning environments must be accessible under the Accessibility for Ontarian with Disabilities Act (AODA). This includes all physical and virtual spaces (e.g. iLearn) and all print, video and audio resources students need to access and view to participate in the learning environment.
Canadore has worked, and continues to work, diligently to ensure faculty have the resources and tools they need to create and maintain accessible learning environments for students. These resources and tools include but are not limited to: templates to support the creation and delivery of accessible learning content in iLearn, the acquisition of EdTech tools like Echo360 to auto-generate transcripts for recorded learning content, and accessibility guides to support the creation of accessible content (see Content in NUT100 and Accessibility Support in FAC100).
To further support the creation and maintenance of accessible learning environments, ACE, in conjunction with Student Success Services (SSS), also provides Professional Development (PD) Opportunity Sessions that explain and demonstrate how to create accessible learning content. In May and June 2021, these sessions will include how to create accessible Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and iLearn content.
Faculty are encouraged to view the accessibility resources and tools or participate in one of the PD Opportunity Sessions mentioned in this article to ensure that the learning environments they create and maintain are accessible to all students regardless of their abilities.