Feeling Music: Developing Student Informed Practices for Music Accessibility
taught by: Daniel Bernardo
Session Summary
The following session covers experiences and strategies developed while working with UNT’s college of music, and developed in collaboration with students with accessibility needs. Learn how we combined existing accessibility technology, subject-specific software, and most importantly the feedback from students in need to help tackle accessibility issues in a notoriously difficult subject!
Description
The growing demand for diverse online courses means institutions must ensure a wide array of courses in many subject areas are accessible, often these subjects present unique accessibility barriers. To meet these needs, you need development process informed by the experience of both accessibility professionals and the students they serve. This session explores a multi-year process with instructors at the University of North Texas College of Music to improve the accessibility of online musicology courses. Learn how we developed accessibility strategies informed by key subject learning goals, applied accessibility and subject-specific technology, and informed our process from student and instructor feedback. Maintaining a strong communication between subject expert, accessibility expert, and the students we serve strengthens the accessibility of otherwise famously difficult subjects. Take these strategies to your own institutions to help support faculty and students of all subjects.
Practical Skills
- Identify common accessibility barriers encountered by students in online/digital courses and how those may differ between course subjects (e.g. math vs music).
- Identify common pieces of assistive technology/hardware for students with accessibility needs and what strengths/weaknesses may be present based on the subject in context.
- Identify at least two common strategies faculty and staff can use to develop accessible materials for students.