Content area
Full text
ABSTRACT
It is important to ensure educational equity for students with disabilities in online courses as more courses are taught online during the pandemic. This conceptual paper describes the key barriers for instructors to implement inclusive online classes, particularly technology courses, during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggests specific strategies to mitigate the negative impact on students with disabilities. We hope that this paper will motivate more Information Technology/Information Systems (IT/IS) instructors to implement more inclusive and accessible online courses to keep all students, including students with disabilities, motivated and engaged in online environments throughout the pandemic.
Keywords: Online learning, Inclusive learning, Diversity, Students with disabilities, Universal design, Collaborative learning
1.INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many universities to transition quickly to online instruction during the Spring Semester of 2020. There was little time for instructors to prepare for online courses and follow effective instructional design practices. This abrupt transition to online modality has negatively impacted various populations of students, including students with disabilities - especially students with hearing impairments, deafness, and visual impairments (Mohammed, 2020) since many instructors were not prepared or lacked the experience to teach online. A recent report from Digital Promise (2020) showed a decrease of college students' satisfaction after schools switched to all courses offered online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report indicated that undergraduate students experienced challenges participating in online courses. For example, many students disclosed they were having problems staying motivated. Students grieved over the loss of interactions with their instructors and peers (Digital Promise, 2020). The latest College Pulse survey (2020) reported that more than 90% of respondents thought they should pay less tuition if classes were online. The majority of the respondents believed that online courses could be improved through the use of better technology.
The pandemic is still going on, and our daily life will be far from normal for some time. There is a high chance that online courses may have to continue for quite a while. As we plan for the coming semesters, we must reflect and identify areas of concern to address and continuously make improvements. Since equality, diversity, and inclusion are essential for higher education and the Instruction Technology (IT) workforce, we must be more innovative. The accessibility and quality of online...