37th Annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference Has Concluded

Combining Virtual with In-Person? (Hybrid or Hyflex)

Date & Time

Thursday, March 17, 2022 - 9:20 AM PST

Location

Elite 1-3

Description

Hybrid events (classes, meetings, etc.) combine some in-person activity with some participation through a virtual platform such as Zoom. Hybrid events have gotten a lot of attention over the past year but may be with us for the long term.

A hybrid event brings some unique considerations for accessibility. How do we ensure that everyone can hear or otherwise have access to audio information? How do we ensure that everyone, especially online participants, can see all important components or otherwise have access to visual information? What might help make the experience of the online participants equitable to that of the people in the room?

Hyflex course design is one implementation of the hybrid model. California State University, Northridge (CSUN's) held a pilot of hyflex classes in Fall 2021. Hyflex course design has a set of "pillars," one of which is accessibility. However, when we planned the pilot in the middle of 2021, we found very little guidance on how to make hyflex classes accessible and what considerations were important for hyflex classes.

CSUN's accessible technology team worked closely with departments across campus including disability services, information technology, academic technology and others. We produced a set of recommendations for hyflex classes. Many of these recommendations are relevant for most hybrid events.
In this session, we'll review what we learned through this process. We'll share our recommendations. And we'll explore what we've learned from the first semester of our hyflex pilot, and how that is shaping our planning moving forward.

This Presentation Link is provided by the Presenter(s) and not hosted by the Center on Disabilities at CSUN. The Center on Disabilities has confirmed, as of March 10, 2022, content linked is relevant to the presentation, but has not been reviewed for accessibility nor will the Center on Disabilities attempt to remediate any accessibility issues in the linked content. Please contact the Presenter(s) with any accessibility concerns.

Audience

Higher Education
Information & Communications Technology
Entertainment & Recreation
Marketing
Administration & Business Support

Audience Level

Intermediate

Session Summary (Abstract)

Accessibility is one pillar of the hyflex (hybrid) approach. But what does that mean, and how do you implement it? We’ll review what we learned prior to our hyflex pilot, the steps we took to improve accessibility when combining in-person with online participants, and lessons learned from our first semester.

Session Type