{"id":764,"date":"2017-09-20T22:57:49","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T22:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/opentextbooked2\/?post_type=chapter&p=764"},"modified":"2022-07-15T21:52:58","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T21:52:58","slug":"accessibility-and-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/selfpublishguide\/chapter\/accessibility-and-inclusion\/","title":{"raw":"Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion","rendered":"Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion"},"content":{"raw":"One of the basic premises of open education is access. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes:\r\n
...that universal access to high quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education as well as facilitate policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building.[footnote]\"Open Educational Resources,\" UNESCO<\/em>, http:\/\/www.unesco.org\/new\/en\/communication-and-information\/access-to-knowledge\/open-educational-resources\/ (accessed September 20, 2017).[\/footnote]<\/blockquote>\r\nAccess<\/strong> in this context refers to the ability for students, instructors, and others to obtain access to education. Releasing textbooks and other educational resources with open-copyright licences is a big step toward removing barriers, as it makes these materials free of cost and free to use, distribute, and change. But there is more that goes into accessing a resource than it just being free and online.\r\n\r\nFor a textbook to be truly accessible, people of all abilities need to be able to access the content. This means designing a textbook that accommodates people with diverse learning styles and ensuring the content can be accessed by all, regardless of disability. It also means creating materials that include diverse viewpoints and voices. As you plan your textbook, contemplate how to design it so it is accessible, diverse, and inclusive.\r\n

Read what your colleagues are saying about Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Open Education<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Accessibility<\/h2>\r\nAs an open textbook author and publisher, it's important to consider the social-justice side of open education. Listed below are some of the barriers students face during their education, as well as some solutions and examples.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Reducing Barriers to Access<\/caption>\r\n
Barrier Type<\/th>\r\nChallenge<\/th>\r\nSolution<\/th>\r\nExample<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Physical Impairments<\/th>\r\nLow vision or blindness<\/td>\r\nUse alternative text (alt-text) to describe an image's content or function that can be read by a screen reader.<\/td>\r\nAll images in Introduction to Psychology - 1st Canadian Edition<\/em><\/a> have alt-text.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Hearing impairment or deafness<\/td>\r\nAdd transcripts and captions to all audio content.<\/td>\r\nThe instructional videos<\/a> created for Concepts of Biology-1st Canadian Edition<\/em><\/a>\u00a0are all captioned.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Motor-skill impairment, immobility<\/td>\r\nProvide file formats that can be uploaded into a variety of mobile devices.<\/td>\r\nIntroduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC\u00a0<\/em><\/a> has a number of file types available.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Learning Disabilities<\/th>\r\nDifficulty absorbing information via reading or difficulty concentrating (ADHD)<\/td>\r\nAdd audio clips to printed text that student can listen to while reading along.<\/td>\r\nCommon Core Trade series<\/a> (23 books) has audio files that accompany the text content.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Language Comprehension<\/th>\r\nLow literacy: adult basic education (ABE) student or English language learners (ELL)<\/td>\r\nProvide a print copy with increased font size or provide formats that allow the font size to be adjusted.<\/td>\r\nThe PDF of BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English - Reader 1<\/em><\/a> uses large text.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Limitations of Time and Place<\/th>\r\nWorking, parenting, or live far from a college or university<\/td>\r\nProvide a version of the textbook that can be accessed from anywhere online.<\/td>\r\nAll books in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection<\/a> can be accessed online.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Unreliable or no access to the Internet<\/td>\r\nSet up a service that can supply a print-on-demand copy.<\/td>\r\nSee the print-on-demand option for Principles of Social Psychology - 1st International Edition.<\/em><\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n
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Refer to the BCcampus Open Education Accessibility Toolkit<\/a><\/em> for information on how to make sure you create an accessible textbook. (A French version<\/a> is also available.) There are a number of accessible textbooks in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection<\/a>. They are flaged as \"Accessible\" when they meet all requirements on the Accessibility Checklist<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

The National Center on Universal Design for Learning<\/a> also offers guidelines on how best to design educational resources so that students with a variety of learner styles benefit. You can also watch this video produced by the University of British Columbia: Open Dialogues: How to make open content accessible<\/a>.[footnote]https:\/\/youtu.be\/wXL5AmfFT_o<\/a>[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Diversity and inclusion<\/h2>\r\nIn the context of writing an open textbook, diversity means including a wide range of perspectives in your textbook. This can help ensure that more readers identify with and relate to the material. Some benefits are:\r\n