Disabilities, neurodiversity or language barriers can make educational environments stressful, challenging and even unwelcoming places for some. Combating this and creating more inclusive, welcoming learning spaces requires a conscious shift towards more accessible teaching practices.
Educational institutions have been on an upward climb when it comes to inclusivity, accessibility, and encouraging diversity within learning environments. But there are still holes in current systems and practices that will take work and time to patch up.
Changing an industry often starts on an individual level, driven by passionate people challenging outdated industry norms. Any educator can make the decision to prioritise inclusivity in their own practice, and it starts with acknowledging that there’s room for improvement.
Collarts educator Bronwyn Pringle is a prime example of someone leading the way in accessible creative education. She was recently awarded a grant from Creative Victoria to develop training programs for deaf and hard of hearing students to become theatre lighting artists.
This pursuit was born out of research into the needs of the industry after the pandemic, reacting to a loss of skilled technical personnel in the arts and entertainment industries.
Bronywn’s grant tackles this gap by creating resources for students that might otherwise not have access to industry training, broadening access and inviting more creative voices into the field.
Her idea for the project came about when she was struggling to staff creative projects with skilled crew after the pandemic. But Bronwyn’s real lightbulb moment came in 2023 when she worked on Flow Festival – an arts festival that celebrates deaf and hard of hearing creatives.
“Every single person on stage was Deaf, Hard of Hearing or CODA, whereas not a single member of the technical crew came from the Deaf community,” Bronwyn explains.
“When I looked into deaf lighting designers, I could only find one person online. I wondered if we could do something about this given the amazing visual skills of deaf artists and their sensitivity to the importance of light.”
One of the greatest points of tension in accessible education is the question of Universal Learning Design (ULD) versus specific educational practices that accommodate individual student needs.
ULD is a framework for inclusive learning that builds flexibility into curriculums, offering multiple ways for students to engage with and demonstrate their learning. It’s designed to create learning environments that are open and effective for a wide variety of learners.
Bronwyn reflects on conversations she’s had with deaf and hard of hearing creatives throughout her research. Many of these people felt unwelcome in creative training spaces due to a lack of understanding and accommodations, and ULD is sometimes not enough to overcome these hurdles.
“If we want to create a more diverse creative industry, we need a combination of ULD and very specific training to open up opportunities to marginalised communities.”
Bronwyn recently completed Collarts’ Graduate Certificate in Higher Education and has already applied what she learned to her training programs. One key lesson she took on board was the importance of knowing your students, understanding both individual needs and the cultures of communities like the Deaf community in order to create safe, welcoming learning spaces.
Bronwyn’s first piece of advice for teachers looking to make their practice more inclusive is to put yourself in a space where your needs are different to the people around you.
“The first time I was in a rehearsal without an Auslan interpreter and I was the only person there not fluent in Auslan was the biggest learning experience for me. Having that embodied experience was so revealing.”
Living the experience of being without accommodations allowed her to engage more actively and empathetically with research into practical approaches, accessibility resources and theoretical thinking.
Consulting directly with the community that inspired her project was vital to understanding the intricacies of accessible education needs. While Bronywn began by focusing on the practicalities of teaching in Auslan-centric environments, she also gained unexpected insights from wider conversations about Deaf culture and spaces.
“Co-design of teaching with students is obviously useful in many fields,” she says. “But when it comes to accessible teaching practices, it is essential.”
By engaging members of the Deaf community as consultants, Bronwyn was also able to develop relationships where she could ask obvious or silly questions comfortably with the understanding that she was genuinely committed to doing better as an educator.
Normalising and encouraging conversations around access needs opens doors for so many people into education, including both students and teachers.
“Teachers are allowed to have access needs as well,” Bronwyn points out. “Which seems obvious to say, but it’s not always considered in practice.”
This applies to disabled or neurodivergent teachers who may benefit from accommodations that allow them to teach more comfortably and effectively, but at some point everyone might find themselves in environments where they require accommodations.
“For my work in Deaf spaces, I needed access to Auslan to be a good teacher,” says Bronwyn. “I contemplated how to teach through interpreters, but I need to be able to communicate directly with my students. That was my access requirement.”
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