Podcasting and Accessibility. . . for All Students

By Louisa Lambregts, Online Learning Centre

Last semester, the Centre for Students with Disabilities (CSD) posted an invitation on myAlgonquin to attend some podcasts related to accessibility. They had subscribed to these podcasts for departmental professional development and decided to invite anyone who was interested in joining them.

It struck me that podcasting could offer interesting possibilities for reaching special needs students.

I had an enlightening discussion with Jason Timms, an Assistive Technologist from the CSD who is well-versed in podcasting. He was quick to clarify that, when thinking about accessibility, it is important to understand it in its broadest sense. It is not only about helping individuals with disabilities. Its about ensuring that every student, regardless of culture, age, disability or learning mode, has reasonable access to learning.

Jason believes that podcasting does offer another means of providing information to students. Given the range of student learning styles, using a variety of teaching modes provides a greater possibility of reaching more students. When any learning content is delivered, offering it in different modes is the ideal situation -- for all kinds of learners. If students can control that content -- pause it, rewind it, play it again -- it can serve as a strong reinforcement of learning.

Given time and resources restraints, it can be very difficult to customize learning content that is optimal for all modes of learning. However, like any learning technique or technology, care needs to be taken in order to not put any student at a disadvantage.

Include a Transcript

When using podcasts, Jason suggests that including a transcript of each podcast is important. There are voice-to-text programs that translate podcasts into text. This technology is currently used by students have difficulty with notetaking. However, this extra step is not always necessary. When creating podcasts, for instance, it is more effective to work from a prepared script. Therefore, the script could be provided to students with the podcast.

Jason also mentioned a new format called Daisy which the CSD is looking into. It is a format that allows audio to be tagged with text. This tagging would make the audio searchable. Similiar to a DVD index, it would be possible to skip ahead to text markers, thus avoiding fast forward and rewind in order to find a specific section within the audio file.

If you have questions about podcasting as it relates to accessibility, or any other assistive technology, contact Jason at timmsj@algonquincollege.com.

Podcasting and Accessibility. . . for All Students

Include a Transcript

Further Reading