After lis­ten­ing to Char­lie Watson’s pre­sen­ta­tion on assis­tive tech­nol­o­gy and dig­i­tal acces­si­bil­i­ty, I have been reflect­ing on the ways I design my class­room mate­ri­als, espe­cial­ly my dig­i­tal hand­outs in Google Class­room. Acces­si­bil­i­ty has always been some­thing I val­ue, but Charlie’s insights made me real­ize that there is much more I can do to ensure my stu­dents can ful­ly engage with the con­tent.

One of the key points he raised was that there are two moti­va­tions for acces­si­bil­i­ty. The first is a self­less one, the belief that our sys­tems should accept peo­ple rather than expect­ing peo­ple to con­form to rigid sys­tems. The sec­ond is a self­ish one, the real­i­ty that abil­i­ty is tem­po­rary. At some point, we will all expe­ri­ence an acces­si­bil­i­ty need, whether due to aging, injury, or oth­er cir­cum­stances. This per­spec­tive struck a chord with me, espe­cial­ly as I have been strug­gling with some hear­ing dif­fi­cul­ties myself. I have come to appre­ci­ate the avail­abil­i­ty of tran­scripts along­side videos, as they allow me to read along while lis­ten­ing. It is a sim­ple addi­tion that makes a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence.

Char­lie also dis­cussed the major cat­e­gories of assis­tive tech­nol­o­gy, which include mobil­i­ty aids like pros­thet­ics and wheel­chairs, hear­ing aids and cochlear implants, vision tools such as screen read­ers and braille dis­plays, read­ing and writ­ing sup­ports like text to speech and alter­na­tive key­boards, and speech gen­er­at­ing devices. These tech­nolo­gies help stu­dents over­come bar­ri­ers, but they also require that dig­i­tal con­tent be designed with acces­si­bil­i­ty in mind.

A key frame­work he intro­duced was POUR, which stands for per­ceiv­able, oper­a­ble, under­stand­able, and robust. These four prin­ci­ples serve as a guide for mak­ing con­tent acces­si­ble to all stu­dents, includ­ing those who rely on assis­tive tech­nol­o­gy. Think­ing about my own dig­i­tal resources, I real­ize there are areas where I can improve.

Per­ceiv­abil­i­ty is about ensur­ing that all stu­dents can per­ceive the con­tent in a way that works for them. I need to be more inten­tion­al about adding alter­na­tive text for images, graphs, and tables, ensur­ing prop­er for­mat­ting for head­ings and tables, and includ­ing cap­tions and tran­scripts for audio and video. I also need to make sure that key fea­tures in dia­grams are promi­nent so that they are easy to inter­pret.

Oper­abil­i­ty ensures that stu­dents can inter­act with my con­tent in mul­ti­ple ways. For exam­ple, I need to con­sid­er key­board nav­i­ga­tion, mak­ing sure stu­dents who can­not use a mouse can still access mate­ri­als. But­tons and inter­ac­tive ele­ments should be large and easy to click so they work for all stu­dents, includ­ing those using mobil­i­ty aids.

Under­stand­abil­i­ty is some­thing I have always val­ued, but I can do more. Main­tain­ing a con­sis­tent read­ing lev­el, pro­vid­ing sum­maries for longer con­tent, and using a clear and pre­dictable for­mat will help stu­dents process infor­ma­tion more effec­tive­ly. This is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for Eng­lish lan­guage learn­ers and stu­dents with cog­ni­tive pro­cess­ing chal­lenges.

Robust­ness means ensur­ing that con­tent works well across dif­fer­ent devices and assis­tive tech­nolo­gies. I want to make sure that stu­dents can revis­it con­tent, replay expla­na­tions, and use tools that sup­port their indi­vid­ual needs. Google Class­room pro­vides options to reat­tempt quizzes and revis­it past lessons, and I want to ensure that these fea­tures are avail­able to all stu­dents.

After reflect­ing on all of this, I real­ize that acces­si­bil­i­ty is not just about meet­ing require­ments, it is about cre­at­ing an inclu­sive learn­ing envi­ron­ment where all stu­dents can thrive. I have already made some adjust­ments to my mate­ri­als, and I plan to con­tin­ue improv­ing how I design my dig­i­tal resources. Acces­si­bil­i­ty ben­e­fits every­one, and the effort to make con­tent more inclu­sive is always worth­while.