S10 E7: Embracing Accessibility with Luis Perez

Summary:
In this engaging episode of "Practical Access," hosts Lisa Dieker and Rebecca Hines invite Luis Perez, the Disability and Digital Inclusion Lead at CAST, to discuss the vital topic of accessibility and universal design for learning (UDL). Perez shares his personal journey, having been diagnosed with a visual impairment as an adult, and how it fuels his passion for making digital spaces more inclusive.

Resources:
1.

Highlights:
- Personal Experience with Disability: Luis Perez opens up about his life-changing diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that led to his visual impairment. This personal connection adds a profound layer to the discussion on accessibility.
- The Essence of Universal Design for Learning: Perez elaborates on the core principles of UDL and how it intertwines with accessibility. He stresses that UDL is about creating beneficial and equitable experiences for everyone, surpassing mere compliance with standards.
- Practical Strategies for Educators and Parents: The episode provides actionable advice for educators and parents on implementing accessibility features, focusing on the wealth of resources available at the AIM Center at CAST.
- Future of Accessibility in Tech: Perez touches on the evolving landscape of AI and digital technology, emphasizing the importance of keeping the user experience at the forefront of AI development to ensure accessibility for all.

Transcript

Lisa Dieker: 
Welcome to Practical Access. I'm Lisa Dieker.

Rebecca Hines: 
And I'm Rebecca Hines. And, Lisa, I know you're excited about today's guest. It's a topic we both love, and I can't wait for our listeners to hear.

Lisa Dieker: 
Yeah, so today, we have with us Luis Perez, who's the Disability and Digital Inclusion Lead at CAST, which we both know is the home of the foundation of Universal Design for Learning. So, welcome. We're so excited you're with us.

Luis Perez: 
Thank you so much. I really appreciate being part of this podcast, and I'm very passionate about the topic of accessibility and Universal Design for Learning.

Lisa Dieker: 
Yeah. So, what we love that topic, and I'll start with kind of the first question for you today. And that is just to share with us a little bit about your passion. Like, what drives that, and what should our listeners know about access, in general, just that word access in digital format is really, I think, a great way to kick us off.

Luis Perez: 
Great questions. So, my passion for accessibility really is informed by my personal experience because I identify as a disabled person. So, I use identity-first language. There's also a person-first language, right, person with a disability. So, I'll use both interchangeably because my experience is a little complex. I was diagnosed with a visual impairment as an adult, and so I lived my entire life as a person without a disability. And then, as an adult in graduate school, was then diagnosed with the significant visual impairment, which is, quote, "retinitis pigmentosa." And so, I'm losing my peripheral vision, and there's a possibility that someday I will be blind. So, accessibility is essential for me. It's what allows me not only did it allow me to complete my education, but it also allows me to do the work that I do at CAST. And so one thing that I would really highlight when we think about accessibility, we have standards, we have legal requirements, but at the end of the day, accessibility is about people and it's about experience. So, we really emphasize the AIM center, which is our federally funded technical assistance center that is based at CAST. We really emphasize the functional definition of accessibility, which comes from the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Ed, which is a person with a disability should be able to engage in the same interactions, perceive the same information, or receive the same information and enjoy the same services. So, it's about what you should be able to do to get the same benefits, the same opportunities out of that experience, not just meeting the requirements of standards and legal mandates. So, I'm all about creating a better experience, and that's my focus with accessibility.

Rebecca Hines: 
Yeah, that's great and interesting to hear your perspective as someone who acquired a disability. I think that's one of the things that when we're talking to teachers, in particular, it's hard for people to remember that just because you do not need a tool right now does not mean that someone might not need it later. And so these same supports that we provide in the classroom now, even for the students who are non-disabled, there may come a time that they need to use some specific tools. They may have parents who need the tools right now. So, that's one of the reasons that I love the work that you all are doing at CAST. I was wondering, I know that you have a book on the CAST site on learning on the go: how to personalize education with the iPad. Could you tell us a little bit about how you have used different devices and tools for yourself and how that relates to what we can do for kids?

Luis Perez: 
Well, for me, it was life-changing. I had a chance encounter while I was pursuing my graduate education. I worked at a computer lab at our university, the University of South Florida, and I was basically setting up some of the computers that they had just purchased for the lab. And it just so happened that that was the first system from Apple that came with the built-in screen reader. And I just, playing around with the settings, I turned it on, and it changed my life in an instant. And it wasn't really the technology per se; it was really the message, right? The message of like, hey, there are really smart people working on amazing technology, and it's going to ensure that you're able to not only complete your education but when you're done here, you'll be able to pursue employment and be just as productive as anybody else. And so, technology is part of my life. It's like the oxygen I breathe. There's every system possible here in front of me because I use them all. I use Apple devices, I use Chromebooks, I use Windows computers, and they all now have built-in accessibility features. And so, I would just say, encourage exploration. Encourage students or adults if you work with adults, go into the settings and explore some of those options. And you don't have to start with the screen reader or switch access. Start with just making the text bigger or changing the colors, the background colors. And sometimes, even if you don't have a disability, just because you're aging, those things can be really helpful. So, the model, you know, that we follow at CAST is essential for some, almost always helpful for all. And so, that's how we look at accessibility in the context of universal design for learning. And a key idea of universal design for learning is in every environment; we're going to have variability. And sometimes we don't know what people need and have a preference for. And so, we need to design that flexibility from the get-go. And part of that is just making sure that people are aware of the accessibility supports that are, like you said, already available and included with the systems you've already purchased.

Lisa Dieker: 
And I love that whole, you know, good for some, good for all kind of mentality. And I think, you know, that's what we've always believed in the great foundational work that came from CAST and universal design for learning. And I'm really curious because, you know, the AIM center is well-known, has been around for a long time. But imagine for a moment I'm a parent or I'm a teacher. What would be the thing I should go to the AIM Center for? Like, help me understand what it is that you might offer me that might be helpful to my students in my classroom or me as a parent with a student who has some accessible needs at home

Luis Perez: 
So, the first thing is, our website is best when it comes to the resources. But the best place to start is we have a getting started tab, and as part of that tab, you'll find, I think it's by role, we have different audiences. There are different people that need to be involved in the provision of accessible educational materials and technologies because the two go hand in hand. You've got to have the materials need to be accessible so that they and the technologies can work the way that they were intended. And likewise, if you just give people the materials and they don't have the technologies to consume them, then we're only addressing half of the coin, if you will. So, we got to see, we got to address both sides of the coin. I would say take a look at the role page that we have, and then you'll see that the resources are tailored depending on the role that you have: if you're a family member, if you're a K-12 teacher, if you're in higher ed, workforce, we cover the entire lifespan. And the other thing is on our website, we have a series of videos, accessible learning across the lifespan. And again, that addresses the fact that accessibility needs to travel with you. It's not limited to, "Oh, you're in K-12 or you're in higher ed." It needs to travel with you, and you need to learn about it as early as possible so that you can start building the language around accessibility, so you can advocate for yourself because as you continue on in the educational system, that's going to be a big part of your experience: being able to tell other people what your needs and preferences are. So definitely urge people to find that page, and depending on your role, you'll see we've selected one or two resources that are specifically tailored for you.

Lisa Dieker: 
Great, thank you. Really great example. And if you go there, we will put the link on the podcast. You certainly can see quickly how to access some really great information.

Rebecca Hines:
 And I think one of the things that I always find most helpful when I'm preparing teachers or training current teachers is, are they online tools that are available that are education geared towards education. And there are certainly several things on there that someone could use right away to go in and get started. But I really encourage listeners to go take a look at the CAST website, check out their online tools if you were an educator because exploring just one time will lead you to something that I believe you'll be able to implement quickly. And that's the goal of our podcast. And wondering if you could share with us what do you think is the one thing that teachers need to fully understand about universal design beyond the idea that, you know, it's going to be good for all of your learners? What's one key thing you think every teacher should know?

Luis Perez: 
Well, and since you mentioned that you're really about the practical on this podcast, it's in your title. I would definitely encourage people to check out one page on our website. It's personalizing the reading experience because it's stuff you can right away start implementing the kinds of supports that are already available; you just have to discover them. An example of that would be on your web browser; there's an option to remove all the distractions and change the colors and change the font. You know, those are—they call them a reading view, but to me, it's personalizing that reading experience. And now, to your original question here, I think universal design for learning really needs to start with a mindset shift. And the big mindset shift is that the barriers are in the environment, not in learners. So, if someone's not learning, the metaphor that I use is like take a plant and in the middle of winter in the snow, and they're going to look a little bit different, right? Because they're not getting the proper nutrition; they're not getting the sunlight that they need. Take that same plant and plant it in spring when the conditions are optimal, and it's getting enough light, and it's getting the nutrients that it needs and enough water, and it will blossom. And so, that's the same thing we want to do with education. We want to create the learning environment where people can blossom and thrive. And so, the barriers—whenever somebody's not learning, take a look at the environment and how is it designed, is it accessible, can people perceive the information, can they engage with the information? And so, that's, I think, the mindset that we need to take first is that the barriers are in the environment, not in learners

Lisa Dieker: 
It's funny too because Becky's in Florida, and I just moved to Kansas, so that analogy worked really well with the thought of a plant going from the tundra to the words. Well, I have just one last question, but it's kind of a two-parter because I would love to know your insights, and again, you may not have because I don't; that's why I'm asking you. But I think the two things that I find least accessible right now that we're still struggling with, one is anything in mass, so Excel, SPSS, you know, I just find that whole ability to output things accessible. So I'm curious if there's anything you might recommend or to think about. And then kind of where are you thinking that we're going in this world of AI, with all the virtual reality, AI, how accessible is that when we know when it's digital print accessible, but there's so much coming out that I don't even know where to go. So I'm curious about math and kind of where you think the new frontier is for accessibility.

Luis Perez: 
Well, you save the best for last, didn't you? So with math, we've made a lot of progress, and the main thing is that we want to advocate for MathML. That's a way that math can be encoded so that, again, it works well with the assistive technologies that people use, whether it's a text-to-speech reader or a screen reader if you're completely blind and you need that kind of support. But that's the key: advocate with publishers, with developers of curriculum to adopt MathML. It was developed for that exact purpose of making math more accessible. And then to your second question, where we're going with AI—in fact, I was just interviewed for an article that just came out on AI and assisted technology, and what I emphasize is that AI can do lots of great things, right? It can improve our text-to-speech so it's more natural sounding; it can help us create summaries so that we get the information in a way that is more cognitively accessible. But the main thing is to always remember that there's an individual, right? And there's an individual with passions and preferences and so on. So I always advocate for the person in the middle. So when we use AI, we always want to make sure that we keep that user experience in mind. So if the AI is producing a dashboard or powering a dashboard, are the colors accessible on that dashboard? Can it be navigated with the keyboard? And these are just kind of basic accessibility questions we should be asking, but always come back to, you know, AI is really powerful, but it's a first draft and it doesn't replace the person. The person still needs to be in the middle of those decisions.

Lisa Dieker: 
We agree 100%. Any last questions, Becky?

Rebecca Hines: 
No, I do want to thank you for your work and for your very clear responses for teachers today.

Lisa Dieker: 
Yeah, and thank you for sharing your personal story. We know that that always brings, you know, a whole level of understanding to the passion that you're doing. So we thank you for joining us; we thank you for all the work you're doing. And listeners, if you have any questions, you can certainly post them on our Twitter at Access Practical or post on our Facebook page. Thank you again.

Luis Perez: 
Thanks so much