Month: March 2017

In order to answer the question of “Are there equal opportunities on campus to get involved?”, my group analyzed the UBC Peer Programs to determine whether it is accessible to those who are disabled. A key concept when discussing accessibility is Universal Design, which is a design outline that attempts to make things accessible to as many people and as many situations as possible. One component of our analysis was to determine whether the concept of Universal Design was applied in order to make the site more accessible, especially for those with disabilities.

Since none of us in the group were disabled, it was challenging for us to “take the role of the other” and view the page through the lens of someone living with a disability. At first, this added some difficulty to our analysis of the Peer Programs webpage, since we assumed everything looked easy enough to read and access. However, after actively analyzing the page with the criteria for accessibility given to us by Universal Design, the criteria gave us direction in what to look out for in terms of format and layout of the website, and how to shift our thinking to determine in what ways the webpage was easy to access for those who live with some form of disability. We found that the page was easy to read due to there being enough contrast between the darker colour of the text and the lighter-coloured background of the webpage, therefore fulfilling the UD principle of “simple, intuitive use”. We also found that the page was easy to navigate due to a simple design. In addition, we found that the page has a Readability score of 9.9, making it fairly easy to understand for those at a college level, and when compared to the Readability scores of other groups, the lowest score of all assigned webpages for this assignment.

Despite some aspects of the page contributing to its accessibility, our group still came across some accessibility problems. For example, there is no obvious way to increase text size for those who have a visual impairment. To do that, I discovered that one must scroll to the very bottom of the page and click the small link entitled “Accessibility” in order to view ways the text size can be changed so it can be read more easily. When compared to a website like Cbc.ca, where the “Accessibility” are clearly outlined in a distinctly visible area on the side of the page, it is obvious that UBC could do more to make the page more accessible to those with visual impairments. In terms of page content, the “Peer Programs” UBC offers may not be accessible to all who wish to join those programs, due to the nature of some job duties requiring an amount of physical effort that would not cause too many problems for an able-bodied person, but not so much for someone with a physical disability. Also, it was noted by one member of the group that most of the “support” programs offered by UBC on this page mainly cater to those with mental disabilities rather than those with physical disabilities.

When taking into consideration the research my group and I did, I believe that opportunities to get involved are not equal. Equal opportunities to get involved stem from how equally accessible the information about these programs is. If measures are taken to improve the accessibility of this page for those who are disabled, then opportunities will become more equal.

Through the lens of an Aboriginal student at UBC, defined as someone who is registered under the Indian Act, or who have Metis or Inuit ancestry, my peers and I analyzed the Jumpstart Orientation Leader (JOL) webpage for its accessibility and the level it reflected upon the perspective of this particular group of students. We quickly realized how challenging the activity was as none of us identify as Aboriginal and we possess little background knowledge about the specific challenges that they may face. It became an uncomfortable situation for me when we had to make such assumptions; all in all, limiting our approach to for an accurate analyzation.

Despite these limitations, we drew some conclusions to the best of our abilities. As the JOL webpage is part of the UBC Student Services webpage, we concluded that because the Aboriginal student is already enrolled in UBC, the website is generally accessible to them. This conclusion also considers the fact that the “readability score” of the webpage is at a grade 11 level, meaning that any UBC student should have no issues reading it. Reading through the entire webpage itself, our group noticed how the desired skills and experiences focused on those that could reflect on all individuals and not a particular class, status, race, or gender. This is where we concluded that the concept of Universal Design was well implemented. However, drawing upon the other perspectives that our fellow classmates presented, it drew to my attention that the webpage may not be as accessible to other underrepresented student bodies such as international students and those with a disability. Despite the effort to be inclusive to all, the JOL position may not present equal opportunities to these groups because of their physical and mental disabilities and language barriers.

The challenges involved in this activity differ through the Aboriginal lens. Being Aboriginal doesn’t necessarily impose such drawbacks, but rather more abstract ones. Our group discussed how the context of being an Aboriginal student in itself may affect their desire to become involved in such a position. They may find it difficult to connect with a vast group of people who may not even be aware of what it means to be Aboriginal in Canada. From lecture, we learned that Aboriginals only compose 1% of the UBC student population. It is reasonable to assume that it’s already difficult for them to create a sense of community for themselves; let alone take on the role to do so for a group of international students. Through this realization, our group concluded that the barriers of becoming involved as a JOL is not rooted in the content of the webpage itself, but may be rooted in the context of what it means to be Aboriginal. This includes the opportunities to become immersed in student involvement of other areas in the university and the ability to commit time to the position. Statistically speaking, Aboriginals are more likely to be in the lower bracket of social economic class. If they already have commitments of working a job in order to provide for their families and themselves, then their knowledge of the volunteer experience on campus, which is a desired experience for the position, may be limited.

To address the question of whether there are equal opportunities to be involved on campus, it is near impossible for it to be true. While the concept of Universal Design is present on the physical webpage, the vast complications present across all groups of students makes it difficult for the layout of the website to fully address it all.

Equal opportunities (March 10)

My peers and I were assigned to analyze the UBC webpage for a program called “Work Learn International Undergraduate” through the lens of an international student. We defined an international student as a student who is attending UBC but is from a country outside of Canada and is paying international fees. An international student might also have language and culture barriers with extremities varying between each person. Upon exploring the degree to which this webpage is accessible to international students, I have concluded that its inaccessibility can serve as an example as to why opportunities to get involved on campus are NOT equal. From my perspective, it is not a matter of whether or not there are opportunities for everyone, but rather an issue of whether these opportunities are effectively presented in a way that is welcoming and accepting of our diverse student population.

Being domestic students was a clear barrier for my group. This is why it is extremely important for us, and for these programs, to adopt Mead’s concept of “taking the role of the other.” By taking the role of the other, we are able to get insight on what it is like to be in the shoes of an international student which helps us understand how they might be perceiving these opportunities that are presented to them. For instance, since this is a program for international students, it should be written in a way that reaches out and tends to the needs of international students, eliminating as much of the barriers as possible. Thus, in order to achieve equality, such webpages should be especially accommodating to international students in the same way any other program would be easily accessible to domestic students. For example, due to potential language barriers, my group decided that the simplicity and clarity of language and sentence structure were the most important criteria for assessing accessibility. If international students do not understand certain portions of the information presented to them, not only will they feel confused and frustrated, but they might also feel intimidated and discouraged, causing them to hesitate about applying for these opportunities. Additionally, if they continue to feel alienated because of their language barrier, they may be less inclined to explore other opportunities on campus.

Furthermore, I believe that in order for opportunities on campus to be equal, programs should consider the diversity of students, specifically their individual experiences. For example, attending a post-secondary institution in a different country requires international students to experience socialization, in which they must learn the norms, attitudes and values of our culture. More specifically, getting involved on campus requires anticipatory socialization, which is the process of learning to take on the values and standards of groups and organizations that one aspires to join. On the webpage of our program, my group noticed that a lot of assumptions were being made and certain information, that international students may not be familiar with simply because they are not from Canada, was being skimmed over or skipped altogether. It is unfair for programs to expect international students to understand everything they mention since they are clearly still being socialized into our culture. Therefore, it is important for UBC to approach this with more awareness and consideration, providing as much clarity as possible.

Overall, I do not believe there are equal opportunities on campus to get involved. In my opinion, it is the small details, which begin to accumulate, that makes students doubt their competence and their role as a valued member of UBC, leading them to alienation and ultimately preventing them from exploring opportunities on campus.

This activity centers on analyzing if certain groups of student bodies, like aboriginal, international, disabled or transgendered students, are equally treated through the concept of Universal design. Our group’s topic is to find out whether transgender people on campus have the equal opportunities as other students. It’s quite interesting for me to have transgender community as an object of study but as an international student myself seems to limit my considerations for them.

Our approach started at the UBC work learn website, which is a platform that offers working opportunities for all current UBC students to develop professional skills and learn in a working environment. While we were browsing through the web page, its statements seem to be neutrally positioned so our research on it got stuck. The words that the site uses are so official and almost perfect. After we got advice from our TA, we realized that critical thinking on this site is quite important. Then we realized that is not just enough to be neutral. The site could be better help transgender students instead of being just neutral. So while we put ourselves into transgender people’s positions and try to think in their ways, our group came up with ideas including using a gender-diversified photo in the front page instead of a white male merely, promoting positions clearly reference transgender people, display stories of transgender people in “student stories” section and making direct statements about solutions to bullying on transgender people.

Those improvements, that we can think of, to the work learn website are heavily limited due to the fact that none of our group member is a transgender and also we don’t have friends as transgender. Without the direct access to transgenders all we can do is to try our best to make transpositional consideration for transgender community so those improvement could be helpful or useless even hurtful at the same time.

When I listened to other groups’ presentation, many of them have the same limitation as we have. Thus, they tried similar approaches like analyzing items in menu in the site and they discussed photos in the front page. For example, another group which is also responsible for transgender students pointed out that the web uses a photo implicitly indicating people’s gender in it.

To look more broadly at our subject, the common phenomenon tends to show that those communities(transgender, aboriginal, international etc.) seem to have the equal opportunities as others because, of many activities provided by our school, those sites use official, descriptive and inoffensive language to avoid conflicts or debates but it can bring along underlying problems like people may hold harmful stereotype while they are working with LGBT group of people. It could be called unspoken-unequal rules or silence violence. If problems raised above can’t be avoid or solved, it may becomes normal to have those discrimination on those groups. That is so called “self-fulfilling prophecy” as we learn in class. Once people tacitly approve wrong opinions from the beginning, it might becomes true in real situation. However, it’s hard to operate action which especially sets up for those groups of people because if they are specially treated, they are divided up from us. Maybe all they want is to be treated just like us. To further demonstrate, once they ask for equal opportunities, they admit about their abnormality and the  ongoing inequality at the same time.

The analysis of the UBC website in regards to the Jump Start Orientation Leader application page revealed many more aspects to the question of equal opportunity than I had originally assessed.  We were analyzing this question from the perspective of Aboriginal students.  However, while working through this assignment I realized the complexity of inequality when it comes to social minorities.  I also found that our analysis could only be as accurate as the information that we researched and observed, as none of our group members had any Aboriginal ancestry, so we could not speak to a true experience and opinion on the subject.  I felt that his was definitely our biggest limitation when judging the website through the lens of an Aboriginal student, as the majority of our proposed challenges for Aboriginal students were based on stereotypes or generalizations which are likely not accurate for many of the students at UBC, or Aboriginal people in general.

The operational definition used to identify Aboriginal students was anyone registered under the Indian Act, or anyone who has Metis or Inuit ancestry.  As well, they must be a current UBC student in second year or greater.  This definition fulfilled the most general age and eligibility requirements for the position of a Jump Start Orientation Leader, therefore providing a common base level to compare the experiences of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.

Jump Start Orientation Leaders are UBC students who work in a program designed for incoming first year international students.  The program runs during the last two weeks of the summer and the leaders are required to live on campus for those two weeks, as well as attend training days at the end of the second term, before summer.  This specific role of an orientation leader is more intensive than other leadership roles available through UBC.  We saw this higher time commitment and increased training as possible inhibiting factors for Aboriginal students.  For example, Aboriginal students may be more likely than non-Aboriginal students to be working part-time during the school year to help fund their studies, and therefore would not be able to devote the time required to the training/job.

When considering the website itself, we found no obtrusive problems or general inaccessibility’s.  It had a readability score of 11.2 which should be easily understood by any UBC student applying for this position.  Additionally, the layout of the application page was very linear and well-organized, and it clearly outlined all responsibilities, expectations and eligibilities of the job.  In no way did it discriminate against any minority group.  In fact, the website even mentioned that knowledge of Aboriginal history is a desirable trait.  Conclusively, the website was well structured for providing equal opportunities to UBC students applying for this position.

While the website’s overall layout and universal design was very accessible to any student attending UBC, the idea of equally accessible opportunities is still more complicated than simply the design of a webpage or readability of an article. The determining factors of inequality most likely begin before Aboriginal students have entered UBC.  Because once attending a progressive, top university it is much more common to be treated equally with the rest of the community; it’s getting to this point which is the challenge.  The statistics also support this claim, as only 1% of all UBC students are Aboriginal students.  Clearly the inequity begins before UBC. Aboriginal youth may have been disadvantaged throughout their lives, possibly making them less confident in their abilities or maybe less willing to work for a program like Jump Start.  The Jump Start program in particular might be less attractive to Aboriginal students as it is working with international students who may not know about Aboriginal history in Canada, creating the possibility of racial or cultural ignorance or even prejudice.

In conclusion, the question of whether there are equal opportunities to get involved on campus is very dependent on the group of interest and the program of interest.  In this case, I believe the opportunity advertised by UBC promotes equality, but it is social constraints and discrimination outside of the university which makes the chances of minority groups entering certain programs highly unlikely.

With special consideration to the transgender community, disabled students, international students and aboriginal students, we examined several webpages from the UBC site, attempting to determine weather these communities within the UBC student body are well represented.  The representation of these groups or lack thereof in turn speaks to the opportunities which are available to them in the university setting.

My own group analyzed the Collegia Advisor webpage to determine if it was inclusive to the transgender community.  Inclusive or exclusive language was the main criteria which we used to determine how well-representing the webpage was.  For example, pronouns which only addressed one gender binary would be evidence of exclusive language.  Although the text of the webpage was neutral in terms of language and pronouns, the header image for the page was not.  The description for the image was “man and woman conversation” which clearly depicts a gender binary, and doesn’t represent individuals who don’t identify with such.  The description also implied that the man and woman in the image were characteristically male and female, insinuating there is a way to tell if one is male or female, and in turn if they are not.  Consequentially, a stereotype is implied about individuals who identify as transgender.  The other group who focused on the representation of the transgender community found similar implications with the image on their page, and suggested more androgynous-looking individuals, which I believe is a suggestion which applies to the page examined by my group as well.

A common theme throughout several of the presentations was that although the idea of Universal Design in terms of creating a framework which encompasses and represents a wide range of people is appealing, it may not be realistic in all scenarios.  For example, it’s difficult, if not impossible to create an all-representing, all-inclusive design for the disabled community, because there are a wide range of both mental and physical disabilities.  In this situation, it may make more sense to cater to each individual disability, as opposed to attempting to create a general, less specific framework to encompass all disabilities into one.

Beyond this, the very basis upon which Universal Design rests creates a paradox, as one of the members in my group, Joyce, mentioned.  By attempting to be inclusive with a design and ideology which represents a wide range of communities in an institution such as UBC, you end up, by default, having to create separation between groups.  In analyzing the Collegia Advisor webpage, as my group was assigned, through a transgender lens, this paradox became incredibly evident.  We found ourselves asking, “What is a ‘transgender lens’?”, and realizing that the very concept of analyzing the webpage in such a way made it almost necessary to stereotype the transgender community and create an “us” and a “them”.

The general consensus from the presentations as well as myself and my group’s analysis of the Collegia Advisor webpage demonstrates that there are not equal opportunities for all students at UBC.  Not only are there aspects of the webpages which we looked at that were exclusive in their language, visuals, text size and the like, the very concept of Universal Design which we used to judge how well-representing these webpages were, is not necessarily inclusive itself.

To honestly answer this question, I think it is important to analyse each perspective that may be affected by questions of equality. I do however acknowledge that I am limited by not being part of one of these minorities and therefore must assume the perspective of these groups. My group analysed part of the UBC website in the context of accessibility to a person with a disability. Ultimately disabilities are on a spectrum because there is not a “one size fits all” when it comes to the umbrella term “disability”. It could be mental or physical, functional or non-functional. Therefore, something like universal design wouldn’t be the best fit, as every disability is different and their support needs to be tailored to fit their needs. Are there equal opportunities for these individuals to get involved on campus? It depends. I believe if the rowing team didn’t want me because I’m too short then they may be picky when choosing the best of the best for their team, yet something like work learn has such a variety of positions open that I believe they could accommodate to anyone.

However, universal design would be great for the LGBTQ community, as everyone would be equal. However, a problem here is representation. On the UBC site there are no photos of androgynous men or women who may even resemble someone of the LGBTQ community which adds to the idea of “we”/ “normal”/ men and women and a “them”/ “not normal”/ others. Which we know to be not true as we’ve learned that gender is a social construct and nothing but a learned behavior. This lack of representation leads to discouragement and lack of involvement because they cannot see themselves where they may want to be. So, are there equal opportunities? Not when they are being discouraged from joining clubs or participating in UBC events.

As for international students, I think there are many great opportunities that are equally accessible to international students. For example, looking at AMS, it is very diverse and rightfully so as it represents the whole student body. There’s also work learn that is non-discriminative and colour-blind when hiring students. However, one thing I’ve personally noticed is that the UBC site itself is really hard to navigate and at times unclear. And that’s coming from me who was born and raised in the English language, so for someone who’s not as strong in English or it isn’t there first language may have ample difficulty trying to find the opportunities in the first place. That could definitely discourage them from seeking opportunities in the community. Are there equal opportunities? For the most part I believe so, however clear instructions and details on the website might encourage even more people to participate and it would help everyone navigate the site better.

Lastly, are there equal opportunities for Aboriginal students on campus? I believe no, because they don’t have equal opportunities to begin with. To explain, here in Canada the assimilation of aboriginal people in residential school was a cultural genocide, which was definitely the biggest discourager in perusing post-secondary education. The effects of those residential schools still reek havoc on the community today and still strongly discourages its kids from school. Only 1% of UBC’s population is made up of aboriginal people, which isn’t a lot compared to UBC’s population. There firstly needs to be better programs within the community to encourage these kids to go to school and for schools to create better relationships with the aboriginal population. But on campus I believe that there are good opportunities for the aboriginal kids who go to UBC like work learn and AMS and clubs and teams. Also, on the website they have those photos of people who are culturally ambiguous which often have people who look like they could be aboriginal to show some representation. Therefore, on campus I do believe aboriginal people have equal opportunities.