Artificial Intelligence Meets Universal Design

Sarah Mercier, a leading expert in innovative learning technology and strategically implementing learning solutions, is an author and the editor of Design for All Learners: Create Accessible and Inclusive Learning Experiences. She will host a session on Monday at 4:30 p.m. to discuss supporting accessibility and inclusion with artificial intelligence (AI). In-person attendees will also have the opportunity to meet Mercier for a Design for All Learners book signing during the conference.

What inspired Design for All Learners?

This isn’t an easy question to answer because the inspiration is something that evolved throughout my career. I have always loved learning and the teaching process. Most of my years in this field have been focused on learning technologies, and I spend a lot of time facilitating in both virtual and physical classroom spaces. But, no matter the learning environment, we sometimes perform our jobs in a way that comes across as though we’ve forgotten that people are involved.

Ultimately, my goal for Design for All Learners is to help the reader be more proactive in creating people-centered learning environments. I think it’s easy to get distracted by the “cool” parts of technology like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, games, or polling software, and forget why we’re using it in the first place. I also know that it can be challenging to manage organizational and political factors that are out of our immediate control. This book is a collection of ways that practitioners are tackling the challenge of creating more accessible, inclusive learning experiences.

Describe the process of bringing all the book’s contributors together to create Design for All Learners.

Early on, I’d decided that I wanted this book to be its own example of Design for All. This meant including diverse, direct perspectives and preserving each individual’s writing style and voice as much as possible. While there’s a much longer answer to the question of how I brought the contributors together, I think I’ll start with the outline.

I had created an outline for the book’s structure and topics, and put together a list of potential contributors. Some of these folks were people whose work I was very familiar with, and others were referred to me. I spent several months researching who could address different parts of the outline. I followed how they interacted with people on social media. I read their work and watched recordings of sessions they’d delivered.

I finally got to the point where I was ready to reach out to a short list of contributors. I was incredibly nervous to talk to some of the people on my list because I didn’t know them personally. Surprisingly, nearly everyone agreed to contribute without hesitation. One thing we all had in common was that we believed this book needed to exist. I shared the outline with each person, and we discussed where their stories and examples would be a great fit. A couple of folks even suggested additional topics. From there, it was all project management and a gazillion rounds of editing.

One of the themes of the book is to adopt a progress-over-perfection approach. What does progress over perfection mean to you?

It means that no matter how much you learn about accessibility and inclusion, no matter how much practice you have, you’ll still make mistakes. The biggest advocates in the world make mistakes. But big change happens when everyone is committed to improving.

What do you want readers to take away from reading your book?

I want readers to use the book’s examples, stories, tools, and advice to improve their own work and advocate for accessible, inclusive design.

What will you be doing at ATD25?

In my session, we will cautiously explore how AI-powered tools can help us create more accessible learning experiences. I’ll also be meeting folks for a Design for All Learners book signing—I’m really excited about those conversations! And, hopefully, there will be some relaxing activities at the EXPO like in previous years. I really enjoyed painting last year.

Read more about ATD25 at conferencedaily.td.org.