Section Two
Access: A Key Issue for Women's Learning

Overview
Access to learning can be understood in two ways: physical access is the availability of learning at times and places suitable for the learner; social access involves conditions that meet learners' needs for appropriate content and a supportive environment. This section focuses primarily on physical access and considers how new learning technologies link into what is termed the "access chain": communications infrastructures, institutional systems, community resources and individual learners. As well, the expectations and decisions that shape the technical systems within that chain are examined, as are some cost issues though these are discussed in greater depth in the next section.

Social aspects of access considered in this section include institutional initiatives to overcome barriers to learning but some social access is explored in greater detail in the section on equality and quality of learning.

Factors that determine whether or not learning is truly accessible are related to geography, communications and transportation systems, social and economic situations, gender and language.

Background: What are our expectations of access?
Living in a geographically dispersed and culturally diverse country, Canadians have a particular perspective on access. We have come to expect some basic standards in access to communication and transportation as a means of allowing citizens to participate in the political, social and economic life of the country. We expect that we can mail a letter anywhere in the country for the same priced stamp, that we can have a telephone at affordable rates and, in most parts of the country, that the road that goes past our house connects with a network of roads and highways across the country.¹

Access to education is equally a part of the rights we expect as citizens. In Canada, the first country in the British Empire to establish public education, the rationale for accessibility has been shaped by several enduring principles, one of which dates back to 1841. Egerton Ryerson argued that universal access to education was essential so that Canada would not be "a nation of hewers of wood and drawers of water ,"² i.e. not be confined to a colonial and dependent role as shipper of raw materials to Britain and recipient of its manufactured goods. Ryerson's vision, to prepare people to contribute to the political and economic life of the nation, is still a guiding rationale for providing access to education.

The benchmark of what constituted an adequate education has shifted over the past 150 years, generally in tandem with the demands of the economic system. In the earlier part of this century, when the economy was dominated by agriculture, grade school completion was regarded as adequate for most people. In the 1950s and 1960s, high school completion became the normal expectation. By the 1990s, we have heard repeated statements that the new "information economy" requires at least 17 years of education. It is not the purpose here to argue with this rationale but to note the growing assumption that increased levels of education provide better preparation for participation in the workforce.

Removal of Barriers
Barriers to learning can be considered from two sides. Lack of access can be regarded as a fault in the system or as problem due to a deficit in the learner. How access is viewed affects notions of responsibility about how it should be addressed: it is either the system's responsibility to remove the barrier or the learner's responsibility to overcome the deficit that makes learning inaccessible.

For example, post secondary institutions have fairly recently accepted the responsibility of making education accessible to learners with disabilities. Previously, it was regarded as the learners' responsibility to manoeuvre through a campus despite stairs, heavy doors, inaccessible washrooms, long distances between buildings and so on. This shift is an example of two relatively recent changes: an expanded general concept of what is meant by accessibility, and a shift in responsibility to the institution for removing barriers to the learner.

Understanding the "two-sidedness" of access makes it easier to recognize when expectations have been reduced or more responsibility has been shifted to learners. For example, requiring students to have Internet access to contact their instructor when they could previously telephone a 1-800 number shifts responsibility to the learner. Learners without Internet access would see this as an institutional barrier, but the institution may see it as something the learner must address.