Accessibility4Equity: Cripping Technology-Mediated Compulsory Education through Sociotechnical Praxis

Abstract
During COVID-19, technology has frequently mediated schools’ emergency remote learning. Tragically, many of those technologies, despite legal requirements to the contrary, are inaccessible to disabled youth—a pattern of oppression within compulsory education that predates the pandemic by almost two decades and is rooted in ableism. In this paper, I advance a new inter- disciplinary framework—Accessibility4Equity (A4E)— that integrates existing single-discipline theories to explain the messy interactions among human and non-human actors engaged in learning that is equitable and accessible to disabled youth within the context of compulsory education. A4E asserts that equitable technology-mediated education is (1) constructed by educators and disabled people collaboratively cripping discourse and practice through sociotechnical praxis, (2) born technologically and pedagogically accessible; and (3) requires institutions to have the capacity to cultivate access intimacy and swiftly respond to individual needs. Hence, A4E is a framework that scholars and practitioners can use to begin the complex social change that is required to disrupt the unjust status quo and reimagine technology-mediated compulsory education as a place that values and is hospitable to disabled youth.
Accessible Versions
As is the ableist custom in the academy, the publisher’s versions of this article are completely inaccessible. If you are disabled and need an accessible copy, please email me at nlshahe@ilstu.edu.
I have accessible copies of the manuscript in the following formats
- Digital Braille (brf) by Braille Enterprises
- Tactile graphic (pdf for swell) by Naomi Rosenberg of San Francisco Lighthouse
- Fully tagged PDF by Knowbility
Inaccessible Versions
If you are non-disabled, you can read the article in the following inaccessible formats