Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities have needed to adapt to maintain a productive learning environment. One challenge brought on by the pandemic, and perhaps overlooked, was how to ensure accessibility standards are still met amid all of these changes.
At Boise State, the pandemic presented a handful of obstacles in maintaining and continuing to improve accessibility. Requirements such as wearing a face mask indoors made it difficult for hard of hearing students to follow along with their peers and instructors, because they often rely on lip reading and facial expressions for cues.
“There were some negatives with accessibility as far as masks go, and sometimes the [problem] was just getting the accessible materials to remote students,” said Julia Gorman, assistant director of the Educational Access Center. “For example, how are we going to get materials to a student who’s blind [and] needs their textbook in Braille when we weren’t able to meet in person?”
An analysis by Frontiers in Public Health found that disabled college students were almost twice as likely than their non-disabled counterparts to experience increased anxiety and increased financial strain due to the pandemic, making it more vital than ever that these students’ needs are met.
Some of the issues in accessibility caused by COVID-19, surprisingly, also led to improvements that may not have otherwise been made.
“In a lot of ways, I think [the pandemic] created some barriers but in more ways than that it brought to light … ways that these spaces are not accessible for everybody,” said Stenson Stanger, Boise State University’s deaf services coordinator. “We didn’t take into consideration some of these things that people came to realize were necessary for everyone.”
Clear masks becoming standardized in medical spaces when working with hard of hearing or deaf patients and professors regularly recording and providing captions for lectures are examples of positive accessibility changes caused by the pandemic, according to Stenson.
“[The pandemic] demonstrated how we can be more accessible and have more of a universal design approach when it comes to our events or our classes,” Gorman said. “So I’d say there’s definitely some positives when it comes to the accessibility and the responsiveness to student needs holistically.”
The Education Access Center is continually making improvements to best serve the campus community. Boise State recently began utilizing a software called Note Taking Express to help students who need assistance taking notes for class.
Rather than being reliant on a peer note taker, this resource allows students to record their own lecture. The recording is then sent off to a Note Taking Express employee (one specializing in the same field of study) to be turned into notes.
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“This is the first semester that we’ve used [Note Taking Express], and so far we have loved it because the accountability is on the student who needs the service rather than accountability being on the note taker,” Stanger said. “If the student decides not to record the notes that’s their choice. But at least they know that they have the autonomy and the option to be able to make that happen.”
Beyond the tangible resources, Stanger explained that one of the best things that can be done to improve accessibility in the campus community is to continue increasing awareness and education about it.
“I think accessibility is definitely one of those things that just kind of gets lost in the shuffle of things,” Stenson said. “But there’s always room for improvement. There’s always more that can be done.”
The Educational Access Center works in collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning to better train faculty and staff on campus about what accessibility looks like and how student needs can best be met.
Over the summer, the Educational Access Center and the TRIO Academic Coaching and Educational Support (ACES) program combined into one organization to provide a more comprehensive, holistic approach to supporting students. ACES provides individualized support to students with disabilities in regards to academics and career planning.
“We need to [put] accessibility at the forefront of our minds when we’re talking about diversity and inclusion,” Gorman said. “Being consistent and proactive when it comes to being accessible versus being retroactive and implementing supports or accommodations after the fact is always going to be the best practice.”
