Link to Original Post: Task 4 – From Scroll to Text (Connors, 2023)
Note: Commenting wasn’t available on the original post. As such, I’ve shared my response to Dana’s post here.
Comment
Hi Dana!
I enjoyed reading your reflection and could definitely relate to some of the challenges you encountered along the way with creating your stamps. When making mine, I also made the mistake of not carving my letters backwards. I also used upper-case characters – thinking that they would be more manageable to carve than lower-case ones.
You raise good points around the importance of literacy access and how the most privileged enjoyed access to literature prior to the advent of the mechanized printing process. I, too, reflected on the impact of mechanizations affordances in terms of efficiency and cost (Lamb & McCormick, 2021) and made some connections to the role that literacy played in social justice and liberation (drawing on Freire’s work on critical pedagogy) (Smidt, 2014).
You wrote:
“O’Brian (2017) describes that there is a lack of accessibility in today’s digital texts and best practices for accessibility are not often utilized.” (Connors, 2023)
I’ve observed some of the gaps identified by O’Brian (2017) in my own professional context. Accessibility is a critical part of the work that I do in my work within an academic library environment. Part of my role is to design and remediate instructional content, while supporting librarians and other staff in ensuring their content meets provincial accessibility standards (e.g., written and non-written digital material such as learning modules, open-texts, slides, videos, etc.). I will admit, the scope of the work can be daunting at times, but it’s critical to ensure equitable access to digital texts and materials for learners with diverse abilities and needs.
Reflection
Dana’s post prompted me to reflect further on literacy and it’s implications related to privilege and access. I’m reminded of the responsibility of educators to create meaningful learning environments that all can access and participate. This of course is what the UDL framework (CAST, 2018) is all about and why it is something that I turn to daily within my own practice in higher education.
Taking a step back to reflect on how Dana shared her post – I’ve made a few observations:
- We have both used photographed images of our potato stamp prints. The use of a visual modality helps to convey our response to the task instructions.
- UBC Blogs (i.e., WordPress) was used to compose our respective posts. I used headers to organize my content, where Dana provided her reflection without headers.
- Dana hyperlinked out to other articles to support her reflection; providing the reader with another way to engage with the text of her post. I, on the other hand, did not include any hypertext.
References
Connors, D. (2023). Task #4 – From scroll to text. Dana C’s 540. https://blogs.ubc.ca/dc54065a/task-4-from-scroll-to-text/
Lamb, R., & McCormick, J. (Hosts). (2021, May 15). From the vault: Invention of the book, part 2. [Audio podcast episode]. In Stuff to blow your mind. iHeart Radio. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/stuff-to-blow-your-mind-21123915/episode/from-the-vault-invention-of-the-82564254/
O’Brian, A (2017, December 11). Making digital communications accessible. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/making-digital-communications-accessible
Smidt, S. (2014). Introducing Freire: A guide for students, teachers, and practitioners. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315777634
CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org