1st SCALED Conference – Abstracts

Inclusion and accessibility in language education

Joanna Nijakowska – UW

In this talk, I will focus on what constitutes sustainable, accessible, inclusive language learning and teaching practices with diverse foreign language learners, including students with special educational needs. I will refer to the three-tiered approach to accessibility, the principles of inclusive teaching and Universal Design for Learning as well as to accommodations – defined as instructional and assessment practices and procedures that support student’s learning and facilitate equitable and meaningful access to academic content and assessment contexts.

Making higher education accessible to students with special needs: Practical strategies

Veerle Garrels – OM

If you are teaching in higher education, you will most likely meet students with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), specific learning disorders, or mental health disorders during your career. These students may benefit from special accommodations to improve their learning outcomes. Yet, many teachers feel uncertain about how they can adapt their teaching to students with special needs. During this lecture, you will get insight in some of the common challenges that students with special needs encounter, and you will learn some practical strategies to make your educational practice accessible to a diverse student population.

Inclusive and accessible  assessment practices

Dina Tsagari and Therese Tishakov – OM

This workshop will discuss the practical considerations involved in assessing SLLs with SpLDs and other disabilities and will offer hands-on-practice experience on designing assessment accommodations employed in both high-stakes standardized tests and classroom-based. The chapter concludes with drawing parallels with assessment accommodations made also within multilingual contexts and makes suggestions for further practice and research.

Meeting the diverse needs of language learners: Universal design and increasing accessibility

Agnieszka Kałdonek-Crnjaković, Agnieszka Bysko and Sara Sader – UW

In this workshop, we will present ways of meeting students’ needs by means of differentiation or diversification and universal design. Practical examples and good practices will include accessible materials and accessible sharing regarding format, content, approaches, and assessment.

Creating accessible academic environment: challenges and good practices

Ewa Guz – UW

The goal of the lecture is to provide an overview of the resources and provisions that are currently in place at the University of Warsaw to assist students with special educational needs. Taking on a legal and didactic perspective, the talk follows the learning trajectories of individual SPE students at the Centre of Foreign Language Teacher Training and European Education paying particular attention to the academic difficulties they experience and the forms of support the university offers. Benefits and challenges of the current state of affairs are identified and suggestions as for possible improvements are made.

Governance to enhance inclusive education

Hege Knudsmoen – OM

The concept of governance to enhance inclusive education is unclear in the research literature in Europe. However, there are governing functions on inclusive education in the school regulations in the curriculum for most European countries after the Salamanca declaration from 1994. Postcolonial and neoliberal critiques of the concept of inclusive education as such normative regulations influence the research knowledge production of the (in)exclusion of some children under mainstream education as political governance or governmentality.

Making your digital learning materials accessible and usable

Norun Sanderson – OM

As teachers, we are responsible for making sure our digital learning materials are accessible and usable for all our students, independent of functional variations. In our everyday work, most of us make our own digital learning materials, such as digital documents and presentations. In this workshop, you will get some practical advice on how to make your digital learning materials universally designed. We will share knowledge and examples, and do some practical exercises.

Digital accessibility of e-learning courses on Moodle

Dorota Sidor – UW

During the workshop we will explore several topics regarding accessibility of online courses. First, we will reflect on relations between Digital Accessibility, Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning concepts that shape accessibility of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Next, we will discuss Moodle LMS conformance to accessibility guidelines and the role of course designer and / or teacher responsibility for accessibility of digital content. We will also talk about interface awareness as a key factor in designing accessible courses, especially online assessment.