When you’re working in adult learning and development, it’s only a matter of time before someone brings up “learning styles” as a methodology.

Otherwise content-rich books and articles fall on their face at the mention of this myth – it’s a clear cringe for those of us that have done the real work – and research.

Many adult learning practitioners know this myth well – and we do our best to stop it from perpetuating. Despite the popularity, there’s no credible evidence to support the concept of learning styles. While people may have preferences for how they like to learn, these preferences don’t often translate into better learning outcomes.

What Are Learning Styles?

If you’re unfamiliar with this term, “learning styles” are defined most often as Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, or Kinesthetic (VARK). The learning styles theory suggests that each person has their own unique “learning style” and will almost always better understand learning content delivered in that style.

What’s the Myth?

The problem with this? It’s all false; not a bit of it is backed by research. Quite contrary, the research shows the opposite: learning styles are simply a myth.

Don’t believe me? I bring sources, of course! This article from the University of Michigan is a great roundup of research, and you can read more research from the American Psychological Association, Nature, Frontiers in Psychology, Computers & Education, and so many more sources with a quick search.

Learning Preferences Sounds… Less Scholarly

People may have different preferences about the modality or format they consume content in, but there is no research to suggest people actually learn more or better based on that preference. Those preferences may be fairly consistent across different topics, or they may shift based on the content being learned. Almost all learning material has some kind of audio/visual and read/write content, and good quality learning material will allow for hands-on (kinesthetic) content too. A well-designed learning course or program includes multiple modalities to reinforce learning across multiple senses.

Students might feel more engaged when instruction aligns with their preferred “learning style,” but this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re learning more effectively. Preferences don’t necessarily translate into better learning outcomes when instruction is tailored to a specific style.

Designing for Disability

And then of course, what if some of your learners’ senses are impaired? Multiple modalities allow your audience – whether you’re speaking or training – to consume your content in the way that is most accessible to them. But none of that means that people have “learning styles” you must accommodate for!

It’s crucial to avoid oversimplifying actual learning differences by attributing them solely to learning styles. While some individuals with learning disabilities may have preferences for how they learn, their challenges are rooted in neurological differences that require specialized support.

What To Do Instead?

While it’s natural to want to cater to learners’ individual needs, focus on evidence-based teaching strategies that provide multiple modalities of instruction and support for individual needs. Get rid of the learning styles myth, and be more likely to improve learning outcomes for all involved. Here are some practices backed by evidence you can use instead:

• Active Learning: Engaging learners in activities that require them to think critically and apply knowledge
• Feedback: Providing constructive feedback to help learners improve
• Metacognition: Teaching learners how to learn effectively by monitoring their own understanding and adjusting their strategies accordingly

I’ve spent over 20 years working with adults and how they learn, and it’s a personal goal of mine to keep debunking the myth of learning styles for other practitioners. I may even be passionate enough about this topic to make it part of my next book! (When’s that coming out? Sign up to be the first to know!)

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October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)! All month long, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite resources on accessibility and disability inclusion in the workplace.

This post features some great articles I’ve read lately on accessibility and disability inclusion in learning and development.

• Accessibility.com Blog – How to Make Employee Training Accessible – Quick, practical advice on improving employee training by adding captions, sign language interpreters, and most importantly flexibility into your learning and development programs.
• eLearning Industry – Accessibility In eLearning: The Importance Of Creating Equal L&D Opportunities – Some strategies and perspectives on using accessibility as an inclusion-promoting effort towards company DEI initiatives. Bonus, if you’re willing to trade your business contact information, there is a free download at the end of the article for an ebook called “Creating eLearning For All: How To Design Accessible And Interactive Learning.”
• TrainingZone – How to Make Learning and Development More Inclusive for Disabled People – A perspective from across the pond with some relevant statistics about disability in the workplace in the United Kingdom. How do we remove barriers and promote inclusion?
• SHRM – Accessible Learning Design: Reaching All Learners Where They Are – An important focus on compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 508 Guidelines, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.x). The most important takeaway is to start!

I hope you found these perspectives as interesting as I did! Stay tuned for the next post with some great articles about accessibility and disability inclusion in Human Resources.

The post NDEAM Resources: Accessibility for Learning and Development Article Roundup appeared first on Inclusive Pixelation.

Join me for the Inclusive Pixelation finale to National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) with a FREE webinar on accessibility testing for learning and development!

Register now for the session on October 31, 2023 at 4p PST / 7p EST via Zoom.

Audience: This webinar is intended for anyone who is involved in the creation, delivery, or management of learning and development materials, including instructional designers, developers, trainers, and learning and development leaders.

Description: Accessibility testing is the process of ensuring that digital content is usable by people with disabilities. This is important for all types of digital content, but it is especially important for learning and development materials, as everyone should have the opportunity to learn and grow. In this session, you will learn about the importance of accessibility testing for learning and development and how to start accessibility testing in your own organization. Learn how to evaluate and remediate the learning materials you already have, like eLearning modules and PDFs! We will cover the following topics:

• What is accessibility testing?
• Why is accessibility testing important for learning and development?
• How to get started with accessibility testing
• Common accessibility problems in learning and development materials
• Resources for accessibility testing

Facilitator: Britne Jenke, CPACC, CPTD, SHRM-SCP, an expert in learning and development and accessibility with over 15 years of experience.

Accessibility: This webinar will be held via Zoom with live captions and a transcript. Registrants will be provided with access to the recorded webinar following the live session.

Register today to learn more about accessibility testing for learning and development!

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October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)! All month long, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite resources on accessibility and disability inclusion in the workplace.

This post features some of my favorite courses on disability inclusion. (Did you miss my post on disability inclusion courses on LinkedIn Learning? Click here to read more!)

I’ve taken the courses below to expand my own knowledge on disability inclusion.

• Diversity & Inclusion for HR Certificate – eCornell: This self-paced certificate program includes a wonderful elective course called Workplace Disability Inclusion, as well as the required courses Countering Bias in the Workplace for HR and Fostering an Inclusive Climate. I especially loved the Workplace Disability Inclusion course for its practical advice on maximizing workplace disability inclusion and minimizing disability discrimination across the employment process. The course makes the business case for aligning disability inclusion with a company’s strategic human-capital, diversity, and customer-service imperatives and looks at the implications of effective HR policies and practices in the recruitment and hiring process, career development and retention initiatives, and compensation and benefits programs.
• Employing Abilities at Work – SHRM Foundation: This certificate provides actionable knowledge and tools HR professionals, people managers and business leaders need to recruit, hire, and retain individuals with disabilities. Made up of seven modules, the program takes participants through the organizational life cycle of employing people with disabilities and establishes baseline knowledge of how accommodation resources can operate and shows how HR departments can adapt their hiring practices to fit individual needs.
• Section 508: What is It and Why is It Important to You? – U.S. General Services Administration: This course is designed to describe what Section 508 is and why it is important to make Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products accessible to people with disabilities, and serves as the introduction and prerequisite course to the Trusted Tester program. Learn about the job-related responsibilities and available resources needed to meet Section 508 requirements, with practical examples for project managers, programmers, instructional designers, or personnel responsible for procuring, buying, or maintaining electronic information and technology products and services.

That’s a lot of courses! What else can we do to learn about accessibility and disability inclusion? Stay tuned for my next post on books about these topics!

The post NDEAM Resources: Courses on Disability Inclusion appeared first on Inclusive Pixelation.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)! All month long, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite resources on accessibility and disability inclusion in the workplace.

This post features some of my favorite courses on accessibility. (Did you miss my post on accessibility courses on LinkedIn Learning? Click here to read more!)

I’ve taken the courses below to expand my own knowledge on accessibility.

• Accessibility: How to Design for All – Interaction Design Foundation: By understanding that accessibility is about more than just optimizing code, you’ll find you can build it into your design process to ensure you are taking a disability advocacy approach and keeping the focus on your users throughout the development process. This course will help you approach accessibility from all angles. You’ll gain practical, hands-on skills that’ll enable you to assess and optimize for common accessibility issues, as well as place an emphasis on the quality of the user experience by avoiding classic mistakes. You’ll also gain the knowledge to conduct effective accessibility testing by working with users with disabilities.
• Introduction to Digital Accessibility – Interaction Design Foundation: Most of the internet is still inaccessible to those who use assistive technology to access the web. As a creator or contributor to developing a digital experience, you can change that. By creating usable experiences for people at the margins, we end up creating better experiences for everyone.
• Microsoft Accessibility Fundamentals: Technology can empower people to achieve more, help strengthen education opportunities, and make the workplace more inviting and inclusive for people with disabilities. Accessibility and inclusion are essential to empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. This program features several courses that cover accessibility in Microsoft products, for both users and content creators.
• Accessibility of eLearning – OpenLearn: This free course introduces the challenges for disabled students who may use computers in different ways when taking part in eLearning or may need alternative teaching methods. It covers the technology and techniques used by disabled students, the adjustments to teaching methods that might be reasonable, design decisions that affect the accessibility of eLearning tools, and strategies for evaluation.

What about disability inclusion in the workplace? Stay tuned for my next post on courses about disability inclusion.

The post NDEAM Resources: Courses on Accessibility appeared first on Inclusive Pixelation.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)! All month long, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite resources on accessibility and disability inclusion in the workplace.

This post features some of my favorite LinkedIn Learning courses on disability inclusion. (Did you miss my post on accessibility courses? Click here to read more!)

LinkedIn Learning, originally Lynda.com and now offered through LinkedIn, is a premium feature available to subscribers. Companies may also offer access to LinkedIn Learning as part of their professional development resources.

I’ve taken the courses below to expand my own knowledge on disability inclusion.

• Supporting Workers with Disabilities: Physical and social barriers at work can make it difficult to fully capitalize on skills—or worse, prevent workers with disabilities from securing gainful employment at all. Get tips on how to select the best employee for a role by focusing on the desired outcome—not the methodology. Start creating a more accessible workplace where employees with disabilities are set up to thrive.
• Disability Readiness for Leaders and Managers: Managers play a key role in ensuring that everyone, including people with disabilities, can contribute fully to achieving business goals. Be a more inclusive, supportive leader by recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and advancing top talent with disabilities, and start creating more inclusive, supportive, and safe work environments that benefit everyone, including people with disabilities.
• Develop Interpersonal Skills for Inclusive Workplaces: In this course, develop interpersonal skills such as self-awareness, dealing with disagreement, and deep listening, while engaging with colleagues one-on-one and in group settings. Work on strengthening relationships through routines and rituals, as well as identifying and prioritizing interpersonal relationships. This course helps you move toward inclusive actions and build the skills you need to support an inclusive work culture.
• Creating Inclusive Learning Experiences: Learn the power of inclusive learning experiences and how they can open the door for people of all identities, backgrounds, and perspectives and provide greater achievement and fulfillment. Follow a simple and practical approach to create environments and outcomes all learners can participate in and grow from.

What about other courses outside of LinkedIn? Stay tuned for my next post on Accessibility courses!

The post NDEAM Resources: LinkedIn Learning Courses on Disability Inclusion appeared first on Inclusive Pixelation.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)! All month long, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite resources on accessibility and disability inclusion in the workplace.

This post features some of my favorite LinkedIn Learning courses on accessibility.

LinkedIn Learning, originally Lynda.com and now offered through LinkedIn, is a premium feature available to subscribers. Companies may also offer access to LinkedIn Learning as part of their professional development resources.

I’ve taken the courses below to expand my own knowledge on accessibility.

• Making a Case for Accessibility in Your Organization: Get started on your accessibility journey by focusing on culture, developing a strategy, applying accessibility goals to the business, and investing in tools and processes you need. Learn how to test and scale your accessibility practices and craft your company narrative.
• Digital Accessibility for the Modern Workplace (with Audio Descriptions): In this course, the author shares technology solutions for each type of disability and provides best practices for developing more inclusive experiences in meetings, emails, presentations, and social media posts.
• Supporting Accessibility in a Hybrid Workplace: Great practical tips for exploring elements that often get overlooked when developing content for people who use screen readers and meeting software. Learn how to lead accessible meetings so everyone can comprehend, collaborate, and contribute their expertise.
• Foundations of Accessible Elearning: As elearning continues to grow, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your course is easily accessible to your learners. Find out what you need to know to bring better learning access into your curriculum and put it into practice at your organization.

LinkedIn Learning has a category for accessibility courses, videos, and learning paths that is updated as new content is added. Check it out here.

What about disability inclusion in the workplace? Stay tuned for my next post!

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