[Athen] [EXTERNAL *] Re: Slightly ranting

[Mark Weiler via athen-list]

I wonder if these resources might be helpful?

At the university library I worked at, we hired a blind grad student, Ashley Shaw, as a web accessibility advisor.  During this time, we talked about the exhausting barriers and endless advocacy in post-secondary. We eventually decided we want to try to help blind students/faculty and their sighted allies by creating an open education resource that describes some common barriers in university settings, with a focus on libraries.  Our hope is that people could point to chapters in the resource when they get tired of having to advocate alone.

To frame their content, each chapter tells the story a young blind child who is determined to become an astronaut. Their story is about reaching for the stars and co-creating space of belonging within the legacy of blind and sighted allies who came before them. Their journey takes them through university.  You’ll have to read it to see whether their dreams come true!

Here’s the reference, followed by chapter summaries.

Ashley Shaw & Mark Weiler (2024). The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and Higher Education: Lessons from a Blind Grad Student’s and a Sighted Librarian’s Journeys<https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/wcaghighered/>.  eCampus Ontario

Chapter 1<https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/wcaghighered/chapter/chapter-1/> introduces Ashley and myself and how our collaboration started.

Chapter 2<https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/wcaghighered/chapter/chapter-2-introduction-to-screen-readers/> describes screen readers, myths and facts, and the different ways blind people arrive at learning to use screen reader. Ashley gives a demonstration of JAWS. Recognizing that sighted people will lack listening skills and so will be confused by JAWS, the chapter also has my reflections on learning to use a screen reader as a sighted person. It includes a visualization of the JAWS aural interface for a webpage.  Many sighted people seem to like that.

In chapter 3<https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/wcaghighered/chapter/the-web-content-accessibility-guidelines/> we wanted to address people in post-secondary who think that conformance to WCAG means something is barrier free.  It briefly explains WCAG and includes a section on its limitations. Ashley gives another demonstration using JAWS to explain how that plays out on a webpage.   To show the limitation of WCAG, we recognize how it doesn’t tell people what types of content people may value. When Ashley worked with us, she advised us to create pages that describe accessing the library and what goes on it. This is the page about the exterior of the library and entering the building<https://library.wlu.ca/locations/waterloo/description-exterior-waterloo-campus-library>.

In chapter 4<https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/wcaghighered/chapter/other-accessibility-issues-in-academic-settings/>,  we focus on academic settings. We draw attention to blind advocacy within Canadian post-secondary settings, such as a 3-minute presentation<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3KVk1DPoI0> by Laura Bulk when she was a PhD student. We include other references to YouTube presentations given by blind Canadians reflecting on their post-secondary experiences. It also mentions real examples of creative collaboration between a blind Canadian grad student and a prof, such as using silly putty, magnets, and a cooking sheet in a statistics class. I then give a demonstration of creating a syllabus in Word document using headings. I show how it changes the reading experience with JAWS. Lastly, it describes other academic obstacles, some of which that might not get spoken about much, such as expecting a student to know their pedagogical needs in a subject domain they are only beginning to enter, getting page numbers for citations purposes, and dealing with reading material that isn’t proof-read with assistive technology.

Chapter 5<https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/wcaghighered/chapter/conclusion/> has concluding references.

There’s also a resources section<https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/wcaghighered/back-matter/appendix/>.

Oh, and we gave a webinar about it too<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dBXHf2kFPI>.

Cheers,

Mark

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman22.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Jane Berk via athen-list
Sent: January 8, 2026 11:38 AM
To: Deborah Armstrong <armstrongdeborah at fhda.edu>; Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [EXTERNAL *] Re: [Athen] Slightly ranting

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From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman22.u.washington.edu> on behalf of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 7:21:41 PM
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Subject: [Athen] Slightly ranting

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The quarter began Monday and already I’ve had three professors tell me:
“Nobody let me know I would have a blind student in class”.
They’re emailing me or on the phone or zoom so they don’t know that I too am blind. As if we are some alien species.
The one professor wails “I’m going to have to change my whole approach to teaching.”
I’m always polite, explain I too am visually impaired, that they are welcome to visit me so I can help them troubleshoot any accommodating a student needs etc. (I’ve found saying I’m visually impaired scares them less though I cannot see a thing!)
But my internal dialog is screaming that they are idiots and wondering why when they got their masters degree did they never hear anything about universal design?
I also explain that just because the blind student is visible, they have students with invisible disabilities who will benefit from universal design: students with low vision, learning differences, limited English proficiency, etc.
Though there is a lot on Youtube about how to accommodate a blind child in K12, much less about helping blind students in higher education.
Of course it’s really the student’s responsibility to talk to the professor ahead of time, explain their needs and what accommodations disability services can provide. And many of my students do. In fact, I currently have one who insists on scanning and converting her textbooks herself even though we have this service. She’s super organized and assertive about her needs.
But this is community college, and we have two problems. Students don’t have the maturity to realize this or they are just so new to college and have no family with college experience to advise them. The other issue is   most of the complaining professors are adjunct and hard to track down ahead of the quarter to even let them know they will have a student with a disability in class. So even if a student tries to reach them, they cannot.
All my regular full-time instructors are great for our print-impaired students. They believe in them and are eager to make small changes to ensure their success. It’s those darned part-timers!
I wish I had better ways to alleviate these prejudices because they are the worst thing for a young person or newly blinded person with limited self-confidence when starting out in college.
--Debee


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