Education is a not one-size-fits-all. While I had become accustomed to the "drill and kill" methods from my Catholic school days, not all students did or will learn material in such a manner. Although I had success with it, it's interesting to note how much education has even changed the past 12 years. Due to high-stakes testing and increased pressure on students and schools to perform, all material must be accessible in multiple platforms. As teachers, we have to constantly remind ourselves to update curriculum and refresh even our teaching methods. If someone had told me 12 years earlier that a world history lesson about World War I would include "tweets" from the trenches, I would have been rather incredulous. However, I know the language that these teenagers speak, and using Twitter and its format allowed students to express the sentiments of these soldiers in a more creative way than the usual textbook summary. If we don't update our "classrooms" (regardless of brick-and-mortar or virtual), we will never reach them.
And accessibility just isn't in the classroom. I will admit that I'm not sure if my school district has an accessibility coordinator to ensure that material about the curriculum and school system are accessible. As noted in Ms. Molnar's article, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) has agreed to make many changes to its website and materials to ensure that its information is accessible, including a point to "train district officers, school administrators, faculty and other key personnel on applicable laws, electronic and information technology accessibility guidelines, and the creation of accessible content." However, if Ms. Nightingale had not originally raised the question about being able to access information as a blind mother of three students in SPS, when would the schools have acknowledged the issue?
Due to this question, I made sure to check-out my county's website since I don't ever really peruse the site. It had been recently updated, so it took me a few minutes to become acquainted with the new format. If I had some challenges navigating the website and finding access to information, then what about a parent or a prospective family?
Molanar, Michele. (2015, 30 September). Ed-Tech Accessibility Lawsuit Settled by Seattle District, Advocates for the Blind. Retrieved from https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/ed-tech_accessibility_lawsuit_settled_by_seattle_district_advocates_for_blind/
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