Section 1 of four
How this landscape is organized
This is the accessibility work of a learning design practice, gathered in one place. It draws on two branches: Accessibility, which concerns access at the level of an individual person and the obligation an institution holds toward them, and Universal Design for Learning, which concerns designing for the predictable range of learners before any individual request is made. The two are related but not the same, and the arrangement here keeps them distinct while showing where they meet.
Resources are arranged in seven groups by what they are for, rather than by which branch they grow on. A group therefore holds resources from both branches where the question they answer is shared. Each resource names its home branch so the distinction is never lost. Groups are given in alphabetical order, followed by the three engagements that draw on them.
Every resource states the bodies of knowledge it rests on and cites its sources by number to the reference list in Section 4. Every resource on this page is practised; where it is marked as in development, the grounding and sources are settled and the written resource is not yet published.
This landscape zooms into two branches of the learning design practice mapped at andrearobin.com, where the trunk is Groundwork, the learning design method. The contributions here that do not appear on that map are made possible by Fieldwork, the research method practised at Accessible Learning Labs.
Two kinds of relationship are given for each resource. Most related is calculated from sources and themes held in common, and surfaces resources that answer similar questions from different groups. Connected resources are the direct relationships recorded on the map — the resources a reader is likely to need alongside this one.
Section 3 of four
Every resource, in full
Sources are written out in full here as well as numbered, so that following a reference is never necessary to understand an entry.
Sectors and participation
Clinical, health, research, studio and shop settings, where access questions carry additional duties, and the question of who is able to take part at all.
Access in Clinical and Placement Education
Holding patient safety and access seriously at once
Practised · resource in development
Placement, simulation, precepting, and competency assessment are where essential requirements are most contested and where safety arguments can close conversations that deserve to stay open. This resource works through the design and assessment architecture that allows a program to protect genuine safety requirements while examining the ones it has never had reason to question.
Group. Sectors and participation
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. Technical standards in health professions education (Meeks & Jain); construct validity; duty to accommodate
Themes. Accommodation, Assessment, Access
Sources
- Reference 48: Meeks, L. M., & Jain, N. R. (2018). Accessibility, Inclusion, and Action in Medical Education: Lived Experiences of Learners and Physicians with Disabilities. Association of American Medical Colleges.
- Reference 37: Messick, S. (1995). “Validity of Psychological Assessment: Validation of Inferences from Persons’ Responses and Performances as Scientific Inquiry into Score Meaning.” American Psychologist, 50(9), 741–749.
- Reference 36: British Columbia (Public Service Employee Relations Commission) v. BCGSEU, [1999] 3 S.C.R. 3, 1999 CanLII 652 (SCC) — the “Meiorin” decision, establishing the unified bona fide requirement test and accommodation to the point of undue hardship.
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Accessible Health and Patient Education
Access beyond the learner, to the person receiving care
Practised · resource in development
Health literacy, plain language, communication access, and accessible patient education and informed consent, set against the documented health disparities disabled people experience. It is the point at which accessible learning design reaches materials intended for patients and the public rather than for students and staff.
Group. Sectors and participation
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. Health literacy (Nutbeam); disability health disparities (Krahn et al.); social determinants of health
Themes. Access, Wellbeing, Equity
Sources
- Reference 49: Nutbeam, D. (2000). “Health Literacy as a Public Health Goal: A Challenge for Contemporary Health Education and Communication Strategies into the 21st Century.” Health Promotion International, 15(3), 259–267.
- Reference 50: Krahn, G. L., Walker, D. K., & Correa-De-Araujo, R. (2015). “Persons with Disabilities as an Unrecognized Health Disparity Population.” American Journal of Public Health, 105(S2), S198–S206.
- Reference 51: WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (2008). Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity Through Action on the Social Determinants of Health. World Health Organization.
- Reference 1: Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. ASCD.
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Accessible Research Participation and Knowledge Products
Who can take part, and who can read the findings
Practised · resource in development
Consent materials, participant-facing instruments, plain-language summaries, and accessible dissemination — increasingly expected by research ethics boards and funders, and rarely designed for. It sits at the junction of knowledge mobilization and accessibility, where a study’s reach is set as much by its materials as by its recruitment.
Group. Sectors and participation
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. TCPS 2 (2022); knowledge mobilization; WCAG 2.2
Themes. Research, Access, Equity
Sources
- Reference 11: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, & Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (2022). Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans — TCPS 2 (2022).
- Reference 52: Graham, I. D., Logan, J., Harrison, M. B., Straus, S. E., Tetroe, J., Caswell, W., & Robinson, N. (2006). “Lost in Knowledge Translation: Time for a Map?” Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 26(1), 13–24.
- Reference 15: W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendation.
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Access in Studio, Shop and Lab-Based Learning
Safety-sensitive learning that is not clinical
Practised · resource in development
Shops, studios, and laboratories are where hands-on learning meets real hazard, and where access decisions get made at the bench rather than in an office: which tool, at what pace, with what supervision, in which layout. This resource treats equipment-based learning the way the clinical-placement resource treats wards — protecting genuine safety requirements while examining the ones that are only habit — and covers adaptive tooling, paced instruction, workstation design, and the peer and technician roles that make access daily rather than exceptional.
Group. Sectors and participation
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. Essential requirements in safety-sensitive environments; universal design of physical space; technical standards in professional education (Meeks & Jain, by analogy)
Practised in. An art and design university's shop and studio program (seven years): studio accessibility overhaul, adaptive technology stations, layouts for wheelchair use, personalised support to disabled students on complex tools; hands-on STEM kits at a national research laboratory
Themes. Access, Disability studies, Standards
Sources
- Reference 48: Meeks, L. M., & Jain, N. R. (2018). Accessibility, Inclusion, and Action in Medical Education: Lived Experiences of Learners and Physicians with Disabilities. Association of American Medical Colleges.
- Reference 35: Connell, B. R., Jones, M., Mace, R., Mueller, J., Mullick, A., Ostroff, E., Sanford, J., Steinfeld, E., Story, M., & Vanderheiden, G. (1997). The Principles of Universal Design, Version 2.0. Center for Universal Design, North Carolina State University.
- Reference 36: British Columbia (Public Service Employee Relations Commission) v. BCGSEU, [1999] 3 S.C.R. 3, 1999 CanLII 652 (SCC) — the “Meiorin” decision, establishing the unified bona fide requirement test and accommodation to the point of undue hardship.
British Columbia (Public Service Employee Relations Commission) v. BCGSEU, [1999] 3 S.C.R. 3, 1999 CanLII 652…https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1999/1999canlii652/1999canlii652.html
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Access in Graduate Education
Supervision, comprehensive exams, thesis and defence
Practised · resource in development
Graduate education is organised around supervision and milestones more than around courses. The challenge is that accommodation processes designed for coursework do not map directly onto a supervisory relationship, a comprehensive exam or a thesis. This resource covers access in supervision, comprehensive and candidacy exams, research and fieldwork, thesis writing and the defence, and in funding and time-to-completion rules. It separates the essential requirements of a degree from the conventions that have gathered around them.
Group. Sectors and participation
Home branch. Accessibility · Emerging
Grounding. NEADS National Graduate Experience Taskforce; academic ableism (Dolmage); construct validity (Messick)
Practised in. Augmentative and alternative communication support for a client’s thesis writing in private home care
Themes. Accommodation, Access, Assessment
Sources
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Access at Admission and Transition
The first term, before the system knows a student
Practised · resource in development
On entering post-secondary education, responsibility for arranging access moves to the student. The challenge is the interval between admission and the first accommodation being in place. This resource covers admission requirements read as essential-requirements documents, what a student needs to know and do before the first week, orientation and housing, and the peer and staff roles that support the transition, with attention to the self-advocacy and self-determination skills that the transition research identifies.
Group. Sectors and participation
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. Meaningful access (Moore, SCC 2012); self-determination in transition (Getzel & Thoma); self-advocacy framework (Test et al.); AHEAD program standards
Practised in. An art and design university: a peer mentorship program pairing new students with accommodations with trained mentors
Themes. Access, Accommodation, Community
Sources
- Reference 86: Moore v. British Columbia (Education), 2012 SCC 61, [2012] 3 S.C.R. 360 — meaningful access to education as the service a student is owed.
- Reference 91: Getzel, E. E., & Thoma, C. A. (2008). “Experiences of College Students with Disabilities and the Importance of Self-Determination in Higher Education Settings.” Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, 31(2), 77–84.
- Reference 77: Test, D. W., Fowler, C. H., Wood, W. M., Brewer, D. M., & Eddy, S. (2005). “A Conceptual Framework of Self-Advocacy for Students with Disabilities.” Remedial and Special Education, 26(1), 43–54.
- Reference 57: Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD). Program Domains, Standards, and Performance Indicators.
Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD). Program Domains, Standards, and Performance Indicatorshttps://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/program-standards-ethics
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Every resource on this page reflects applied work carried out with learners, design teams, and partner organizations, and is grounded in the scholarship listed above. An interactive version of this map presents the same content as a navigable diagram.