Inclusive Syllabus Practices Toolkit

Ideally, the language used in an inclusive syllabus:

• Is warm and inviting
• Conveys awareness of structures of dominance and privilege
• Conveys support
• Conveys respect for the students and commitment to the course
• Establishes that instructor’s belief in the students’ ability to succeed in the course
• Values the experience of the student

In practice, this can look like:

• Using the pronouns “I” or “We” rather than “You”
• Including diversity, disability, and/or equity statements in the syllabus text
• Including pronouns with contact information
• Office hours statement including why students would want to come, what they can expect, and how to get to you
• Continuously interrogating the identity-based language used in your syllabus.

Examples of intentional language:

Questions to ask yourself regarding intentional language:

• Who is my syllabus serving? What are the assumptions I’m making about the background, experience, or knowledge level of students?
• What are my discipline’s language conventions and assumptions? How might students with varying backgrounds respond to them?
• What are my discipline’s assumptions about legitimate forms of knowledge or instruction? How might students with varying backgrounds respond?
• Are there different, newer, and/or more accurate terms I can use and by which a community wishes to be referred?

A diversity, equity, or disability syllabus statement in courses serves several functions

• Establishes diversity, equity, and awareness of ability as a value of your courses
• Can provide resources relevant to those identity groups
• Explain the importance of diversity and equity in education, both generally and in this course

In practice, this can look like:

• The University of Wisconsin Diversity Syllabus Statement and Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Statement, which can be found in the template syllabus here.
• The School of Education Statement of Diversity Values and Commitments, which can be found here
• An additional personalized diversity and disability statement

Things to keep in mind if writing a personalized addition or statement:

• Practice Introspection: Syllabus statements can be just as personal as teaching philosophies or statements. Set aside intentional time to reflect on your own experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives so that you can be aware of them when crafting your statement.
• Integrate teaching philosophy: How you engage with diversity and disability in the classroom may be closely tied to your teaching philosophy. Students react positively to the kinds of transparency that comes from instructors sharing why they make the classroom choices they make so providing that information may help make that connection clearer to students.
• Integrate course and program outcomes: Syllabus statements can provide an opportunity to draw broader connections between engaging and respecting differences in individual interactions and broader course or program learning outcomes.
• Establish expectations: Syllabus statements can provide an opportunity to begin setting expectations for student interactions and invite students to take ownership and accountability for maintaining classroom culture.

Community agreements in a classroom setting are:

• A representation of collective visioning
• Explicitly named and often developed by the group together
• Communally enforced

They are distinct from both rules and norms.

• Norms implicitly and explicitly represent the current reality of how we interact. They may or may not represent the aspirations we have for our community or the values we espouse
• Rules are mandated and enforced by an authority figure generally without the buy-in or endorsement of the community as a whole.

In practice, this can look like:

• A starting point for discussion is written by the instructor and then vetted by the class
• Community agreements generated entirely by the class without the assistance of pre-made agreements supplied by the professor
• Including discussion of values, specific behaviors or applications of specific agreements, and what the process for accountability should look like
• Writing agreements in the affirmative, craft of vision of how we will show up in community not how we will not

Some questions that may be posed to the class generate community agreements

• Individually consider: what do I need from this group in order to feel safe, supported, open, productive, and trusting… so that we can serve do our best work, and achieve our common vision?
• When I say _________ [ex. respect, grace, open, intent over impact, honesty] what is it that I mean? What does it look like?
• What do you notice about the list as we build it? Which of our values are most present? Which are least?
• Who do we think is most supported by the current norms? Who is least?
• How do we want to hold each other accountable when we forget our community agreements?
• How often should we be checking in on these community agreements? We may check in more often but we want to set an intention to revisit these at least once.

Visual practices in a syllabus seek to

• Increase engagement, retention, and reading comprehension of both visual and text components of the syllabus
• Is based on the idea that images are more likely to be more memorable than text
• Engage with a variety of learning styles beyond that of a traditional text-based syllabus
• Can have varying amounts and complexities of visual additions

In practice, this can look like:

• A graphic syllabus addendum like a flowchart or concept map of course concepts to clarify connections between topics
• A newsletter-style syllabus that contains much of the same text-heavy information of a traditional syllabus but creates visual interest in emphasis through use of color, formatting, and images
• An infographic syllabus that combines light use of text with images, illustrations, and data visualization to convey information

Effective areas to add visual prompts

• Course activities including papers, tests, and special in-class activities
• Instructor office number and hours
• Grade or point distribution of the class

When using images or visual prompts, remember to use alt text on any digital items so your document is accessible to screen readers as well

Transparency practices in a syllabus seek to:

• Make clear and engage both instructors and students in both the “how” of student learning and the “why” of course structure
• Remove any sense of mystery for students around their own learning experience
• Create a greater sense of academic confidence and lower cognitive load for students

In practice this can look like

• Explicitly naming the academic and non-academic skills of focus for different chunks of content
• Unearthing hidden expectations like:
  • what kinds of questions do you expect to come to instructors vs. a TA vs. a peer vs. the syllabus
  • How should they reach our to instructors and what should students expect when they do
  • How instructors and TAs perfer to be addressed
• Naming the purpose of the syllabus and how instructors expect it to function in the class.
• Invitations for students to collaborate on class planning and agenda construction where possible

Accessibility practices in the syllabus ask instructors to

• Challenge the viewpoint of syllabus as unilaterally created and enforced contracts
• Interrogate understandings of “reasonable accommodations”
• Examine how a culture of exclusion can be replicated in syllabi
• Consider their own beliefs or biases regarding what accommodations are or represent to the course as a whole

In practice this can look like:

• Accessible document design
• The use of cooperative rather than combative language (See Intentional Use of Lanugage)
• Flexibility in course plans where possible

Examples of these practices:

• Cut content if possible to avoid duplication or to present at a later time
  • ex. making details of a given assignment known when it is assigned, removing statements of inappropriate behavior and instead referencing any department or school handbook or classroom community agreements
• When using images, charts, infographics or other visual aids, provide alt text that
  • Does not include “picture of” or “photograph” since screenreaders can already identify that
  • Provides information from more general to more specific in description giving the reader the ability to direct how deeply to engage with the photo like visual readers
  • Adjust the length to the rhetorical situation. What is the role this is serving for the visual reader and how much detail do non-visual readers need to complete the task as well
• Make text in syllabi more reader-friendly by:
  • Using 12-14 sans serif font (Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Tahoma)
  • Use two columns to reduce the number of words per line
  • Break up paragraphs into smaller 2-4 sentence chunks
  • Avoid black on white where possible, instead consider another dark color on a light color background
• Consider built-in “grace” periods, flexible deadlines, or student set deadlines for assignments rather than fixed due date

There are many campus resources you can include in your syllabus should you like to. A section of resources on the syllabus can help students be aware of the variety of university-sponsored support services even if they do not return to your syllabus to find the contact information. 

Some possible language you could use is: 

The university offers a wide range of support services to both undergraduate and graduate students that you may access free of charge as a student at the university

Hourly and back-up childcare

Child Care and Family Resources 

University Health Services

Mental Health Services

International Student Services

McBurney Disability Resources

Multicultural Student Center

SAFEwalk 

Survivor Resources

For a full list, please visit the Student Sevices page

National Equity Project: Developing Community Agreements 

Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning: Diversity Statements

University of Minnesota: Course Syllabi: Disability Accommodations Statement

Brown University Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning

APA: Inclusive Syllabus Suggestions for Creating a Syllabus that is Respectful, Welcoming, and Inclusive

University of Southern California Center for Urban Education: Syllabus Review Guide

Sensoy, Ö., & DiAngelo, R. (2014). Respect differences? Challenging the common guidelines in social justice education. Democracy and Education, 22(2), 1.

Nilson, L. B. (2007).  The graphic syllabus and the outcomes map.  Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.

Yarosh, J. H. (2021). The Syllabus Reconstructed: An Analysis of Traditional and Visual Syllabi for Information Retention and Inclusiveness. Teaching Sociology, 49(2), 173-183.

Winkelmes, M. A. (2013). Transparency in Teaching: Faculty Share Data and Improve Students’ Learning. Liberal Education, 99(2).

Winkelmes, M. A., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., & Weavil, K. H. (2016). A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students’ success. Peer Review, 18(1/2), 31-36.

edited by Mary-Ann Winkelmes, Allison Boye, and Suzanne Tapp ; foreword by Peter Felten and Ashley Finley. (2019). Transparent design in higher education teaching and leadership : a guide to implementing the transparency framework institution-wide to improve learning and retention. Sterling, Virginia :Stylus Publishing

Nusbaum, A. T., Swindell, S., & Plemons, A. (2021). Kindness at first sight: The role of syllabi in impression formation. Teaching of Psychology, 48(2), 130-143.

Gurung, R. A., & Galardi, N. R. (2021). Syllabus Tone, More Than Mental Health Statements, Influence Intentions to Seek Help. Teaching of Psychology, 0098628321994632.

Womack, A. M. (2017). Teaching is accommodation: Universally designing composition classrooms and syllabi. College Composition and Communication, 494-525.

Transparency in Teaching and Learning Project

Accessible Syllabus Project