Reducing Ableism One PowerPoint at a Time

This event is part of the CTLT Spring Institute, taking place from June 3–6, 2024.

We often speak about culturally responsive practices, universal design, and universal design for learning. But much of it may seem too hard, too much, or too overwhelming to even consider. Per the newest numbers by Statistics Canada (2022), there are 27% or 8 million Canadians, 15 years or older who have at least one identified disability. These people are in our classrooms and boardrooms. What if we told you that there is a way to make your presentations and instruction more inclusive of all learners, simply by creating your presentations with accessibility in mind.

In this workshop, we will show you how to create PowerPoint presentations that are accessible to most of your audience, whether you have a small group of 10 in a tutorial or 300 in an auditorium. We will work together to learn the basics, and if you bring your own presentation, we will help you make it accessible. When we plan with access in mind, we remove the majority of retrofitting needed on the other side, and most of all we actively work against academic ableism.

Facilitator: Erika Fundelius, Assistant Professor, Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education