Technology’s role in creating inclusive and accessible learning environments

Whether you’re teaching face to face, online or through a blended mix of both, you want to create an accessible and inclusive learning environment.

Leveraging your learning management system to foster inclusive and accessible learning

The learning platform plays a central role in delivering a learning experience that meets the needs of all students. It can be an ally in democratising access to education and enhancing the learning experience for all students. However, establishing a digitally intelligent campus involves upgrading infrastructure to integrate the latest technology.

Let’s explore the different roles technology can play in creating flexible and equitable learning experiences for diverse learner needs.

Assistive technologies

D2L Brightspace includes built-in features that educators can use to allow students with diverse needs to consume content, engage with learning and express their knowledge. 

Emerging digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) have helped move assistive technology on still further. For example, the use of auto-captioning videos in multiple languages is becoming increasingly popular and alleviates the manual burden of transcribing and captioning multiple videos.

Multi-modal learning resources

Technology enables the creation of multimodal learning resources that cater to diverse learning preferences and modalities. Whether through interactive simulations, audiovisual presentations or gamified activities, educators can leverage technology to engage students in meaningful ways and accommodate different learning styles.

For example, AI-powered video-based assessments through Bongo analyse students’ video presentations against course criteria and generate automated insights and data-driven reports. These resources help educators validate comprehension and identify which students need help and in which areas. 

Another way AI can assist educators is through question generation. D2L’s Creator+ package, which enables educators to create dynamic customised content in their courses, draws on this for quiz and practice questions.

Data-informed decision making

D2L’s Student Success System (part of the Performance+ suite) leverages machine learning to predict student performance by the end of term to enable educators to proactively identify trends, pinpoint areas of difficulty, and tailor learning to meet the needs of individual students. This helps ensure resources can be allocated effectively, which creates an optimal environment for student success.

Ways D2L can help you create an inclusive and accessible learning environment 

At D2L, accessibility happens by design. Our product process is aligned with global accessibility standards, and we are proud of the numerous awards Brightspace has won, including the SIIA CODiE award for the best solution designed to benefit students with unique educational needs. 

We can help you reach your goals through technology that enables effective teaching, support in the creation of accessible content, and by facilitating universal design for learning as a practice of inclusive pedagogy.  

D2L strives to ensure that its learning platforms work seamlessly with various assistive technologies to provide a great learning experience to people with diverse needs. We integrate the latest global accessibility standards into our product process and openly report conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AAA standards and compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, 1973. Our latest accessibility reports are posted on the accessibility standards page. Our accessibility plan for 2022-27 is posted on our multi-year accessibility plan page. Find out more about D2L’s commitment to accessibility in education.

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