Dr. Ann Gagné (Senior Educational Developer, Accessibility & Inclusion, Brock University)
As part of the 2026 SoTL Speaker Series at Yorkville + TFS, CTEI was honoured to host Dr. Ann Gagné for her session, “Accessible Language Use for Educators.”
Each area and discipline has language and terminology understood by practitioners and professionals in that field. There is an assumption in our language use that everyone knows what we mean when we use words, and that assumption can be exclusionary to English as additional language learners (EAL), students with accessibility supports, and international students. This session explored how to approach language use in an accessible manner in course design, assignment design, and teaching facilitation, through reference to plain language writing, accessibility tools, and readability. It provided tangible strategies and support knowledge translation in your field to different audiences.
__________
- Additional information, research, and scholarship:
- Google Doc of Slide Deck: Accessible Language Use for Educators
- Dr. Ann’s Accessagogy Podcast
- Conducting an Accessibility and Inclusion Audit – x8 modules that will guide you through different aspects of your course that you should reflect on and audit to have inclusive and accessible course design and content
- Gagné, A., Dakhilalian, K., et al.’s Accessible Open Educational Resources Adoption Considerations: Accessibility, Pedagogy, Practice (2024)
- Gagné, A. (2024). Academic Integrity, Ableist Assessment Design, and Pedagogies of Disclosure. In: Eaton, S.E. (eds) Second Handbook of Academic Integrity. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54144-5_134
