METHODOLOGIES AND APPROACHES Toward an Accessible Pedagogy: Dis/ability, Multimodality, and Universal Design in the Technical Communication Classroom Shannon Walters Temple University This article explores the challenges and opportunities that the rising numbers of stu- dents with disabilities and the changing definition of disability pose to technical communication teachers and researchers. Specifically, in a teacher-researcher study that combines methods from disability studies, I report on the effectiveness of multi- modal and universal design approaches to more comprehensively address disability and accessibility in the classroom and to revise traditional impairment-specific ap- proaches to disability in technical communication. Students with disabilities are one of the fastest growing populations in university classrooms. Recently released census data from 2003–04 show that 2.2 million (11%) of undergraduates in the United States report a disability, a rate that has tri- pled in recent years (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). Directors of Student Disability Services at two major universities estimate that only half of students with disabili- ties report their disabilities and note that students with disabilities often forgo ac- commodations for which they are eligible because they believe their instructors will treat them differently. Outside the classroom, people with disabilities are also an important consideration for technical communicators. Of the approximately 41.3 million people with disabilities in the U.S. (approximately 15% of the popula- tion), only 44% of people with a nonsevere disability work full time. Thirty-six percent of people with a severe disability use home computers, and only 29% use the Internet (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION QUARTERLY, 19(4), 427–454 Copyright © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1057-2252 print / 1542-7625 online DOI: 10.10.1080/105722522010502090