Technical Communication Quarterly Sep 2010

Toward an Accessible Pedagogy: Dis/ability, Multimodality, and Universal Design in the Technical Communication Classroom

Shannon Walters Temple University, Japan

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the challenges and opportunities that the rising numbers of students with disabilities and the changing definition of disability pose to technical communication teachers and researchers. Specifically, in a teacher-researcher study that combines methods from disability studies, I report on the effectiveness of multimodal and universal design approaches to more comprehensively address disability and accessibility in the classroom and to revise traditional impairment-specific approaches to disability in technical communication. Notes 1. CitationCharlton (1998), in Nothing About Us Without Us, recalls hearing this slogan in South Africa in 1993 from two separate leaders of Disabled People of South Africa, Michael Masutha and William Rowland, and he writes, “The slogan's power derives from its location of the source of many types of (disability) oppression and its simultaneous opposition to such oppression in the context of control and voice” (p. 3). 2. Other principles include guidelines for equitable use, varieties of perceptible information, and appropriate size and space for approach and use. See http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/about_ud/udprincipleshtmlformat.html for quoted guidelines. 3. CAPTCHA is an acronym for completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart. It is a challenge-response test that usually visually distorts and warps letters, assuming that a human can decode the letters but a computer cannot. 4. For details on the similarities and differences between usability and accessibility, see CitationThatcher et al. (2006), pp. 26–28. Chapter 1, “Understanding Web Accessibility,” is useful for students to read and discuss during this segment of the class. 5. Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance by CitationThatcher et al. (2006) is also a useful resource for students to consult, particularly Chapter 1.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2010-09-27
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2010.502090
Open Access
Closed
Topics
multimodality technical communication

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (19)

  1. Butler (2026)
    Top Stories and Deaf News: Accessible Information and Communication in …
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    Advocacy, Community, and Shared Expertise Make a Screen Reader Available in Hun…
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  3. Tijerina (2025)
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  4. Madson (2023)
    You Shall Not Pass? The Design of Age Gates in an Emerging Cannabis Market
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  5. Campeau et al. (2023)
    “It Makes Everything Just Another Story”: A Mixed Methods Study of Medical Stor…
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  1. Bennett et al. (2022)
    Transforming the Rights-Based Encounter: Disability Rights, Disability Justice,…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Butler et al. (2021)
    Sound, captions, action: Voices in video composition projects
    Computers and Composition
  3. Bivens et al. (2020)
    The Activist Syllabus as Technical Communication and the Technical Communicator…
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  4. Stevens (2020)
    Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability
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  5. Campeau (2019)
    Rethinking Person-Centeredness: Contestations of Disability, Care, and Culture …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  6. Sánchez (2018)
    Enabling Geographies
    Pedagogy
  7. Vie (2018)
    Effective Social Media Use in Online Writing Classes through Universal Design f…
    Computers and Composition
  8. Swacha (2018)
    “Bridging the Gap between Food Pantries and the Kitchen Table”: Teaching Embodi…
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  9. Kenzie et al. (2018)
    Teaching Writing for the Health Professions: Disciplinary Intersections and Ped…
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  10. Browning et al. (2017)
    Teaching a “Critical Accessibility Case Study”
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  11. Sánchez (2017)
    The Roles of Technical Communication Researchers in Design Scholarship
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  12. Jones et al. (2016)
    Disrupting the Past to Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Commun…
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  13. Oswal et al. (2014)
    Paying Attention to Accessibility When Designing Online Courses in Technical an…
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  14. Fox (2013)
    Embodying the Writer in the Multimodal Classroom through Disability Studies
    Computers and Composition

Cites in this index (6)

  1. Jacobs (2007)
    Marveling at The Man Called Nova: Comics as Sponsors of Multimodal Literacy
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Palmeri (2006)
    Disability Studies, Cultural Analysis, and the Critical Practice of Technical C…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. O'Hara (2004)
    "Curb Cuts" on the Information Highway: Older Adults and the Internet
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Salvo (2001)
    Ethics of Engagement: User-Centered Design and Rhetorical Methodology
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Slatin (2001)
    The art of ALT: toward a more accessible Web
    Computers and Composition
Show all 6 →
  1. Wilson (2000)
    Making disability visible: How disability studies might transform the medical a…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
Also cites 8 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1109/47.968105
     ↗
  2. Charlton J. I. (1998)
    Nothing about us without us: Disability oppression and empowerment
     ↗
  3. 10.1215/08992363-13-3-359
     ↗
  4. Davis, L. 2002.Bending over backwards: Disability, dismodernism & other difficult positionsNew York: New York…
     ↗
  5. Krieger L. (2003)
    Backlash against the ADA: Reinterpreting disability rights
     ↗
  6. 10.1109/TPC.2004.833687
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  7. Mitchell D. (1997)
    The body and physical difference
     ↗
  8. 10.1016/S1479-3547(01)80018-X
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 65 View in citation network →

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