E.16 // The Risks and Rhetorics of Universal Design
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What Would a Universally Designed Writing Classroom Look Like?
Talking with Students about Accessibility1
I’m going to talk about a qualitative study that I developed for my dissertation, which is focused
on increasing the accessibility of our composition classroom and writing center pedagogies.
Something I’ve tried to be mindful of throughout this project is not making assumptions about
instructors’ practices or students’ experiences, so I designed an IRB-approved study to engage
students and instructors about disability and accessibility.
Today, I’m going to share some of what I’ve learned from students about how they identify their
needs, how different classroom practices address or ignore those needs, and how we can create
writing spaces that are more accessible to a variety of students. I’ll tie these responses to larger
discourses of Universal Design and multimodality.
Valuing Students’ Voices
I created an online survey for undergraduate students, and based on survey responses from
students who identify as disabled, students who receive accommodations but don’t identify as
disabled, and nondisabled students who reflect on their different learning styles, I’m going to
focus on two things. First, learning and composing in different and multiple modes is something
that disabled and nondisabled students share, yet current approaches to meeting students’ needs
necessitates that students disclose disabilities and present accommodations notices before we
support them. So the second thing I want to address is how we can better support students—
creating universally designed practices that are more inclusive to a range of diverse needs.
I’m going to talk broadly about students’ survey responses, zoom in on an interview with a
student, and then close with some suggestions for multimodal, UD practices.
7 out of 121 identified as disabled.
Of the 121 students I surveyed, seven identified as disabled, and five of those seven said that
their identification with disability affects how they perceive themselves as writers—how they
read, learn, understand texts, brainstorm ideas, write and revise. One student, who noted that she
made use of her university’s disability support services, wrote, “I have trouble learning things
and need things explained multiple times differently. I am in [Disability Services] and it has
helped me tremendously not only have a quiet area to test but also note takers and professors
often are more helpful when they know a student is in [Disability Services].” Another student
noted that his processing disability affected his analytical skills, “mak[ing] it very difficult to
understand a piece of writing and understand it properly.” Although not all seven students
explicitly disclosed their disabilities, most (5 out of 7) claimed that this identification—whether
it was depression and anxiety, ADD, or LD—impacted their learning and composing processes.
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Although there are lots of elements that I address in my dissertation—such as the politics of
disability disclosure and the rhetorics of overcoming that manifest in inaccessible practices and
that were illustrated in interviews with students—this talk is specifically focused on connections
to multimodality and UD.
Allison Hitt // ahhitt@syr.edu
E.16 // The Risks and Rhetorics of Universal Design
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An interesting moment here is the student who mentions that her enrollment in disability services
provided her with the rhetorical power to negotiate support. She felt that professors were willing
to meet her needs because she had the institutional support of a diagnosed disability and formal
accommodations. Yet even students who didn’t identify as disabled still needed to go through
disability services for support in their writing classes.
3 out of 121 did not identify as disabled but had received accommodations.
There were three students who didn’t identify as disabled but who had received accommodations,
which legally requires a disability diagnosis. Although none specified why they didn’t identify as
disabled, all three students emphasized the importance of instructors getting to know students
early in the semester and meeting needs without “overemphasizing it.” Not overemphasizing
difference is particularly important here because these are students who legally have disabilities
and receive institutional accommodations but don’t identify as disabled. These responses point to
the tricky nature of disclosure and of only providing support to students who disclose or identify
as disabled. But something else I want to highlight here is that the learning needs articulated by
students who identified as disabled and/or received accommodations are very much aligned with
students who did not identify as disabled.
[breakdown of 10 students: 2 auditory, 5 kinesthetic, 3 visual]
The learning styles represented here are not so different from those of nondisabled students. All
of the students surveyed identified with different (and often multiple) learning styles.
Of 121 surveyed students, 54.5% (66) claimed a kinesthetic/ tactile learning style,2 36.4% (44)
claimed a visual learning style,3 and only 9.1% (11) claimed an auditory learning style4. I was
surprised that the majority of students claimed a kinesthetic learning style because our common
practices seem to be geared more toward auditory learners through lecturing and read-aloud
policies or toward visual learners through the use of PowerPoint, playing videos, or outlining. So
what does it mean for the teaching of writing that students approach learning in different ways
and that many identify with kinesthetic learning styles? I want to suggest that multimodal, UD
practices can create more inclusive spaces for both disabled and nondisabled students.
In “Reversing Notions of Disability and Accommodation: Embracing Universal Design in
Writing Pedagogy and Web Space,” Patricia Dunn and Kathleen Dunn De Mers argue for
incorporating multimodal practices through a variety of “visual, aural, spatial, and kinesthetic
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Description of kinesthetic/tactile learning: you learn best by actively doing or making, applying
concepts to real-life situations, developing and expressing your ideas through hands-on activities
3
Description of visual learning: you learn best by reading notes, seeing information represented
visually, developing and expressing your ideas through outlines or concept maps
4
Description of auditory learning: you learn best by listening to lectures, repeating words aloud,
developing and expressing your ideas through small-group discussions
Allison Hitt // ahhitt@syr.edu
E.16 // The Risks and Rhetorics of Universal Design
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approaches.”5 Writing as a process is multimodal, and students always learn, research, and
compose in multiple modes. And even though that’s a fairly uncontested statement, we don’t
always incorporate practices that support these multiple, embodied ways of knowing and
composing.
Emphasizing the different modes of composing through a multimodal pedagogy recognizes
students as “agentive, resourceful and creative meaning-makers” (Stein 122).6 And as Jody
Shipka argues, “Multimodal pedagogies encourage students to take learning into their own hands,
to ‘learn by doing’” (291)7 by being accountable for their own learning goals. This can usefully
inform how we create UD practices that allow students to engage with material in different ways
for different purposes.
One of the things I wanted to learn from students is what they think is important for increasing
accessibility. I asked, “In your opinion, what are the most important things that writing
instructors should consider or do to address issues of disability and accessibility?”
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Acknowledge that there is more than one method of learning and one ability out there.
I think writing instructors need to have a more rounded approach to teaching in all of
their classes so that everyone has a fair chance of learning. I've taken classes that were
extremely based on reading and lecturing about the readings and that was it. The theories
don't really make sense to me unless I can apply them to real life situations and
understand examples.
Because these issues are specific to each student, the most a professor can do to be more
acute to helping a student is listening to the student asking questions like asking about
possible changes to class and implementing the best one
It is important to understand that all students learn differently and what may be classified
as a disability could just be a different way of learning. Writing instructions should use
different techniques to incorporate all different types of learning styles.
Make it a comfortable environment for the individual to approach you with issues.
Offer a range of opportunities for student success—options in assignments, variety of
readings, range of teaching tools
Do not do everything visually, and especially do not do everything orally. Allow for short
exercises in class that involve actually writing. The only thing that has ever helped me is
actually doing a piece of my own writing that mimics whatever it is that we are supposed
to be learning about.
These responses echo flexibility, an openness to working with a variety of students, and
engaging all students in different and multiple ways. The student who made the last comment
Dunn, Patricia A., and Kathleen Dunn De Mers. “Reversing Notions of Disability and
Accommodation: Embracing Universal Design in Writing Pedagogy and Web Space.” Kairos
7.1 (2002). Web.
6
Stein, Pippa. Multimodal Pedagogies in Diverse Classrooms: Representation, Rights, and
Resources. New York: Routledge, 2008.
7
Shipka, Jody. “A Multimodal Task-Based Framework for Composing.” College Composition
and Communication 57.2 (2005): 277-306.
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Allison Hitt // ahhitt@syr.edu
E.16 // The Risks and Rhetorics of Universal Design
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also wrote, “Have been VERY conscious of being a kinaesthetic [sic] learner since I was a kid
and I have only been successful in school because I've been proactive about learning my way.” It
is this student, Tina Davis—who identifies as a nondisabled, kinesthetic learner—who I will
focus on now.
Tina Davis: undergraduate student
Tina was very aware of her kinesthetic learning style and accessibility needs, which she
articulated both in her survey and in our follow-up interview. In the survey, she describes
struggling to process PowerPoint presentations in a writing class. She writes, “I remember
virtually nothing about anyone’s project because it was all visual. This happens to me all the
time and I have to make a huge effort to absorb things that are presented visually and auditorily.”
Composing Access, a website that offers resources for making presentations accessible,
advocates for providing handouts or full-text copies to accompany oral/visual presentations and
accommodate audience members who may struggle to access content that is delivered in a single
mode. This is both a multimodal and UD solution—offering folks multiple access points from
which they can engage content.
As an English major, creative writer, and someone who identified as having a different learning
style, Tina had a lot of thoughts on meeting the needs of writing students. When I asked her
about Universal Design and whether or not she thought it was possible to meet the needs of all
students in a classroom, she said, “I don’t really think you can ever meet the needs of everyone
because I think a lot of people learn in just these vastly different ways.” She qualified this,
though, by saying, “I don’t think everyone’s needs can be met, but I think you can get a wide
enough umbrella that different people are catered to.” Tina draws attention to the notion that UD
is not a universal solution for accessibility but rather something that must be flexible and
responsive to the needs that students articulate.
An hour into our interview, Tina disclosed a history of depression and anxiety and discussed how
writing became a way for her to redirect her energy. She said, “I learned slowly throughout
college, the more I wrote then the better I felt about my writing. And when I feel that way about
my work, the feelings of depression go away.” She explained that what causes her anxiety—
“hook[ing] onto one certain thing about which [she] feel[s] upset or guilty or worried”—is
something that she harnesses to compose detailed writing.
I offer moments from my interview with Tina for a number of reasons. First, her descriptions of
inaccessible practices point to the dangers of engaging students in a single mode. And her
reflections on depression and anxiety illustrate the possibilities of imagining disability not as
something that must be overcome in order for students to be successful writers but that can be
harnessed and repositioned as beneficial to the writing process.
This example also raises questions about how we provide support for students—particularly
those who do not disclose or identify as disabled. Tina clearly articulated what practices do and
don’t work for her, identified as a kinesthetic learner whose needs aren’t frequently met in
writing classes, and disclosed disabilities but doesn’t receive accommodations. Yet, in an
Allison Hitt // ahhitt@syr.edu
E.16 // The Risks and Rhetorics of Universal Design
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academic culture where we meet students’ needs based largely on diagnoses and formal
accommodations, where does that leave a student like Tina?
Developing Multimodal, Universally Designed Practices
In closing, I’d like to advocate for multimodal, UD practices while at the same time noting their
“risks.” Neither UD nor multimodality is a one-size-fits all approach to accessibility. When we
focus on arguments that everyone has different and multiple learning and composing needs, we
often erase the material needs of disabled students themselves.8 The authors of “Multimodality in
Motion” argue that we need to more consciously engage with accessible multimodal practices.9
For example, Stephanie Kerschbaum notes that when we aren’t conscious of the accessibility of
our multimodal texts or classrooms, we run the risk of “multimodality inhospitality,” which
“occurs when the design and production of multimodal texts and environments persistently
ignore access except as a retrofit.” We need to develop multimodal pedagogies that are crafted
not just for students but with students to better meet diverse and dynamic needs.
Early in my interview with Tina, she said, “Disability … is just sort of about modes of learning
and alternative modes of learning, and how do you get away from a structure that doesn’t
actually apply to a large percentage of kids because they’re learning and receiving information in
different ways?” Even small things—like expanding how we measure participation or creating an
accessibility statement for syllabi10—can offer students multiple access points and signal to them
that their learning needs matter. For example, many students recommended addressing
accessibility on the first day of class, and an accessibility statement (unlike an accommodations
statement) is a UD approach to accessibility that invites both disabled and nondisabled students
to share accessibility needs beyond what the institution legally accommodates.
Multimodal practices that give students multiple access points to engage with different modes of
representation, engagement, and expression are small ways that we can create more inclusive
writing pedagogies. But we also need to create spaces in our classes to listen to the needs
articulated by students—both those who disclose disabilities and those who don’t. I’m interested
to hear how you all have developed, sustained, or even resisted UD practices and created space
to listen to students needs in your own classes.
In “Designing Collective Access: A Feminist Disability Theory of Universal Design,” Aimi
Hamraie describes this as “broad accessibility.”
9
Yergeau, Melanie, Elizabeth Brewer, Stephanie Kerschbaum, Sushil Oswal, Margaret Price,
Michael Salvo, Cynthia Selfe, and Franny Howes. “Multimodality in Motion: Disability and
Kairotic Space.” Kairos 18.1 (2013). Web.
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Wood, Tara, and Shannon Madden. “Suggested Practices for Syllabus Accessibility
Statements.” Kairos 18.1 (2013). Web.
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Allison Hitt // ahhitt@syr.edu