Cultivating virtuous course designers

Abstract

Technical communicators are often charged with creating access to meaning through technology. However, these practices can have marginalizing effects. This article argues for reimagining accessibility through virtue ethics. Rather than identifying accessibility as an addition to document design or a set of guidelines, virtue ethics situates accessibility as a habitual practice, part of one's character. This article describes the application of virtue ethics in a university partnership, which sought to create a culture of accessibility through three goals: to consider accessibility as an on-going process, to consider accessibility as a "vital" part of all document design, and to recognize accessibility as a shared responsibility among stakeholders. Focusing on the virtues of courage and justice, we interpret data from a survey of instructors and then provide suggestions on how others can join the accessibility conversation.

Transforming the Rights-Based Encounter: Disability Rights, Disability Justice, and the Ethics of Access

“…Virtue ethics focuses on including disabled individuals in the workplace through evaluating potentially exclusive individual behaviors and beliefs. Attuned to the “messy” and “context-specific” nature of TPCers’ ethical engagements in professional contexts (Colton et al, 2019, p. 57), virtue ethics is concerned with surfacing how such structures and practices might marginalize disabled individuals (Huntsman et al, 2018, p. 13). As such, virtue ethics demands the critical evaluation of the dynamic contexts in which TPCers engage and the ongoing revision of the ethical protocols used to navigate those contexts.…”

“…Rather than encouraging transformative access, such efforts reinforce existing structures as natural. Previous TPC scholars (Colton et al, 2019; Colton & Walton, 2015; Huntsman et al, 2018) have encouraged TPCers to use virtue ethics in their ongoing critique of seemingly just and equal workplace practices in order to ensure their consideration for as many bodyminds as possible. Virtue ethics has helped TPCers to think critically about notions of equality in order to understand equality as a dynamic phenomenon in need of continuous evaluation and critique.…”