Accessibility

Accessibility is about openness. It’s about making sure that as many people as possible have the ability to gain access to goods and services as well as learning and teaching materials. There are several driving forces for this. We live in a diverse society in which increasing accessibility for all participants is good practice. Not only that, we have:

• ethical considerations
• usability issues
• legal obligations under the Equality Act (2010).

We believe that prioritising accessibility can improve the learning environment for all. That's why we adhere to the following:

• Improve your three Rs - JISC TechDis
• The University's Web Accessibility Policy
• Accessibility of eLearning Materials Policy
• Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) - Accessibility essentials series

The Equality Act (2010) places an anticipatory duty on the University which means that it is not good enough to wait until a disabled person applies to a course or tries to use a service before thinking about what reasonable adjustments should be made.  

Rewiring Inclusion: Strategies, tools and techniques to promote barrier-free learning

A national one-day conference took place in Nottingham on Tuesday 9 February 2010, with an optional evening session on 8 February. This was organised jointly by the Association for Learning Technology and JISC TechDis.

Summary of conference by Sarah Horrigan, Educational Development Unit and Dr Lindsay Event from School of Science and Technology on behalf of the eLearning Accessibility Working Group.