Currently, there are no AODA education standards. However, two AODA standards development committees have drafted recommendations of guidelines that AODA education standards should include. One committee has recommended guidelines for the kindergarten to grade twelve (K-12) education system. In this article, we outline recommendations for accessible resources on curriculum design.
The committee’s mandate from the Ontario government requires recommendations focused on the publicly-funded K-12 school system. However, students and educators with disabilities also face barriers in other school settings, including:
- Private schools
- Pre-school programs, such as early literacy programs
Therefore, all these settings should comply with the forthcoming K-12 education standards.
Accessible Resources on Curriculum Design
As the Ministry of Education updates its curriculum, students will be required to learn new lessons. Likewise, the technology that teachers and students use in and outside of class also updates frequently. Therefore, the Committee recommends that the Ministry and school boards develop resources and strategies to ensure ongoing accessibility in the classroom. For example, when the curriculum changes, all teachers should have resources and strategies to make new lessons accessible to students with disabilities. Similarly, resources should help teachers make new forms of assessment accessible.
Moreover, teachers should also have resources on how to design learning environments that adhere to principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and differentiated instruction. Resources should ensure students’ full participation in the curriculum, including:
Furthermore, the Ministry should have ways of holding school boards accountable for providing education accessibly. For example, processes could help school boards collect and analyse data about student engagement and performance on assessments. The Ministry could then use this data to improve curriculum and assessments.
All these new resources that the Ministry and school boards develop should be accessible for staff with disabilities.