Teaching Note—Turn on the CC: Increase Inclusion for All Your Students

ABSTRACT

Social work education is mandated to provide inclusivity and accessibility to all students. Critical disability theory (CDT) challenges the notion that disabilities should be eradicated; rather, it declares that different abilities should be acknowledged and embraced as contributions. Universal design (UD), originating as a framework for accessible architectural building designs, has become a pedagogical approach in education. UD supports CDT and takes it farther by suggesting how to develop an inclusive environment. Through the lens of CDT and UD, this conceptual paper provides the rationale for educators to increase classroom inclusivity and accessibility by adding closed captions to all learning materials, presentations and videos, Closed captions, the text of verbal language, is beneficial for many different types of students, including those with processing disorder or hearing loss, those who did not learn English as their primary language, and those who have difficulty with focus. Further, this paper seeks to provide a step-by-step instruction manual to assist instructors with immediately including captions in their learning materials.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristel Scoresby

Kristel Scoresby, Dorothy Wallis, and Melody Huslage are doctorate students in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus. Kate M. Chaffin is an Associate Professor of Practice and the Director of the Online MSSW Program at the University of Tennessee, Nashville campus.