Week 6: Assistive Technology and Equity, Accesible Learning Classwork.

This week was dedicated to accessibility and being conscious of our diverse audience needs, specifically with our personal blog posts. The photos and videos above are included as they were practice on using accessibility tools. For example, the first photo includes alternitive text, and the video has subtitles for people who may be hard of hearing. Often times though, there are digital accessibility practices that are often missed or forgotten, even in my own practice. Things such as Alt text for images is often included, but not in a meaningful way. The text should be not only describing the literal image, but explaining its relevance and importance as well so all audience members can understand. Secondly, colour contrast. This was a learning curve for me as I had to make changes to my own blog. I had never thought of how colours that are similar make things more difficult to read, especially for the visually impaired, until I saw my own blog. In my case, I had too many vertical lines and pale colours which interfered with my work, but I made a change in hopes of being more accessible to all. There are several reasons that these practices are not very well-known. To list a few, there is a lack of education regarding accessibility. Many educators and creators were not trained to keep accessibility in mind, and it is not included in elementary or secondary curriculum. Especially in todays day in age, there is a keen interest in aesthetics over accessibility, and a misconception that it is complex. With the proper education and training though, we can see that this is not true. This is where I have had the majority of my learning this week, and I am excited to continue to learn about accessibility going forward!