Why everyone benefits from accessible teaching
STEP 1: THE DEMAND FOR ACCESSIBILITY
Accessibility is an important issue - also in a digital world.
As early as 2016, the European Union decided
that in all public institutions,
- including the universities of the EU member states -
Requirements for accessibility should be implemented.
In short, it is a matter of ensuring that all digital courses
at university are accessible without outside help.
Accessibility in digital teaching is initially aimed at people with disabilities.
11% of students in Germany have a health impairment that affects their ability to study.
That's about 300,000 people.
These include, but are not limited to, impaired hearing or vision,
Speech impairments, chronic somatic diseases such as
allergies, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy or rheumatism
Mobility impairments and mental illnesses.
There are also students with color vision deficiency or color blindness.
Around 9% of the population are affected.
Only for a few students is their impairment immediately recognizable.
In many cases, accessibility is also important for older people.
At German universities, almost half of the 40,000 guest auditors
are 60 years or older - and the trend is rising.
These figures make it likely that every university lecturer
will sooner or later teach students with disabilities.
STEP 2: WHAT DOES ACCESSIBLE DIGITAL CONTENT INCLUDE?
Digital content such as the university website,
online courses, videos, presentations and text documents
should be prepared and made available in such a way that they
can be used independently even with a handicap.
Specifically, this means providing videos with subtitles,
writing down or verbalizing audio and image material
or to provide texts, video recordings and minutes of web seminars and lectures
in an accessible form.
This enables students to prepare for class
or to rework any missed content
- for example on the Moodle platform.
An example to clarify:
When designing graphs, work with levels of brightness instead of color variations.
In particular, avoid red-green contrasts,
as these cannot be easily recognized by people with color vision deficiency.
To illustrate how the eyesight differs:
People with normal eyesight recognize a 47,
People with red-green color blindness a 17
and people with color blindness cannot perceive a number at all.
In addition to clear guidelines for accessible digital teaching, it is also
important to show the willingness to respond to the individual needs of the students.
STEP 3: EVERYONE BENEFITS FROM ACCESSIBLE TEACHING
Accessible digital teaching is essential for people with disabilities.
But it's also helpful for people who cannot concentrate well,
or who were temporarily unable to attend due to illness,
for senior students and for students
whose mother tongue is not German.
Subtitles for videos are handy for both non-native speakers
as well as for mobile use without headphones.
Teaching material with a clear layout, a well-structured course
and an organized discussion are also helpful for everyone.
Making your own teaching accessible and inclusive
is not just about showing solidarity,
but offers a high level of user-friendliness for all students
- and thus improves and professionalizes teaching as a whole.
When preparing your next courses, make sure that they are
accessible and offer students with disabilities to contact you
with their individual needs as early as possible.
And don't worry:
If the students have further requirements,
you may contact the representative for students with disabilities
of the University of Potsdam.
In case of technical difficulties, contact the Zentrum für Informationstechnologie und Medienmanagement.