Accessible Education

Integrating disability perspectives and promoting inclusivity in teaching and research through educational resources, modules, and research support

What is Accessible Education? 

Accessible Education is the work we do to integrate disability perspectives in multidisciplinary research and academic institutions. A large component of our research focuses on making disability perspectives more visible in GIS and mapping, and we have developed teaching resources and modules that cover standard GIS concepts through a disability-informed framework. In addition, we provide resources for researchers on how to approach their research through an inclusive, justice-focused lens of disability.

Current Projects

A picture of a student taking notes in the foreground as a teacher lectures in the background

Integrating Disability into Education

Our team creates resources for instructors, students, and practitioners that integrate technical learning with critical reflection about accessibility, marginalization, and inclusion. These resources offer materials that treat accessibility as foundational and center people’s lived experience as expertise. 

Highlighted Publications and Work

An image of the cover of the open educational resource

Mapping Urban IDEAS: Practical Lessons for Integrating Disability into GIS Education

This book is an open educational resource that provides a practical, disability-centred approach to teaching and learning Geographic Information Systems.

Available here: https://pressbooks.openeducationalberta.ca/mappingurbanideas/

Additional Related Publications

Journal Publications and White Papers

Rotzal, L. and Fast, V. (2026). Engaging Disability in GIScience Curriculums. Proceedings of the 9th Conference on Spatial Knowledge & Information Canada. 

Wolbring, G., and Fast, V. (2025). A briefing paper on the state of the art of accessibility research focusing on disabled people, including research on attitudinal accessibility and attitudinal barriers.   

Goodchild, M.F., Appelbaum R., Crampton, J., Herbert, W.A., Janowicz, K., Kwan, M.-P., Michael, K., Alvarez León, L. F., Bennett, M., Cole, D.G., Currier, K., Fast, V., Hirsch, J., Kattenbeck, M., Kedron, P., Kerski, J., Liu, Z., Nelson, T., Shulruff, T., Sieber, R.E., Wertman, J., Wilmott, C., Zhao, B., Zhu, R., Nilupaer, J., Dony, C.C., and Langham, G. A. White Paper on Locational Information and the Public Interest. (2022). American Association of Geographers.   

Fast, V., and Hossain, F. (2020). An Alternative to Desktop GIS? Evaluating the Cartographic and Analytical Capabilities of WebGIS Platforms for Teaching. The Cartographic Journal. 57(2), 175-186. 

Educational Resources

Crampton, J., Dony, C., Fast, V., Kedron, P., Kerski, J., Nilupaer, J., and Wilmott, C. (2022). Quick Start Guide to Integrate the Ethics of Locational Information into Your College and University Courses and Programs. American Association of Geographers.