This is the second in a (hopefully) three part series on the social model of disability in learning. Part one introduces the social model of disability. Part three is still mostly in my head and details how using the social model of disability has improved my training and learning design.
Fundamentally, the social model of disability states that barriers for disabled people are caused by society and the environment. Their impairment or condition in itself is not a barrier. Fixing the barriers makes things better for everybody, especially disabled people.
When applying the social model to learning, there are two things we want to do:
- Stop putting barriers in your learning.
- Give people choices.
Stop putting barriers up
For real though. The first thing you want to do is to identify what the barriers actually are. Using personas is a good way to do this, but so is actually talking to your users. Don’t forget to include accessibility points though. Remind me to write a post on common barriers for learners.
Let’s explore the challenge of taking notes and actively listening at the same time. Sound familiar? This could be a problem for you if:
🌍 You’re a non-native speaker.
🧠 You’re neurodivergent.
🌊 Your concentration wavers at points.
✍️ Writing takes longer.
🎯 You want to focus your attention on what is being said rather than what you’re writing
🙂 You’re really interested in what’s being said
Or many other reasons.
You notice here how we aren’t blaming the individual. It’s not about how a diagnosis or impairment creates a problem. Barriers can be down to practicalities and personal preferences as well as disabilities.
So if we’ve identified the barrier, what can be done about it?
You could provide material in advance of a live event, typically slides. You could provide a recording of the event, which is so easily done on Zoom or Teams (do be careful to get consent though). You could and indeed should be providing regular breaks in live events. In asynchronous (at your own pace) content, encourage breaks and points for reflection. And you could reinforce your key points to land.
Some of this is so easy with very little time or effort needed from you, but it could make a huge difference to a lot of people.
Give people choices
In marketing, you use different ways to reach users, Twitter, LinkedIn, community groups, newsletters, ads, blogs…
Why should learning be any different?
Take video. Learning people love videos.
If you’re using video, the narrative and visual content has to match up so users only accessing one or the other can still understand. You should provide a video with a narrative as well as an image where possible. You should include captions and a downloadable transcript. This is essential for deaf/hard of hearing people but also beneficial for people with poor bandwidth. People accessing your content on the train to work. People accessing it quietly so as not to disturb anyone else in the area. Non-native speakers. People who don’t have the patience for videos and would prefer to just read the transcript. Anyone trying to find that quotable golden nugget from halfway through.
Everyone can benefit from learning designers using the social model of disability. Which leads us nicely to…
Introducing Universal Design for Learning
The Universal Design for Learning is about removing barriers for learners by providing different options, or “multiple means” to use their language. It’s a set of guidelines to adopt to make your learning design as accessible as it can be.
Somewhat ironically, the guidelines themselves can be challenging to access for the first time, so you might want to consider watching the video instead.
