It is important to consider diversity and accessibility in learning design, to enable as many learners as possible access to your course. The above link is to another part of my own learning – considering the diversity or not, of emojis.
Various platforms, such as Apple and Facebook Messenger updated their emoji options a few years ago, to include racially diverse emojis. As “inclusive” as this may seem, and their intention did seem to be well meaning, it appears users are feeling the ‘need’ to make a choice which emoji skin tone to use, thus “identifying” with a particular race, whereas before, with no differentiation, everyone just selected the emoji to fit the feeling/activity.
Along comes Bitmoji. Bitmoji allows users to design their emoji as they wish. Users can select body types, clothes, hair length and colour, skin colour, and other accessories. it can sometimes cause a user to self reflect on what they are actually designing.
When I designed my Bitmoji, I considered the body types available, reflected on myself and chose the largest size available. I can’t say it actually looks like my body, but it’s what was on offer. Am I happy with it? Would I have selected a bigger body type to represent me more accurately, had one been available? Perhaps not. Had there not been an option to select body type, every Bitmoji user would have had the same one, and to be honest, I probably wouldn’t have even thought about the size being correct or not, but because the option was there, its then makes the question be asked.
