Search Results for: accessibility

Accessibility for the busy lecturer

ElaineS

Digital accessibility and fostering an inclusive learning environment are as important as ever with the focus on blended and online digital learning and teaching at the moment. There is a range of online guidance and support available for colleagues to use to help with making their courses accessible. To assist in making this a little easier to discover, we’ve created two new documents that bring together some key tips and sources of support. The first is a A Busy Lecturers Guide to Accessibility. This two page document provides some key tips for making the more common content types more accessible and provides links to help you get started if you’re not clear where best to start. The second is the Accessible Content Toolkit which provides some… Read moreAccessibility for the busy lecturer

Moving Online with Accessibility

ElaineS

With the rapid transition that has been necessary due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a large number of colleagues are looking for ideas, alternatives and suggestions for developing their learning and teaching approaches online. This series of blog posts are aimed at supporting staff looking for ways to incorporate more blended or online learning teaching whether for the short term or long term. What do we mean by accessibility? Over this last year, there’s been a focus on digital accessibility with the introduction of the new Public Sector web accessibility regulations. This requires all institutions to look at how they make their websites accessible for all users including staff and students with accessibility needs. This includes those with specific learning needs but also includes people who… Read moreMoving Online with Accessibility

Your handy Office 365 Accessibility Checker- Good to go

ElaineS

Changing digital practice to accommodate accessibility within the range of documents and learning materials we produce can seem like a daunting task. Thankfully, there are some tools that can help you get the grips with the needs of disabled students when it comes to accessible content. In this brief post, we take a look at the Accessibility Checker in the Office 365 suite such as Word, PowerPoint etc. To note: this advice is based on the latest version of the MS Office. IT services have been rolling this out across the institution. If you don’t see the same as the images below, then contact IT who will be able to help. What is the Accessibility Checker? The Accessibility Checker is a tool that been included… Read moreYour handy Office 365 Accessibility Checker- Good to go

A Month of Digital Accessibility

ElaineS

So, that was October. The start of term, welcoming our newest students and getting to grips with the new academic year.  We also started to raise awareness of the new Public Sector Website Accessibility Regulations. And, now, to support staff with developing accessible content we’re publishing a range of support, guidance and tips and tricks to help everyone with making their content as accessible as possible whether it’s content for a website, content for internal colleagues or learning content for our students. It can seem that creating or adapting existing content to make it accessible is quite challenging. But in reality there’s some really quick ways to achieve this. For this month there’s handy calendar of Office 365 tips and tricks which provide some ideas… Read moreA Month of Digital Accessibility

Aligning Digital Accessibility and Digital Capabilities

ElaineS

You may have recently heard about the new Public Sector Web Accessibility Regulations which put a much stronger emphasis on ensuring all users of websites and intranets across the public sector can have as an inclusive web experience as much as possible. For most institutions there’s a lot of work underway both on their public facing websites and for those systems such as VLE’s where a significant numbers of individuals need to engage with a range of online content and activities. This blog post isn’t a dissection of the ins and outs of the new regulations. Jisc have been holding a number of accessibility clinics where specific queries can be discussed and the Further and Higher Education Working Group have pulled together a range of… Read moreAligning Digital Accessibility and Digital Capabilities

Vignette of Practice: Out of sight, out of mind? Academic Liaison Librarians Online and Beyond

Josh Simpson

Vignette of Practice: Out of sight, out of mind? Academic Liaison Librarians Online and Beyond Sarah Purcell, Kathryn Devine, Shona Raymond, Alison Taylor, Jennifer Dumbelton, Ros Sykes, Jo Dunn, Beth Connors and Andy Searle – Library Services Figure 1: L to R: Jo Dunn, Shona Raymond, Sarah Purcell, Ros Sykes, Allie Taylor, Kathryn Devine, Andy Searle, [Beth Connors]. The Academic Liaison Librarian Team advises, teaches, and supports students, researchers and academic colleagues at the University of Worcester and across our partnerships (V1, V2). We are a professionally qualified team (A5) who support literature searching and academic referencing, and promote the effective use of physical and online library services, integrated at both course and module level. Our team ethos of sharing knowledge, undertaking professional development and… Read moreVignette of Practice: Out of sight, out of mind? Academic Liaison Librarians Online and Beyond

Get ready for GAAD

ElaineS

Can you help us on Global Accessibility Awareness Day? This is a day to raise awareness of how we can all help support digital accessibility and this year it’s on 19th May. It’s an opportunity to take a small amount time to focus on the digital accessibility of your courses or any content that you might want to improve. There are lots of events worldwide and you can find out more about the range of events on the dedicated website. Blackboard are running a Fix Your Content 24-hour global event– challenging institutions and Blackboard Ally users everywhere to look at how they can improve the accessibility of their content. To help with improving the digital accessibility, colleagues from QED, IT, the TEL Unit, the Library,… Read moreGet ready for GAAD

Preparing to teach in physically distanced classrooms: advice, guidance and practical strategies

mstowell1

It’s been a busy summer and here we are already at the start of a new academic year facing what will certainly be a challenging Autumn semester.  As we gear up for new and continuing students to return to campus under the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, we all need to be confident about delivering high quality learning and teaching. This is not just a matter of planning online elements of delivery in modules, and it definitely is not simply a question of moving ‘large lectures’ to narrated powerpoints or pre-recorded lectures.  In this blog post we signpost some resources that can help you plan for delivery of learning and teaching in physically distanced classrooms.

A framework for organising and managing a module for blended delivery

mstowell1

Some ideas on basic good practice to help you and your students engage effectively with a module where the teaching is in different modalities.  Covers things like weekly intros, interactivity, managing and resenting content, directed learning, accessibility and what students said they appreciate from their experience of online learning in ‘lockdown’. Open the file in powerpoint mode 2020.09.04 A Framework for Organising and Managing a Module v4  

Vignette of Practice – Universal Design for Learning (UDL): The Benefits of Implementation

ctay5

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): The Benefits of Implementation By Lisa Porter, Senior Lecturer and Admissions Tutor – FdSc; School of Allied Health and Community     This case study demonstrates innovative and excellent practice: UDL was applied to a module, resulting in significantly increased student satisfaction, achievement and engagement. UDL is a framework which reduces barriers to learning, recognises the diversity of individual learning styles and provides equality of opportunity for all learners (Capp, 2017). It provides a ‘buffet’ of learning rather than a single ‘fixed menu’ approach and contains three core principles: ‘Flexible methods of learning’; ‘Flexible resources to support learning’; ‘Flexible assessments’ (DeMontfort University, 2019). I applied the ‘UDL Self-Assessment and Development Tool’ (DeMontfort University, 2019) to review how ‘universal’ my module… Read moreVignette of Practice – Universal Design for Learning (UDL): The Benefits of Implementation