The New Accessibility in Higher Education : Disrupting the System for an Inclusive Future

The New Accessibility in Higher Education explores the role and presence of accessibility within the higher education environment. The text considers the multidimensionality of accessibility and how individuals connected to the higher education environment (students, faculty, administrators, community stakeholders, researchers, and policymakers) must reconsider how accessibility in postsecondary education is understood and achieved.

The commitment to accessibility serves as a catalyst for developing and implementing practices that prevent barriers and can better allow for inclusive participation with the world around us. Unfortunately, the importance of accessibility does not always equate with commitment and compliance. While there has been a slow-moving effort to increase accessibility, the global pandemic and several key social justice movements have spotlighted inaccessible content and systems.The New Accessibility in Higher Education guides the reader through the various areas of higher education, detailing how barriers to access were identified and how accessibility was reimagined and improved through the perspectives of faculty, administrators, and students. The book considers the multidimensionality of accessibility and how postsecondary scholars and practitioners must reconsider how accessibility in postsecondary education is understood and achieved. It argues that higher education can no longer ignore issues of accessibility nor revert to previous, antiquated, and discriminatory policies that do not support the success of disabled students. The book not only spotlights what occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent key events but, instead, but also provides a roadmap for the continued integration of more accessible strategies within modern higher education.