Planning for Access

Inaccessible digital materials disrupt or delay access to learning opportunities. Secondary to the learning loss for students, compliance lawsuits can be costly for educational agencies. Often, when inaccessible curriculum or tools are used, extra staff time is spent bridging the divide with labor intensive accommodations, and complicated work arounds. Tools that are born accessible provide the most efficient, and cost effective, path to educate all children.

Administrative Policies that Foster Access

Prioritize accessibility in purchasing EdTech (see Buying for Inclusion
Require curricula (purchased or teacher-made) to meet accessibility best-practices such as WCAG 2.1 Guidelines
Provide staff development opportunities to update accessibility skills
Contingency plan for the multiple types of technology used by students with IEPs and 504 Plans
Identify sources of technical support for accessibility, in house or provided as a component of purchase agreements. Ensure support materials are available in relevant languages.
Prioritize assistive technology and general technology education for students with disabilities.
Survey student plans to monitor the master list of access technologies that must interface with curricula and EdTech.

Reducing the number of educational technologies implemented at any one grade level, and selecting for technologies that are fully accessible, is the fastest path to improved digital inclusion. Remember, families identified that more than half of the educational technologies students used were not fully accessible.

Maintaining the Vision Education Professions

“As a professional, COVID-19 has blurred the lines of work and personal life. It has been very easy to become overwhelmed with all of the online work, technology issues, and having to quickly teach student[s] new technology and programs that the district is trying to use that isn’t accessible. It has also made the job of an itinerant increasingly isolating with online learning.”— a teacher of students with visual impairments (TVI)

Administrators should set the tone for all staff when it comes to mental health.
- Encourage staff members to check in with each other.
- Make counseling available.
- Take time to acknowledge the stress most individuals are feeling.
Ensuring teams are working together to provide holistic support to students and families now and moving forward into delivering education post-pandemic.
Vision professionals and other educators need support from administrators to maintain a healthy work-home balance.
Listen to teacher feedback about what will allow them to maintain their productivity through the return to in-person, and reduce stress.
- Otherwise, professionals may burn out and leave the profession. Resources must be allocated.
Policymakers, administrators, and community service providers must work together to address food insecurity, housing insecurity, and/or employment insecurity experienced during the pandemic.
Allow continued remote work as appropriate. Use mitigation measures when in-person learning occurs.