The Grand Challenge of Transforming Instructional Design’s Misguided Approach to Accessibility
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18357/otessaj.2025.5.2.105Keywords:
accessibility, instructional design, disability justice, participatory design, inclusive educationAbstract
This paper argues that accessibility in the field of learning and instructional design and technology (LIDT) remains fundamentally misaligned with the lived realities of disabled learners. While frameworks like Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and Universal Design for Learning offer baseline guidance, they have fostered a compliance-centered culture that reduces accessibility to checklists, technical fixes, and after-the-fact accommodations. We structure our argument around three critiques: first, the overreliance on standardized frameworks; second, the use of rigid time structures; and third, the false promise of inclusion. Together, these reveal how current practices continue to marginalize disabled learners. In response, we present three recommendations: reconceiving accessibility as an ethical imperative, co-creating with disabled individuals as design leaders, and reimagining accessibility through justice-centered design practices that dismantle structural ableism. We argue that accessibility must no longer be treated as a peripheral concern, but embraced as a transformative principle that benefits all learners. The grand challenge before LIDT is not whether to redesign our systems, but whether we are willing to center the voices of those most excluded in doing so.
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