I think EdTech is in a similar place. With new products, tools, and companies competing for dollars in the EDU space, there is a rush to market with little regard for accessibility by many. I hear things such as: "Struggling to provide differentiated PD? Here's an online platform to help solve your issues." Or, "Here's a portfolio system that organizing student work easy!" and "Blended learning is the solution to your problems. Our platform provides what you and your students need." In many of these cases, these "solutions" do not offer closed captioning, keyboard navigation support, or make it easy for screen readers to use among things that provide access for diverse users. I agree with Cerf that no amount of "pixie dust" is going to make these products accessible if accessibility was not part of original design process.
I am not suggesting that educators need to become experts in DOM and modals but I do think we owe it to our students and profession to increase our awareness about web accessibility and apply it to our work and teach our students to do the same. Whether we and/or our students are creating videos, presentations, documents, or any countless other digital products to both facilitate and demonstrate learning, there are workflows we can adopt that improve accessibility and access.
The last two weeks of this challenge, I have focused on captioning and will now share posts focusing on design features such as headers, alt text, color choice, and hyperlinks that help create accessibility. Ultimately, there is no magic pixie dust to make the digital content we create accessible. We must choose to create accessibility, build awareness, and adopt a mindset that makes accessibility part of the creation process. As we improve our knowledge regarding accessibility we are better positioned to evaluate and question the latest EdTech products, tools, and platforms as to whether they provide access and promote the inclusion of diverse users.
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