Ryerson’s WebMoti project is part of the effort to make remote learning flexible for neurodiverse students
Mitchell Fox | April 20, 2022
With World Autism Awareness Day in the rearview mirror, some advocates and families are focusing on making the classroom more accessible and accepting for neurodiverse students.
April is World Autism Month, highlighted by World Autism Day on April 2.
As part of its Celebrate the Spectrum campaign, Autism Ontario encouraged people to wear tie-dyed shirts on April 2, and has been promoting events such as a flag design contest.
Joy Alma is the program and volunteer co-ordinator for Autism Ontario’s Toronto region and a mother of two children on the spectrum (a term she said she uses).
Neurodiverse people and their families may prefer different terms, including “on the spectrum,” identity-first or person-first language.
Margot Whitfield, a parent of a neurodiverse child, said neurodiverse or neurodivergent might be the more “correct” terms.
Alma said it is important to celebrate World Autism Day to keep the conversation around acceptance going.
“It brings these issues into focus. It makes people take action. It reminds people to celebrate, to be inclusive,” Alma said in a Zoom interview.
“It keeps as part of our conversation an ever-growing education to improve, make places more inclusive (and) improve access.”
The focus this year is on celebration as well as awareness, as disability is still often “invisible,” Alma said.
“That is a day that people do see you,” she said.
Nevertheless, she said, April 2, is “just one day” and the effort to provide neurodiverse people opportunities in school, work and the community has to be ongoing.
“So, by bringing awareness to that day and bringing a celebratory feel to that day, we really want people to go from there,” she said.
WebMoti project pursues accessibility
Making the classroom comfortable for neurodiverse students is also the focus of one project from Ryerson University’s Inclusive Media and Design Centre.
The WebMoti project aims to make video conferencing technology more accessible and flexible for neurodivergent students so they can be involved in the classroom from home.
Chris Dayagbil, a neurodiverse fourth-year mathematics student at Ryerson, is employed under the WebMoti project to provide his perspective to the team.
“Video conferencing applications aren’t exactly made for classrooms. They’re made for conferencing,” Dayagbil said in a Zoom interview. “We’re trying to lean into it to make it better fit into the classroom.”
Accessibility education in “a dire strait”
Whitfield, a researcher on the project, said having one day to celebrate neurodiversity can feel “tokenistic.”
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate people becoming more aware,” she said in a Zoom interview. “But at the same time, I feel like I would much rather see significant changes made to the way my kid can access education and get support.”
Dayagbil’s focus is also on improving access for neurodiverse students.
He appreciates World Autism Awareness Day, “but I’m not exactly thrilled about it either,” he said.
“I’d rather more focus on getting people (the help they need).”
Alma said accessibility for neurodiverse children in the school system is in “a pretty dire strait.”
“The boards are lacking support staff, resources and funds (and) those budgets are always cut, axed and taxed,” she said.
“The feeling is very much that children with disabilities are kind of the lowest echelon on the food chain.”
Dayagbil said he is not always certain if there is something that can help him.
“It feels like sometimes it’s not enough and I really do feel a bit lost,” he said.
Still, Whitfield said there is some hope technology such as WebMoti will make a difference.
“Even though I think that other changes need to accompany some of the technology changes to make classrooms better, I do feel hopeful that technology can be improved for more accessible classrooms,” she said.
The WebMoti 2.0 project has partnered with Crestron, a company that supplies a variety of classroom equipment and systems to many Canadian post-secondary institutions.
Whitfield said it is “exciting” that the solutions the team finds could be used “more widely than just us and Ryerson.”
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