Immersing in accessibility: Co-creating a pedagogy that is effective, educational – and legal

Abstract

This paper examines pedagogy and immersion through the lens of accessibility via a discussion of a semesterlong life-writing class for postgraduate students. One student -a former General Practitioner -is profoundly deaf and blind through a degenerative disease. The paper discusses the following aspects: immersive, regarding the legalities and technological needs of accessibility within a tertiary environment; pedagogic, in creating an equitable classroom space for every student; and cultural, surrounding the rights of people living with disability and seeking to learn. Within the qualitative framework of narrative inquiry, an academiclecturer and a student individually devised a set of questions and rigorously investigated how the other regarded the pedagogy undertaken: its strengths and weaknesses, mistakes made, lessons learned and humorous moments. By articulating and reflecting upon this classroom space, we contribute to the scant canon of accessibility and education narratives, framed by the strengthening legal structures devised to make all welcome in tertiary institutions.