This post is the fourth installment in a series on how to implement the principles of critical pedagogy with digital tools. For more information, please see previous installments in this series. The author wishes to thank instructional designers Michael Hernandez and Joe Olivier, Digital Pedagogy Fellow Kinley LaBerge, and Pat Kogos and Emily Baker of the Center for Digital Accessibility for their valuable suggestions and comments.
We are all different, and these differences can include the way in which our brains function and process information. In this post, we will explore how you can design your course materials, including your Canvas site, in a way that takes into account the needs of neurodivergent individuals.
Neurodivergence and Neurodiversity: The Fundamentals
The term “neurodivergent” refers to the approximately 15-20% of the population whose brain functions in different ways from so-called “neurotypical” individuals. These differences in brain function can manifest in various ways, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, or other cognitive and learning differences. “Neurodiversity,” meanwhile, is an umbrella term, coined in the 1990s by Australian sociologist Judy Singer to portray differences in brain function as a source of strength, not a “flaw” in need of fixing. As noted by Nicole Baumer and Julia Frueh in their column for Harvard Medical School, “Neurodiversity describes the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways; there is no one ‘right’ way of thinking, learning, and behaving, and differences are not viewed as deficits.”
Designing course materials for neurodivergent individuals presents special challenges. Not only does neurodivergence describe a wide range of conditions and behaviors, but it can often be “invisible”–it is harder to recognize an individual with ADHD than one with, for example, a physical disability such as mobility impairments. Nor is there any guarantee that a neurodivergent individual will explicitly request a disability accommodation for your course. Yet these challenges should not be an excuse to avoid the issue. As we shall see below, there are several concrete steps you can take to make your course materials more accessible for individuals across the neurodivergence spectrum–and, indeed, for your class as a whole.
Why Design for Neurodivergent Individuals?
As we have discussed in previous installments of this series, universal design for learning (UDL) entails taking into account as wide a range of individuals as possible when crafting course materials and pedagogical approaches. Given the considerable number of neurodivergent individuals within the broader population, it is obviously of great importance to consider their needs.
But there is more to the story than this. By bringing neurodivergent individuals fully into your classroom community, you are tapping a group of people with unique strengths. The atypical brain function of these individuals can allow them to see the world in different ways and to solve problems in a fashion that neurotypical individuals might not. For example, autism is sometimes associated with a heightened ability to focus on, gather, and retain information in specific subject areas.
Increasingly, corporations are recognizing that they stand to gain by extending their diversity initiatives to include neurodivergent individuals. Both Deloitte Insights and Harvard Business Review have pointed to the potential benefits from hiring these individuals, as well as the importance of recognizing their uniqueness and not turning them away simply because they do not fit the “usual” candidate profile.
As a faculty member or instructor, you too can promote diversity by reaching out to neurodivergent individuals. If you implement some or all of the steps below, you can help these individuals to feel welcomed, and you can lower the barriers that might otherwise prevent them from achieving their full potential.
Compose Accessible Text
Whatever your subject matter, text is likely to be the bedrock of your course materials. Here are some simple ways to maximize accessibility for neurodivergent individuals when composing text.
- Ensure your text is readable. Text should be no smaller than ten pixels, and your students should be able to scale the page they are viewing up to 200-300% without loss of readability.
- Choose fonts thoughtfully. Research on the best fonts for neurodivergent individuals suggests that sans serif fonts are easier to read and focus on than serif fonts. While the range of fonts in Canvas itself is currently limited, the Rich Content Editor does offer Arial, a frequently used sans serif typeface, and you might consider using it when posting your syllabus, writing assignment instructions, crafting Canvas Pages, and so forth.
- Keep your text comprehensible. Try to minimize jargon, and make sure that you give explanations of technical terms. Also remember that some users may have difficulty with idioms and figures of speech.
- Keep paragraphs short. This helps individuals with cognitive disabilities or ADHD to focus.
- Be sparing in your use of boldface and italics. Long passages of italics, in particular, can be distracting and difficult to follow. If you have an extended quotation within your text, it is better to indent it and set it off with white space than to italicize it. Also remember that underlining should only be used for hyperlinks.
- Encourage the use of Immersive Reader. Microsoft Immersive Reader is directly integrated into Canvas. Encourage your students to use it to help them focus on a sentence at a time, hear unfamiliar words pronounced, dictate text, etc.
Use Accessible Images
As with text, so with images, you can optimize accessibility by making thoughtful choices.
- Supply appropriate alternative text. You should furnish all images with alternative text (“alt text”) that clearly describes its content and function within your content. Not only is this vital for screen reader users, but some neurodivergent users may wish to turn off images and rely solely on text in order to follow your content more easily. For more help, please see the Center for Digital Accessibility’s video on creating meaningful alt text.
- Limit text within images themselves. Text within images cannot be parsed by screen readers. Consider instead placing text vital to understanding an image outside of that image.
- Use GIFs and other moving images sparingly. GIFs can be visually distracting, and they may interrupt a user’s flow as they read your content. Additionally, rapidly flashing images can trigger headaches and seizures in photosensitive or epileptic individuals and should be avoided.
- Limit bright colors. Neurodivergent individuals may find a subdued, soothing color palette to be more pleasant and less distracting than bright, gaudy colors. Also remember that color should never be your sole means of distinguishing icons.
- Make use of white space. Setting off images and blocks of text with white space can help neurodivergent individuals to focus.
To see some of these design ideas in action, check out William Careri’s article on Designing for Neurodivergent Audiences.
Make Your Videos Accessible
As faculty and instructors rely ever more heavily on videos to convey information, it is all the more important that you maximize the accessibility of your videos for neurodivergent individuals and others. The following steps can contribute to this goal.
- Caption your videos. Captions are vital, not only for individuals with hearing impairments, but for a wide spectrum of users who may rely on them to follow what is being communicated. Panopto, the University’s video management system, supports both automatic and manual captions.
- Signpost important information. Visual cues, or verbal indications (e.g. “I am now moving on from X to Y”), help all students, whether neurodivergent or neurotypical, to better follow the flow of your lecture.
- Ensure that your students know how to adjust playback speed. When your students view a video in Panopto, they can adjust how quickly or slowly the video plays. Neurodivergent individuals, as well as others in your course (e.g. those for whom English is an additional language), may find it helpful to slow down a video in order to absorb its information more fully.
Panopto has recently updated its software to enhance accessibility. To find out more about these enhancements, please see our blog post on Panopto accessibility updates.
Structure Your Site for Ease of Navigation
When building your Canvas site as a whole, you can streamline navigation and support ease of use by following these steps.
- Design for consistency. The simpler and more predictable your design elements are, the more helpful it will be for your students. For example, if you are using Canvas Pages, you might make sure that images and text are in the same alignment on each page, so that students clicking through can follow the flow of information readily.
- Name your links descriptively. Generic names such as “Read more” or “Click here” are unhelpful to the many users, including neurodivergent individuals, who rely on screen readers, and they can also confuse individuals with cognitive disabilities. Instead, make it clear in the link text where the link will lead (e.g. “Go to Smith Article on the American Revolution”).
- Leave “bread crumbs”. Canvas allows you to create links to other content items within your site. By adding internal links such as “Back to Home Page” or “Go to Course Modules,” you can make it easier for all students to find their way around your site.
For an excellent summary of good Canvas course design practices, which, if implemented, will help all your students to find their way around your site more easily, see Tessa Webb’s post on optimizing your Canvas course structure for ease of navigation.
Conclusion
You may have noticed that many of the principles outlined above benefit all students, whether neurodivergent or neurotypical. This is the essence of universal design for learning: taking the needs of everyone, not just the “ideal student,” into consideration. If you adhere to the principles of UDL, you can enhance the learning experience for all your students and ensure that the classroom is a welcoming and vibrant environment.
Further Resources and Getting Help
- Digital Accessibility and Neurodiversity (WCAG)
- Evaluating Cognitive Web Accessibility (WebAIM)
- Web Design for Neurodiversity (Wix)
For general questions on accessibility, you are invited to contact the Center for Digital Accessibility. You can also drop by ATS’ hybrid office hours or book a consultation with an instructional designer.
(Splash Image by Khanh Trinh from Pixabay)
