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Sense-making note

What If the Learner Can Perceive the Information, but Still Can’t Access It?

The idea that accessibility is more than making information perceivable; it is about providing another path when a learner cannot use a particular sensory pathway.

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Illustration titled "Sensory Gap." Stick figures labelled Touch, Taste, Sound, Sight and Smell ("Sense Channel") stand on a cliff, separated by a shark-filled sea marked "Information Lost" from a flag on the opposite cliff marked "Perception." Caption: "A sensory gap here refers to a barrier that prevents one or more learners from perceiving the information we intend them to perceive."

What happens when a learner can detect the information… but still can’t access it?

That question completely changed how I started thinking about accessibility.
Because sometimes the problem isn't that the information wasn't designed to be perceived.

The problem is that we designed only one road to reach it.

👁️ Sight has limitations.
👂 Sound has limitations.

And learners can experience gaps in either pathway.

So what if instead of asking:
“Can the learner perceive this?”

we also asked:
“What happens if this sensory pathway isn't available to them?”

That’s where I started seeing accessibility differently.

Not as an add-on.
Not as something we fix at the end.

But as a bridge between the learner and the information.

I’ve been working through Clark Quinn Quinn Seed 2 🌱 — Consider Accessibility, and this is probably one of the biggest things that clicked for me.

I put the whole thought process into today’s article.

Would love to know how you think about this.

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Day 40 of Instructional Design.


#InstructionalDesign#InstructionalDesigner#LearningAndDevelopment#LearningDesign#LearningExperienceDesign#LXD#Elearning#ELearningDesign#CurriculumDesign#CurriculumDeveloper#LearningJourney#Day1#Day2#LearningInPublic#BuildInPublic#SenseMakingNotes#MentalModels#TAWIQM#QuinnSeeds

In case you missed the Quinn Seed articles 👇

Quinn Seed #1- CLICK ME

Quinn Seed #2- CLICK ME

Where this comes from

  1. Check out "Learning Science" by Clark Quinn — If you design learning, teach, or train people, you need to understand what is actually happening when someone learns. Learning happens at the neural level, but we design for it at the cognitive level. There’s a lot more in Clark Quinn’s book that I can’t share because of **intellectual property**. Get the book and experience the learning yourself. 📚You Would Love It!
  2. Check out "40 L&D Stakeholder Challenges: Of L&D Leaders, Practitioners, Clients, and Learners" by Guy W. Wallace — This book shares the answers I got from my EPPI-PACT Guidance Bot. The free EPPI-PACT Guidance Bot is a digital, interactive knowledge-transfer resource designed to help Learning and Development (L&D) practitioners, performance consultants, and business leaders master and apply Guy W. Wallace’s Performance Improvement and Performance Based L&D methodologies.
  3. To Learn More Join the "Learning Development Accelerator" — Click the link to join the Amazing Learning Development Accelerator Group Where practice meets evidence