Weekly Reflection 7 – Accessibility

This past week, we had the opportunity to listen to Tracy Humphreys speak about the opportunities that BCEdAccess gives to students. It was very informational being able to hear the different aspects of creating an inclusive space for students of all needs. At the beginning of the presentation, Tracy handed out different coloured sticky notes to each of us. She then proceeded to ask the students with certain coloured sticky notes to leave the class, since she wouldn’t have the resources or ability to present to all of us. She used this as an example of what happens in real world classrooms where some teachers either aren’t able to, or don’t have to resources to teach students with IEP’s. During the presentation, and the class afterwards, there were three main things I thought of or learned.

First off, Tracy gave a great explanation about what BCEdAccess can do for students, teachers, and families supporting someone with disabilities or complex learning all throughout British Columbia. The group’s goal is to be able to support people in order to allow students with complex needs and learning to succeed and reach their full potential in the BC school system. They have resources for many people, and also do presentations and conferences all over the province. Another thing they work towards to being in communication with many different politics in order to implement better regulations for the community regarding complex learners. I was looking at the BCEdAccess page, and it has a lot of letters of advocacy linked for viewing, so if you would like to take a lot at it I have linked it here: https://bcedaccess.com/letters-of-advocacy/

Secondly, I learned about how important having and using IEP’s are, and other resources to identify how to assist students in the best way possible for them. IEP’s are Individualized Education Plans, which are essentially files that indicate certain needs or information for a few students within a class. This can be a range of things from use of manipulatives, to relationships with other students, and more. Every one of our teachers have said that use of IEP’s are super important within a classroom, and in order to get the best experience of learnings for our learners. However, they also have stated how sometimes an IEP can have very minimal information for a variety of reasons. Another key way of understanding how you can assist a student in their learning is by simply asking them. A key phrase I think I love is “How can I help you have success in today’s learning?”, I think this allows an open space for students to explain their thoughts and best practices. Overall, it is key to give the student options in how they learn, and how they can have success in a classroom.

Finally, we discussed how important little things to us, like adding alternate text in our blogs, can make a huge difference in someone else’s life. People who are visually impaired can use devices and tools in order to get websites read to them, which can be very beneficially in their lives. However, without proper image alternate text, they are usually unable to know what images on a screen are indicating. It takes less than two minutes for us to be able to write up text on an image that’ll portray it correctly, but it could make our blogs and websites much more accessible to those who are visually unable to understand the image.

The community of BCEdAccess is such important in regulating the needs of students with disabilities, complex learners, and their families. This group is a huge support for people all over BC, and I am so blessed to be able to hear about all the good they are doing.