Rhetorics of Overcoming by Allison Harper Hitt

Author:Allison Harper Hitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8141-4155-7
Publisher: National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

MULTIMODAL TOOLKITS: COLLECTING

ACCESSIBLE, FLEXIBLE PRACTICES

I'd like to imagine a pedagogical and material space that is committed to student agency. What if, instead of following a set script or applying accommodating practices based on disability diagnosis, the goal of engaging with disabled and nonnormative student writers is to create multiple access points for creating and sharing knowledge? One way to do this is by designing anti-ableist, accessible multimodal practices that are rooted in principles of UD and different embodied experiences. Developing a multimodal toolkit involves developing rhetorical strategies that are flexible and present more communicative opportunities for students. As early as 1992, Shoshana Beth Konstant argued that we do not need to present all sensory options to disabled students but should be flexible, depending on individual students and sessions. As if sensing the frustration that tutors feel in difficult sessions, Konstant writes, “Don't despair. Try something else. Have patience; the student is infinitely more frustrated than you are. Try every possible way you can think of to get your message across and if they all fail, then try something else” (6). Again, the idea is not to max out all sensory options but to provide flexibility. Konstant suggests using multiple channels to work with students: “Use combinations of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic techniques—the multisensory approach. Say it and draw it; read text aloud; use color to illustrate things” (7). Everyone has learning practices that work best for them, and consultants need to be prepared to try a variety of multimodal strategies.

The writing center at the university where I work has a laminated handout at each table with options for visual, auditory, and tactile methods of tutoring to ensure pedagogical accessibility, as well as atmospheric and seating considerations to ensure physical accessibility. It's a low-tech way to engage a multimodal, universally designed pedagogy and requires a negotiation between tutor and student—a process of coming over that invites students to discuss how they best learn and compose. Drawing from her work with deaf students, Babcock suggests explicit dialogue: “Most of all, try to find out what the deaf person needs and wants out of the session, and gear your tutoring toward that” (Tell 35). If students are unaware of what they want or need, knowing some multimodal practices can be useful.

A multimodal toolkit does not eliminate the need to identify students’ individual needs, just as universal design does not eliminate the need for accommodations. Instead, both multimodality and UD ask us to acknowledge that all students have multiple ways of learning and knowing, and to be flexible in responding to those different needs. If a student needs to draw, the tutor can adapt and ask the student to sketch an outline of their main ideas. Similarly, talking through a text can be more beneficial than reading it word for word. McKinney encourages talking—rather than reading—as a way to interact more holistically with all features of a multimodal text (“New Media Matters” 39). This practice is useful for compositions that consist of more than just alphabetic text, and can directly benefit disabled students.

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