Training Engineering Educators on Accessible and Inclusive Learning Design

The adoption of new technologies for education is changing, and it is reflected for instance, in the use of cloud-based applications for experimental practices in engineering courses and the inclusion of virtual courses in the educational process. Additionally, Educational Institutions are preparing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a tool to offer education to students from all over the world. However, Accessibility in cloud-based applications, virtual platforms and MOOCs has not been widely taken into account in the design process that involves educators, especially in the tasks related to the production of educational resources. The purpose of this study is twofold. On one hand, it aims to promote the inclusion of accessibility features in all phases involved in the online educational process. For this purpose, an open online course was prepared to train teachers on how to design accessible virtual courses. On the other hand, the goal is to identify the competences for educators involved in the creation of accessible digital educational contents in order to suggest a basic curriculum that can be used for Educational Institutions. This work presents the accessibility experiences with engineering courses involving a strong component of scientific content and simulations. This work presents the proposed competences for engineering educators involved in the creation of accessible digital educational contents, with the purpose of implementing a basic curriculum that can be used for Educational Institutions to train their teachers on accessibility from the perspective of a student with disability. It is to be hoped that in some way in the future, the engineering educators will be able to transmit the accessibility awareness to their students, in order to have future engineers that will produce changes for the benefit of all.