Multimodality as Accessibility

Disability studies provide us with a framework to understand accessibility within educational contexts and the role of multimodal accommodations in creating equitable spaces (Evans et al., 2017). Accessibility often centers individual accommodations to support students with different ability statuses; namely, students with disabilities. However, the onus to be adaptable and acquire accommodations regularly falls on individual students and fails to critique the environment which creates the conditions that require accommodations. The capaciousness of multimodality diverts the responsibility to the educational system to provide multiple modalities including text, visual, audio, and sensory within learning environments and in the development of physical and online spaces. The presence of multiple modalities, despite differing needs by ability status, would create a structure that leads to increased student agency and the opportunity of different perspectives and interpretations within educational spaces.

Universal design is “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design” (Connell et al., 1997, para. 7). The seven principles of design include equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive use, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, and size and space for approach and use. A critical approach requires recognition of both environmental conditions that create inaccessible educational spaces and internal beliefs and attitudes that exclude and demean marginalized students. Evans et al. (2017) provide three principles for universal design grounded in social justice:

Building off Evans et al. (2017) principles, we hope to expand the understanding of universal design to benefit all students despite ability status through a critical lens. Through expanding on the seven principles of universal design, we will provide a critical multimodal view of each principle that expands the capacity for universal design to be applied in theory, research, and practice.

The goals of this chapter are to (a) describe current research on accessibility and universal design in educational spaces; (b) describe of role of multimodality as accessibility; (c) provide a critical lens of universal design and apply the seven principles of universal design to theory, research, and practice; and (d) outline examples of modalities that can be applied in theory, research, and practice through an accessible lens.