Special Accessibility in Education Issue of UW-Published Journal Now Available

A special issue of an open journal focusing on accessibility in education, published by University of Wyoming Libraries, is now available.

“The Journal of Technology-Integrated Lessons and Teaching (JTILT) publishes technology-rich lesson plans and activities for teachers and teacher education audiences,” says Craig Shepherd, JTILT editor-in-chief and an associate professor of instructional and design technology at the University of Memphis. “It includes the context, lesson design considerations and critical reflections regarding implementation in addition to lesson plans and support materials.”

Lessons and materials are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This type of license means users are free to share and adapt materials. This opens nearly limitless possibilities for educational professionals at all levels to gain new insights and additions to their courses and teaching rhetoric.

The special issue focuses on professional development workshops, lessons, activities and materials to facilitate accessibility. It features nine peer-reviewed articles that provide insights, resources and approaches regarding Universal Design for Learning, web and multimedia accessibility, and related topics.

“Strategically Inclusive E-Learning Design” provides a replicable lesson plan. It targets teachers at all levels by modeling foundational concepts for how to design accessible educational materials. With a slate of resources, including handouts, videos and relevant readings, this comprehensive course can be taken in bite-size pieces or presented as a whole.

“Writing Effective Alt-text for Online Instructional Materials” creates a one-hour intensive program, providing attendees with the skills to implement improved accessibility in their instructional materials. Visual media is a critical component of many instructional tools, and understanding them clearly can be essential to the lesson’s viability; ensuring accessibility is a must to ensure student success. With minimal time and resources, this lesson can easily be adapted into a lunch and learn program, guest speaker session or self-paced course.

For more information about these articles and to view the other articles in the special issue, go to https://journals.uwyo.edu/index.php/jtilt/issue/view/247. To view other issues of JTILT, go to https://journals.uwyo.edu/index.php/jtilt.

For more information, call Sierra Pandy, scholarly communications and open publishing librarian at UW Libraries, at 766-5313 or email spandy@uwyo.edu.

About the Journal of Technology-Integrated Lessons and Teaching

Developed in 2022, JTILT provides a venue for professionals who wish to document and share teaching practices beyond syllabi reviews, peer observations, student evaluations and other methods used in promotion decisions. In addition to technology-rich lessons and activities, it publishes microcredentials and badges for pre-K to higher education professionals. UW Libraries and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology sponsor the journal. For more information about JTILT, go to https://journals.uwyo.edu/index.php/jtilt.