E-Learning and Disability in Higher Education: Accessibility Research and Practice by Jane K. Seale (review)

In E-Learning and Disability in Higher Education: Accessibility Research and Practice, Jane K. Seale reestablishes the theoretical and empirical impetus to improve the current postsecondary awareness of learning technologies and policies specific to students with disabilities. In this second edition, she addresses many of the concerns originally highlighted in the 2006 text. However, with the inclusion of updated data and new policy implementation noted throughout the international postsecondary community, Seale argues that only minimal improvement to e-learning technology access has occurred in the eight years since the first edition.

Incorporating the multidimensional role of higher education stakeholders involved in program accessibility, Seale discusses the functionality and current socioacademic demands in the overall advancement of e-learning for students with disabilities, calling for refreshing the system and “new ways of thinking about possibilities for future accessibility practice and research” (p. x).

Over the course of the 13 chapters, the author examines the current state of e-learning inclusion for postsecondary students with disabilities and the improvement needed with future technology-based learning endeavors. Seale provides an extensive country-specific breakdown of various student disability policies found throughout the international postsecondary milieu. In doing so, she illustrates the wide-ranging e-learning programmatic successes found throughout the international higher education community and shortcomings within specific countries.

Seale divides the text into four parts: contextualizing, surveying, critiquing, and reimagining the postsecondary “scene,” providing a comprehensive literature review for each specific section. This review allows the audience to feel informed about the topic, relevant evaluative programs, and the overall themes developed throughout the book. Seale skillfully develops a foundation rich in data-driven, theoretical, and programmatic models focused on disability-specific electronic educational tools. The text addresses a topic minimally addressed in higher education literature—e-learning accessibility for students with disabilities—and lays the groundwork for future analysis of the subject.

The first section, “Contextualizing the Scene,” addresses the current theoretical models (e.g., deficit/medical model and social model of disability) contributing to the negative conceptualization of disability and the socioacademic separation of students with disabilities and their postsecondary counterparts. The author notes that “labels are considered by many, including students themselves, to be stigmatizing and disempowering” (p. 4) and argues that the noted categorizations only emphasize students’ inabilities and what cannot be accomplished due to disability. Moreover, the current models fail to successfully implement a more effective way to efficiently incorporate student disability into the postsecondary learning environment. Seale emphasizes: “Given such distrust and stigma surrounding negotiating accommodations, it is not surprising that for many disabled students the issue of whether or not to disclose their disability to their institution, tutors, and peers is a real dilemma” (p. 29).

Beyond stigmatization, variation with disability labeling creates a disconnect in the overall standardization of relevant definitions and topics, including the term “accessibility” itself. Incorporating Freire’s (1972) concept of “cultures of silence,” the author examines how access and improvement to e-learning technological needs continue to be overlooked both in the literature and in the international higher education system.

Increased legislation related to equality and anti-discrimination, growing postsecondary enrollment of students with disabilities, and continued attention to improving accessibility guidelines, the author argues, will serve as the foundation for future change in the current higher education environment. Moreover, she offers a contextualized model of accessibility practice as a potential option to aid in this change.

In her model, Seale asserts that improved e-learning student accessibility does not solely occur in the identification of additional stakeholders within the higher education dynamic. Instead, involved stakeholders must translate calls for improvement with viable action plans within their specific postsecondary setting. The author presents four key responsibilities for postsecondary staff to aid in e-learning advancement: “the development of strategic partnerships with key stakeholders; embedding accessibility in all e-learning related staff development programs; targeting specific staff groups as...