Submission Type
Poster
Abstract
Everyone can support accessibility including little things that you can change or add to your everyday routine that may make a huge impact for others. This project aims to share accessibility tools for use in the classroom to address different forms of ableism and how to combat them. Faculty adoption of “best practices” for accessibility vary to a wide degree at Geneseo. How can social norms about accessible pedagogical practices become more widespread? We apply ideas from scholarship on the role of social networks to the practical problem of spreading norms aimed at improving classroom accessibility. The structure of a social network affects the spread of behavior because network ties are the pathways through which behavioral norms propagate. Research on “complex contagions” has concluded that a small number of “seeds” (initiators of a new behavior) can trigger a cascading adoption of a new norm when they are transmitted through multiple independent interactions. We developed and, at the Diversity Summit, pilot tested the introduction of new educational materials about an easy-to-use tool (closed captioning) meant to address a common accessibility issue faced by students in the classroom. We review and consider the effectiveness of this type of network propagation strategy for encouraging behavioral norms meant to improve accessibility, and introduce several additional future directions for spreading information about accessibility through Geneseo’s social network.
Recommended Citation
Anzalone, Kaitlin, "165-Accessibility is for Everyone" (2024). GREAT Day Posters. 42.
https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/great-day-symposium/great-day-2024/posters-2024/42
165-Accessibility is for Everyone
Everyone can support accessibility including little things that you can change or add to your everyday routine that may make a huge impact for others. This project aims to share accessibility tools for use in the classroom to address different forms of ableism and how to combat them. Faculty adoption of “best practices” for accessibility vary to a wide degree at Geneseo. How can social norms about accessible pedagogical practices become more widespread? We apply ideas from scholarship on the role of social networks to the practical problem of spreading norms aimed at improving classroom accessibility. The structure of a social network affects the spread of behavior because network ties are the pathways through which behavioral norms propagate. Research on “complex contagions” has concluded that a small number of “seeds” (initiators of a new behavior) can trigger a cascading adoption of a new norm when they are transmitted through multiple independent interactions. We developed and, at the Diversity Summit, pilot tested the introduction of new educational materials about an easy-to-use tool (closed captioning) meant to address a common accessibility issue faced by students in the classroom. We review and consider the effectiveness of this type of network propagation strategy for encouraging behavioral norms meant to improve accessibility, and introduce several additional future directions for spreading information about accessibility through Geneseo’s social network.