Document Your Commitments and Contributions to Accessible Teaching

Your review of this resource and actions to enhance accessibility in teaching and learning are accomplishments that can be documented in your Teaching Dossier and annual record of activities. The below chart offers some ideas on how you might do this for various sections of your Dossier.

Teaching Philosophy
Teaching Development Include a summary of actions you have taken to further develop your accessible teaching skills and practices, such as:

  • Reviewing the FLEX Forward resource;
  • Participating in additional learning opportunities as described above; or
  • Identifying your future teaching goals.
Course Development and Innovations List, describe, and/or include copies of some of the following:

  • Course materials you have developed to enhance accessibility;
  • Lesson plans or activities you have designed to incorporate explicit content on accessibility and inclusion; or
  • Innovative assignments or course management processes you have put in place to reduce barriers.
Teaching Scholarship Demonstrate your scholarly approach to teaching, by:

  • Including evidence of how the scholarship on accessibility in teaching and learning, Universal Design, Constructive Alignment, and/or equity and inclusion in the classroom have been integrated into your teaching practice;
  • Conducting pedagogical research involving accessibility in teaching and learning; or
  • Applying for teaching-related grants to support your experimentation and innovation with new teaching and learning practices, including those related to accessibility and inclusion.
Service Related to Teaching Outline how you serve your department, faculty, or institution on matters relating to accessible teaching, such as:

  • Promoting Accessible Education and awareness of the FLEX Forward resource in your department;
  • Ensuring accessibility gets taken up in any departmental quality assurance or accreditation reviews;
  • Acting as a consultant/mentor to colleagues, graduate students, and TAs who are introducing accessibility into their teaching; or
  • Chairing a departmental committee where students can bring forward concerns and ideas related to the accessibility of their courses.

Including an Accessibility Statement in your Syllabus

When you’ve found language for articulating your commitments to Accessible Education, we’d encourage you to translate this back to students. One way to do this is to develop or revise an accessibility statement for your syllabus. Although not yet mandatory at McMaster, the inclusion of an accessibility statement on your syllabus is a strongly recommended practice that has been adopted by many instructors leading the way in Accessible Education.

By including such a statement on your own course outline, preferably closer to the top of the syllabus, you signal to your students that you are aware of accessibility concerns in the classroom, are proactively working to address them, and welcome students to discuss their learning needs with you (Wood & Madden, 2016).

Review Appendix C for sample accessibility statements.

License

Forward with FLEXibility Copyright © 2017 by McMaster University. All Rights Reserved.

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