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Access Talk
Overview
Access talk is the practice of explicitly and openly discussing individual and collective access and support needs. The goal of access talk is to ensure everyone can fully participate and feel they belong in a specific place or event. It supports an approach to access as a collective responsibility, rather than an individual issue. Access talk can occur through spoken discussions, documents (such as the course syllabus), class activities, and any other space that you communicate with learners.
"When profs are personable and approachable and understanding of my life obligations outside of school and my disability’s effect on my ability to participate in class or show up to class, [it] is very important. Essentially, being treated like a real person with a real life helps. Low bar, but a bar that’s not met by every prof."
Rationale
Access talk prioritizes, normalizes, destigmatizes, and creates opportunities for open dialogue about access needs. Engaging in access talk lowers barriers that prevent students from self-advocating for support and reduces the need for individual disclosure and access requests. Approaching access as a collective responsibility disrupts a ‘scarcity mindset’, pushing back against the belief that resources for making education accessible are limited, and that accommodating one students’ accessibility need somehow takes something away from other students. Access talk can help identify, and reveal pathways to resolve, access tensions.
"Most of the time I don't feel comfortable enough to communicate my accessibility needs because I am undiagnosed with autism. I am afraid of my experiences being rejected or made fun of because of not being diagnosed, even though autism assessment and diagnosis is, in many ways, a privilege that many don't have access to (myself included). This anxiety causes me to almost never have my needs met because I am too afraid to try to communicate them because of an ableist barrier to diagnosis. I feel this anxiety every day."
Guidance
Access talk should be an ongoing practice that invites both ongoing discussion about access as a collective responsibility and mechanisms for individual (and anonymous) disclosure of access needs. It’s important that access talk protects confidentiality and students’ right to privacy. Respect and protect privacy by never pressuring anyone to disclose access needs, especially within a group setting. It’s also important for instructors to acknowledge and be transparent about the limits of their own knowledge and capacity to support access needs. This also means acknowledging the structural and resource constraints of different kinds of classes, assignments, teaching support.
Recommendations
Try
- Communicating what you have already done to enhance accessibility, making students are aware of these design features and of your willingness to meet their needs. See Access Statements for more guidance on how to do this.
- Facilitating a class discussion about access during the first session. Emphasize collective responsibility by taking a group approach to access problem-solving. Involve the community in a discussion about approaches to supporting access, where appropriate.
- Inviting students to identify what they need in order to meet course learning outcomes. Provide clear instructions and multiple means of communicating this information (for example, email, in-person, via an optional anonymous feedback survey). Remind student frequently about this open invitation to share.
- Offering a mid-course check-in allowing students to share emergent or dynamic access needs.
- Running an optional end-of-course feedback survey about what worked and what could be improved in the future invites for additional feedback.
- Identify solutions to access tension. For example:
- Adjust the relative lighting levels to low, medium, and high in various parts of the classroom.
- Design your course to offer flexible assessments. Learners with episodic conditions (for example, anxiety around due dates or exams) may require highly flexible timelines for assignments or exams. Learners who struggle with executive function skills may benefit from structured, detailed schedules for complex tasks (for example, a research assignment).
- Seeking advice or examples from others in similar situations.
Avoid
- Requiring disclosure, a diagnosis, or proof of disability.
- Trying do everything for everyone without recognizing limits on your own capacity.
Resources
Reinholz DL, Ridgway SW. Access Needs: Centering Students and Disrupting Ableist Norms in STEM. CBE Life Sci Educ. 2021 Sep;20(3):es8.