Stories of Inclusive Technology
Video Series
Stories of Inclusive Technology: Diversity, Accessibility & Universal Design (© CSU 2018) is a 7-video series produced by the Assistive Technology Resource Center.
These videos address the need to make electronic content inclusive and usable for all users, including students who use assistive technology, students without disabilities who access content in alternative ways, and instructors who discover that inclusively designed documents are more useful as well as easier to build and update.
The series focuses on showing the wide variety of assistive technology available in higher education and the positive impact that assistive technology has on students, faculty, and staff in their daily activities. It also highlights challenges that arise when content is not accessible. The videos utilize first-person storytelling to explain the personal impact of these concepts that can sometimes be difficult to understand.
In each video, speakers tell their stories, recounting their experiences living with disabilities, using assistive technology, and building inclusive design solutions.
Audio described versions are available and linked after each video (external links).
Inclusion, Diversity & Disability
Inclusion, Diversity & Disability – Audio Described
In this video, disability is understood as a facet of campus diversity, and accessibility as an essential component of inclusion. Students, faculty, and staff describe their learning preferences and use of a variety of technologies. For a community to be inclusive, it must create physical and electronic environments that welcome everyone, including those with disabilities.
Legislation & Disability Rights
Legislation & Disability Rights – Audio Described
This video discusses the laws that apply to electronic accessibility. It highlights not only the legal obligation to create inclusive electronic content, but also the need from a social justice standpoint. Inclusive design reduces the need to retrofit, a lesson we can learn from the built environment.
Tech for Reading
Tech for Reading – Audio Described
Students share stories of inclusion and exclusion when accessing their reading materials, including PDF and Word documents. Their stories demonstrate the benefits of inclusive design, such as listening to audio in a variety of situations, interacting with text using technology tools, and searching documents. Faculty also describe the benefits to themselves of creating inclusive documents.
Tech for Writing
Tech for Writing – Audio Described
Students, faculty, and staff explain challenges they face with electronic communication. They describe tools that support their participation in a variety of writing tasks. Technology examples include voice recognition, mind mapping, word prediction, text to speech for editing, and more.
Tech in the Classroom
Tech in the Classroom – Audio Described
Students share stories of inclusion and exclusion in the classroom, describing the note-taking and study tools that support their engagement. Faculty share stories of creating inclusive classroom environments that welcome all types of learners and a variety of technologies.
Inclusive Web
Inclusive Web – Audio Described
Students share stories of navigating the web using a range of technologies, including screen readers, speech recognition, magnification, and mobile devices. The video features their stories of inclusion and exclusion, and highlights several components of inclusive web design that are addressed in the WCAG guidelines.
Inclusive Video
Inclusive Video – Audio Described
This video focuses on the benefits of captioning and audio description for students with and without disabilities. For example, a deaf student describes feeling excluded when uncaptioned videos are played in class, a visually impaired student explains how much he gains from audio descriptions, and international students describe how captions enhance their English language comprehension.