• "Accessibility" is used here to indicate whether disabled students are able to access the same information and engage in the same learning experiences as their currently non-disabled peers (Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, 2013). It is also commonly used as a legal term (for example, in the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA), or to indicate standards for built environments (physical or digital).
   
• "Universal Design" here means both considering a wider range of people who will likely engage with what we are making as we design it (as opposed to relying exclusively on individual accommodations) and a particular approach called Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which offers a set of principles and approaches that can help us ensure all students are able to engage with the learning we are offering.
   
• "Inclusive" is one of the four standards of quality teaching at UO, and is "instruction designed to ensure every student can participate fully and that their presence and participation is valued" and that "the content of the course reflects the diversity of the field's practitioners and the questions and knowledge they bring." Learn more on the Introduction to Inclusive Teaching page.

In addition, we understand "disability" as a condition that "substantially limits one or more major life activities" (ADA), as situational (we may be disabled in one environment but not in another), and as an important part of diversity and identity. We use a mix of "identity-first" and "person first" language throughout these pages; learn more about disability and language on the APA's "Disability" webpage.

Many UO students have disabilities

We know that there is significant diversity and variability in students' identities, experiences, and abilities and disabilities--this is a collective strength, and we can proactively plan it in teaching. But to do that, it helps to know more about disability in the UO student body. For example, it might help to know that:

• 46.5% of first-year undergrads identify as having one or more disabilities (SWaSI, 2023)
• The majority of disabilities UO students have are non-apparent (i.e. not visible or easily perceptible)
• Most students with disabilities do not disclose on campus or seek accommodations (the number of disabled students at an institution will be significantly larger than the number registered with AEC)
• 14% of undergraduate students and 8% of graduate students at UO have accommodations through AEC

Accessibility-related barriers have significant negative impacts

At UO, in comparison with their non-disabled peers, disabled students:

• Experience equity gaps in academic success, such as lower rates of participation in "high impact" practices like study abroad and capstone projects (NSSE, 2022). Nationally we know there are gaps in outcomes like grades, degree attainment, and time to completion. As with other minoritized student groups, an important portion of this equity gap is attributed to a reduced sense of belonging, campus climate, and other barriers.
• Score less favorably in each of UO’s 11 constructs of wellbeing (SWaSI, 2021-2023)
• Are much less likely to feel valued by and like they are part of a community at UO (even though they express their own comfort with "being themselves" at similar rates as non-disabled students) (NSSE, 2022).

Removing barriers is possible and benefits us all

When we consider accessibility and universal design as part of inclusive teaching:

• We support success for all students, including those who have disabilities and/or are neurodivergent, English language learners, first generation students,and others.
• We save ourselves significant time. Redesigning or "retrofitting" almost always takes more time than considering it to begin with.
• We do it one action at a time, focusing on what we can do (instead of getting overwhelmed by it all at once or focusing on what we can't control).

Offered in 2023-2024:

• Participate in the Accessibility Ally Program! AEC’s Accessibility Ally program is an opportunity for interested faculty and staff to increase awareness related to disability and develop skills and knowledge to act as an ally for accessibility and inclusion of students with disabilities. While the full program has live components, the asynchronous modules are always available in MyTrack.

• Workshops for your unit: We continue to provide workshops to individual units, tailored to their needs and interests, and consult and collaborate with campus partners like AEC, Counseling Services, Digital Accessibility, and others to identify how we can best collectively meet instructor and students needs. Email tep@uoregon.edu for more information.

• Join recurrent groups that fit your needs and interests, such as:

  • Designing for Accessibility: Coffee & Co-working, third Tuesday of each month (recurrent through May 2024). This informal, supportive co-working session is for instructors and staff looking to expand accessibility in their courses and/or other work contexts!

  • Neurodivergent Instructors & Staff Affinity Group Meetings, first Tuesday of each month (recurrent through May 2024). This affinity-group is a space for neurodivergent instructors and staff (and those who hold identities within the umbrella of neurodivergence, like Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, bipolar, etc.) to connect in ways that feel positive, and to share resources, strategies, questions, and scholarship around things that matter to you.

Past workshops & materials:

Unless otherwise noted, all content from TEP workshops is is openly licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License; please use, share, adapt, etc. anything that fits your needs!

Past workshops listed usually include video, slides, and other documentation. You might notice that the digital accessibility of these items ranges (for example, some videos are carefully edited with chapters and accurate captions, and some are not yet). Offering these workshops was a part of our own collective learning processes; now that we know better, we can do better! We will continue to remediate inaccessible content. 

• Teaching Towards Access Reading Group (Winter 2022)
   
• Accessible and Inclusive Teaching Workshops (Spring 2022): ten workshops stemming from a variety of collaborations between AEC, UO Online, TEP, the Library, and scholars in the College of Education's School Psychology program.

• Accessible, Inclusive, & Universally Designed Winter Workshop Series (Winter 2023): five workshops from collaboration between TEP and several UO-affiliated scholars.