AI & Accessibility in the Classroom
Let’s face it, everyone is using AI on our campuses - students, instructors, and campus staff. If you’re working on your syllabus or teaching policies for a new class, you may want to think about AI as a tool to help your class, rather than as something suspicious to be banned or ignored. For example, AI tools can assist you in noticing blind spots or problems in the way you select or organize your class materials, in the type of readings and assignments you choose, and in the way you explain things. It can also help you with accessibility tips, to make your class content and assignments more multimodal, and to make things more straightforward for students who might have a varied range of backgrounds, disabilities, or major-specific knowledge. Here are some ways using AI tools can help improve accessibility in your class:
Syllabus language
If you’re trying to make sure your course content covers all its bases when it comes to accessibility, inclusion, and attention to implicit biases, have an AI tool help you as a reading assistant: upload your course syllabus to one of the LLM platforms you’re familiar with, and ask it to look for gaps or potential problems. Some tested prompts you can try:
Please go through my syllabus and let me know if there are any changes I should make to improve accessibility.
This is a course syllabus for an undergraduate class with students from various different majors. Are there any unexplained assumptions that I should clarify in the description of my class content?
Can you spot any biases in my course language or choice of readings?
Assignment and test accessibility
If you’re unsure whether your assignments are accessible to your students in terms of format, technical accessibility, and content clarity, you can ask an AI assistant to review what you prepared so far and give you tips on how to edit or enrich your assignments. Here are some prompts we tested for you:
Copy-paste the text of a specific assignment into your chosen LLM tool, then ask: Are there any changes I can make to the language or format of this assignment to enhance accessibility for students with disabilities?
Describe the general character of your class and your learning goals, then ask for domain-specific examples of clear and accessible assignments or tests that respect the general content and goals of your specific class.
An example if you’re teaching a language class: I'm teaching an advanced beginner Russian language and culture class. Students are expected to learn to discuss their interests, current events, and simple readings. Typical assignments and quizzes include fill-in-the-gap questions, writing short paragraphs, and multiple-choice questions. How can I diversify my assignments and quizzes?
An example if you’re teaching a content class: I'm teaching a class on Chilean cinema, conducted in English with some Spanish proficiency expected. Typical assignments include multiple-choice questions on historical context, content comprehension questions, and response essays. How can I diversify my assignments to make them more accessible and multimodal?
How to choose the right assistant?
Not all LLM platforms can “read” files. Depending on the task you have in mind, the resources you have, and the tools you’re already familiar with, you might prefer to use ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot (UCLA faculty have access to an enterprise version), or Google Gemini. You can use ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot if you want to upload your syllabus as a PDF or Word file, so the AI can directly read it. If you’re more at ease with Google Gemini, simply open the file you want to work with and copy-paste the text into Gemini’s chat box.