About the session

As a learner and educator with disabilities, the digital accessibility of published research, cultural production, project management and collaboration tools, and knowledge-sharing environments is viscerally significant to me. When information, digital practices and environments are accessible, I can move with ease, breathe deeply with the work, and listen to, and for, the spoken and unspoken discourses.  

When I encounter digital inaccessibility, my field of inquiry becomes extrinsically limited. Over and over, I face the same dilemma. Do I surrender my momentum to troubleshoot a barrier? Or do I surrender my agency to delimit the bounds of my own research? Digital accessibility is central to my workflow, my construction of knowledge and my ability to construct knowledge with others. I am not alone.  

In this session, we will talk about digital accessibility relative to research inquiry, production, and dissemination. We will look at a crip hack for literature collection and sorting that is now an open resource on digital accessibility, as well as some digitally accessible examples of knowledge-sharing and research production.  

Everyone is welcome, but I want to put a special call out to disabled educators, learners and others working in the field of digital accessibility, including disability services staff and librarians. Let’s use this session to talk about the messiness of digital accessibility and co-create some pathways toward centering digital accessibility in research praxis. 

Speaker

Kim Ashbourne (she/her) is a learning experience designer focusing on accessibility, a digital project manager and digital writer. She is a graduate student in educational technology in the department of curriculum and instruction and graduate affiliate of the technology integration and evaluation research lab in the faculty of education at the University of Victoria.

Register Now!

This session will be recorded, archived, and made available publicly on BCcampus.ca. By participating in this session, you acknowledge you are aware your participation will be recorded and the recording will be openly available.

About the series 

The Research Speaker Series offers participants and presenters an opportunity to learn and share knowledge on research methods, approaches, and pedagogies around accessibility, access, Indigenous engagement, and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in teaching and learning.  

These livestream webinars take place every month from September to December and will allow you to learn about new research directly from the researchers.  

Sessions

1. September 10, 2024 – Arts-based research as paradigm, manifesto and mission for volatile times, Geo Takach, Royal Roads University  
2. October 29, 2024 – Centring digital accessibility in research praxis, Kim Ashbourne, University of Victoria
3. November 26, 2024 – Using the 5Rs as an Indigenous research framework, Dr. Jean-Paul Restoule, University of Victoria
4. December 10, 2024 – Creating communities of care for academic spaces: a critical, collective, and pragmatic approach, Petra Boynton

Learning outcomes 

By the end of this series, participants will be able to:   

• Broaden their knowledge and research skills in the B.C. post-secondary context.
• Learn about Indigenization, EDI, decolonization, and accessibility in research.
• Be inspired to participate in research communities of practice or explore themes in their work.
• Connect with academics and community members who share similar interests.