 Good morning and good afternoon. Thank you for joining me today and taking time in your day to listen to my presentation. My name is Nico Diaz and I'm an academic development and recovery advisor at Boises Bay University. My role on campus entails working with students experiencing academic and personal challenges, helping them navigate the college setting and assist them in making adjustments to the routine and or habits. Now, with introductions out of the way, let's begin the presentation. Let me make some digital adjustments and remove myself from the screen. And here we go. Now, knowing my audience, I will not go to the length of explaining open educational resources. But I hope during this session, we can explore together the benefits of adapting OER resources as standard practice of universal design for learning. The combination of both practices can aid in the development of more robust materials and teaching practices, supporting students at various levels. This presentation will also aid in understanding the challenges students with disabilities experience and how the implementation of OER and the practice of universal design for learning can provide further support to this population and overcome traditional barriers to the educational experience. The material I will discuss today is not exclusive to students with disabilities. But I'd like to establish context and the importance to support this population. While we're seeing some negative enrollment trends in higher education, potentially attributed to a new reality during COVID, students with disabilities are enrolling at a higher rate than in years past. However, this population is also more likely to stop enrollment and not graduate in comparison to their peers. The transition from high school to college is a milestone for many individuals. While most students have to adapt to a variety of new experiences and expectations, students with disabilities must also navigate significant changes to the accommodation process. They transition from a very passive process to one in which they must seek accommodations personally. In high school, they are aided by their parents, counselors, special education teachers, and attend an environment that is willing to drastically change their educational experience. The college setting, on the other hand, is more rigid in nature, and the principles of the accommodation process are vastly different. There are two additional tendencies at play when considering the experience of students with disabilities. For some students, college is the opportunity to reshape or reframe the stigma associated with their disability, avoiding the accommodation process altogether and attempting to succeed without it. Additionally, there's a growing number of students that are not diagnosed with a disability until they start college. These students not only must address the traditional challenges of higher education, but contend with a new personal reality and a system of support that is foreign to them. While students with disabilities are at disadvantage in comparison with their peers, research has shown three practices of successful students with disabilities. This relate to self-advocacy and self-awareness of their abilities, particularly in the educational setting. The first practice is scripting disclosures of the disabilities. This entails being able to describe how a disability can impact performance under learning experience overall. The second practice is to be able to negotiate accommodations with faculty. Lastly, the third practice is downplaying one's disability status or ultimately forego the disclosure of the disability altogether. In an ideal world, a student would not need to disclose a disability status as they are able to adapt or adjust in order to be successful. And instructors are able to provide a learning environment that fits the needs of all of their students. However, in reality, a significant portion of students are not comfortable disclosing their disability and sacrifice using accommodations altogether. And faculty are not always aware of the needs of their students. By now, some of you may be wondering how OER can impact the success of students with disabilities or promote the strategies highlighted above. That's where universal design for learning comes in. For those unfamiliar with the term, universal design for learning is a pedagogical framework that guides the development of flexible learning environments to meet the educational needs of a large number of students. Universal design for learning is guided by the following principles. Equitable use, flexibility of use, simple and intuitive use, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, size and space for approach, community of learners, and instructional climate. While these principles are somewhat ambiguous, they also provide the foundation for support and provide educators with the flexibility to implement these practices in their classroom. Additionally, these values can also be applied in the development of OER materials. You can probably recognize how some of the universal design for learning principles complement or reflect those from OER. Taking this into consideration in the development, distribution, compilation, or revision process can subsequently create materials that are better suited to students and support a wider population. We, and I'm guilty of this assumption as well, at time assume that open means free. And open access is a significant component of the OER community. But we must recognize that access and accessibility can mean different things to our students. The practice of universal design can help mitigate challenges and factors that impact students with disabilities. Particularly, it can alleviate the need and stress of students having to disclose their disability or seek accommodations since their needs might already be met. A factor that, as highlighted previously, can lead to student persistence and better graduation rates for this population. Making sure materials are used in the classroom satisfy the needs of students can further mitigate barriers to their learning experience. While the OER movement continues to grow, it is important to recognize that not all OER is created people. There are a million of resources and materials currently being used, including syllabus, lesson plans, textbooks, lab experiments, videos, assessments, and assignments to mention a few. While at times we might be focused on the content of these materials and how they may fit into our lesson plans, it is equally important to evaluate how students might receive and respond to these items. Currently, the accessibility evaluation of OER materials is in its infancy. Evaluating accessibility is noticed, particularly in such a fluid environment as the one OER currently operates. For this, we must rely on the web content accessibility guidelines. These rules establish a framework in which to operate and categorize categories to pay attention as we seek to make materials available. There are four attributes to consider. You can see this on the screen, but I'll provide a basic overview of them. I will clarify that you can find this table in the journal article, Accessibility within Open Educational Resources and Practices for Disabled Learners, a Systematic Literature Review by Shang Ling Chang and Company, and I will include the information in the description of the video. First is whether material is perceived by all users. This can help providing alternative forms to text or making sure the students can process and distinguish the intricacies of the items. Second is whether student, excuse me, second is whether the item in question is fully operable by the user. Students must be able to use the material seamlessly, avoiding time and formatting barriers, for example. Third is the idea that materials must be understandable. While obviously a big component of this relies on the student, it is important to make sure materials are readable and operate in a predictable way. Lastly, the format of the OER must be robust. In other words, it has to be accessible in a variety of types, including assistive technology, such as screen readers or braille display devices. This as attribute is probably the one we most commonly associate with accessibility. However, this does not automatically translate to accurate or effective practices. True of the core principles of open educational resources is remixing and revising materials. In other words, combining existing resources to create new material and the adapting or editing of current resources. Such practices aid in the development of more comprehensive tools, while giving the opportunity to include different modalities of instruction. Materials can and should be in constant state of improvement to meet the various needs of students. With a growing community, it is possible to raise the standards of the tools and improve our evaluation skills when assessing new materials. While it may be easier to consider the web content accessibility guidelines at the point of creation, OER materials are in a unique position to evolve as a result of their practices by the community. Educators and students alike can sometimes rely exclusively on preferred learning modalities, particularly those promoted by the VARC model, categorizing learners into visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetic learners. Imposing such characteristics to the learning process can be detrimental to any student. However, it can pose a more distinct challenge for students with disabilities. It is obvious that implementing a primary visual approach to the model of instruction will impact blind and low vision students, an auditory approach to deaf students, and a kinesthetic approach to those experiencing dexterity or mobility issues. But it goes beyond the traditional physical limitations we often associate with disabilities. While difficult to calculate, it is estimated that 5% of college students contend with a form of attention disorder, such as ADHD. The traditional classroom experience of learning or learning process can be a constant challenge for students dealing with these factors. Utilizing various modalities of instruction can provide a novelty factor for students with attention disorders, providing additional forms of stimuli to engage their attention and provide a form of novelty, their brain seeks. Relying on the remixing principles of OER can lead to the implementation of resources that bridge multiple learning modalities, not exclusive to those in the VARC model, in order to develop effective practices. For example, the inclusion of videos in a press book can add more interactive components for students that struggle engaging with readings. The effective use of images and charts with the appropriate description can exemplify and connect information. The use of captions in videos can further engrow students and keep their attention, particularly when a speaker like today has such a thick accent. It's important to recognize that all people can take advantage of multiple modalities and we learn better when we are exposed to a range of materials in different formats. This proves more important when we consider the challenges students with disabilities experience. As we have been discussing, the technical components of our classes and OER materials can make a difference in the performance students have and their level of access to that information. While taking the appropriate steps to meet accessibility guidelines is significant, it is worth noting that skill development is another area that can benefit all students but in particular those with learning disabilities. Research has shown that learning strategies and study skill assistance improve graduation rates among students with disabilities. While these are not exclusive responsibilities that fall on instructor's shoulders, connecting students, particularly those in professional level courses to appropriate resources on campus can aid in their development. Interaction with these resources can further help in the development of traditional study and soft skills. However, textbooks and OER materials can support these efforts as well. The following examples can hopefully elucidate ways to promote this. Time management is often associated as a student problem worth fixing. Nonetheless, it is ultimately a human skill worth nurturing. Assessing how long a reading will take, dividing exercises into multiple steps, fomenting the planning of activities are some of the examples that can be created as part of any OER to aid in time management development. However, instructor's guidance can further clarify the purpose behind these implementations and help students understand the meaning behind these additions, creating a clear connection between planning and how long activities take to complete. Building comprehension checks in different materials, including questions in the middle of videos to reward attention, for example, or the use of annotation techniques as part of the reading process can provide an additional level of engagement. One feature often present in traditional textbooks are summaries or questions at the end of the chapter. Those can aid in the learning process but are seldomly used by students. Include them throughout a chapter instead can promote critical thinking in a more natural way. Additionally, such practice can support active reading and self-testing efforts. Interactive illustrations with annotations, such as embedded gifts in a STEM activity or textbook, can more clearly exemplify the proper order of steps or functions to the reader. This can be particularly helpful as a student may be learning these concepts on their own and may not fully visualize the correct approach. Ultimately, it also allows students to recognize areas of improvement and the development of effective habits. Nevertheless, the inclusion of purposeful activities as part of OER, in conjunction with guidance from the instructor, can foster such development. Throughout this presentation, hopefully I address different approaches to strengthen the development of open educational resources. While I use the lens of students with disabilities and the impact such strategies can have on their performance, it is important to recognize that better pedagogical practices and more accessible materials support not only those with an educational difference. I do hope your time was well spent listening to me. I do have, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. You can find my contact information in the background of this presentation and in the video description. Citations for some of the material I use in the presentation can be found there as well. I will be available for the live viewing of the presentation. So hope to see you there. Have a wonderful conference and thank you very much.