I think that assistive technologies are essential for creating equitable and inclusive classroom spaces! These technologies can help dismantle obstacles to learning and can help students engage with content in ways that suit their individual strengths. I really appreciated Nicole Crozierās quote: āDesigning for accessibility is not extra work. It is the work.ā This quote really pushed me to reflect on where I might be falling short in creating accessible media. This is essentially my first time creating self-guided media, and I realize that many aspects of accessibility have escaped my notice. This class has been a great opportunity for me to learn how I can do better moving forward.
One area of digital accessibility where Iāve fallen short is the visual aspect. I often forget that not everyone perceives color in the same way, and Iāve noticed that my website has many muted, pastel colors that might be hard for some people to see. I also forget to take image contrast into account and recognize that I haven’t been utilizing alt text for my photos!
Two small mushrooms with brown and tan caps grow in vibrant green moss covered in dew. I took this photo during a hike in Strathcona Park, B.C., on Sunday.
Videos are another area where I have failed to make my content accessible. In Topic 3, I experimented with screen capturing and editing to make an interactive video. Looking back, I realize that I didnāt include closed captions, which isnāt accessible for those who are hearing impaired. I wanted to learn how to add captions, so I took a snippet from my first H5P video and tried out YouTubeās automated captioning tool. You can find the first 30 seconds of my revised video here: https://youtu.be/i_SmMivGv8w. While I found YouTubeās automated captions to be mostly accurate, I still needed to correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. I think itās important to note that in my video, I talk about the Coast Salish Indigenous dialect SENÄOŦEN, and the AI absolutely butchered its spelling! This serves as a reminder to go through and fix any mistakes like this as Iām sure that they could be hurtful, especially if presented publicly.
Iām trying really hard to improve and moving forward, I will be more mindful to create accessible media.