A beautiful metamorphosis: shifting mindsets around student accessibility with Genio
Ahead of the 2026 Student Success US event, organised by Times Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed, Raven Anderson, director of accessibility services at Southeast New Mexico College (SENMC), shared some of the ways technology continues to change what constitutes student success and the challenges around support provision. Central to this evolution is a fundamental mindset shift regarding how accessibility tools are viewed and integrated across campus.
“We have to evolve alongside the technology,” Anderson says. “We must be willing to meet our students where they are, instead of expecting them to sit right across the desk from me for a traditional face-to-face interaction. Using technology the right way – as a bridge rather than a barrier – is really how higher education has evolved.”
With more of the student experience moving online, new hurdles are emerging that weren’t previously visible. One is information overload, where students are expected to engage with more information than they can handle. Another is navigation fatigue, where digital campuses use a variety of platforms.
“Here at SENMC, we try very hard to keep everything central, but naturally, you have one portal for registration, one for the LMS, another for tutoring and so on,” Anderson notes. “Ensuring students know where everything is – and actually receive what they need – is a constant hurdle. The biggest issue I see, however, is that many digital platforms are simply not designed with accessibility in mind. I have to break things down for students, teach them how to organise their work, and give them strategies for when their attention drifts. I work with them to eliminate those barriers right from the start, meeting with them regularly so they can talk through their challenges and build a path to success.”
SENMC is a small community college that became an independent institution five years ago, meaning it faces additional challenges concerning the institutional processes that serve its large population of online and non-traditional students. For instance, online students often do not identify themselves or request accommodation when they need it. They may not realise that they remain eligible for support even if they take classes at home using digital solutions.
“My biggest hurdle is reaching our online students,” Anderson says. “I spend a lot of time talking to faculty, asking how their students are doing, where they see challenges and who might be struggling so I can proactively reach out. The other piece of the challenge concerns universal design. When I took over as accessibility coordinator – now director – my philosophy was that if we build universal design into our identity as a growing institution, students who don't identify themselves can still benefit from the technology we provide.”
Learning tools like Genio Notes play an important role in helping non-traditional students participate more fully. These tools empower students to access the learning environment equitably while maintaining the all-important productive friction necessary for the learning experience. At the same time, they challenge faculty to think carefully about universal design. Different learners have different needs, so curricula and pedagogy should not be designed for a typical student but rather, as much as possible, cater to the differences seen throughout the student body.
“Embracing assistive learning requires raising awareness that everyone learns differently,” explains Anderson. “Just as faculty members have different teaching styles, students have different learning styles. Shifting faculty and staff focus to support today’s learners has been a challenge, but it’s also been a beautiful metamorphosis.”
Even with recent technological innovation, reaching students who are hesitant to ask for help or don’t know where to begin presents challenges. In these cases, visibility and internal marketing are critical to engagement. Non-judgmental conversations can help determine what each student needs. Boosting awareness is also pivotal for both students and staff.
“We encourage faculty to adopt open-source and digital textbooks, which have built-in accessibility features like read-aloud options,” says Anderson. “When accessibility tools are built directly into the learning environment, it doesn’t just benefit students with disabilities but also the wider student body and their teachers. We have now integrated Genio Notes directly into our LMS, which means everything is right there on the toolbar next to students’ coursework. When you give students access to these resources, their mindset shifts from ‘I can’t do this’ to seeing success as an everyday reality.”
