Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
7-29-2026
Abstract
Media literacy education has built a robust evidence base for interventions that strengthen resilience to misinformation, yet its pedagogies presuppose a nondisabled learner: participants with disabilities are rarely reported, materials are rarely accessible by design, and disability is absent from the field's equity turn. Disabled and deaf learners consequently face a double exclusion, from the media environment by inaccessibility and from media education by protectionist safeguarding. This conceptual article develops the Accessible Media Literacy Education (AMLE) framework through a four-step synthesis of three literatures: media literacy education, research on disabled and deaf people's media practices, and Universal Design for Learning. The framework crosses five competency domains with the three UDL principles, adds two transversal commitments, and introduces the domain-native concepts of infrastructural literacy and accessible authorship. Implications for research, teacher education, and policy are discussed.
Keywords: media literacy education, Universal Design for Learning, accessibility, disability, deaf learners
Recommended Citation
INFORMATION REMOVED, AUTHOR, "Accessible Media Literacy Education: A Universal Design for Learning Framework for Including Disabled and Deaf Learners" (2026). JMLE Submissions Open for Review. Paper 7.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle-ofr/7