Accessibility for Teaching Staff
Section outline
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When creating a document, there are some core guidelines that will ensure that a document is accessible, both in digital and in printed format, advice here includes guidelines on:
- Font
- Colour
- Headings
- Layout
- Writing Style
- Visual Impact
- Large Print Documents
- Conversion to an Accessible Format
- Guidelines for your Text Editor
- Validation Tools
The page also includes some:
- Supporting Videos
- Links to Online Courses
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An External Course Link...
This course from Canvas Network will help you to understand civil rights issues surrounding accessibility and empower you to design learning experiences that promote inclusive learning environments. You will learn about the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and accessibility guidelines and standards. These important aspects of accessibility will enable you to address challenges and reduce barriers faced by students related to access, success, and completion.
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Using Nottingham Trent University in the UK, and Gazi University in Turkey as examples, this article describes best practices being employed to give access to HE to people with diabilities.
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In Higher Education, assistive technologies can be helpful in a number of areas - covered in this learning element including:
- Reading
- Writing
- Maths
- Organisation
Typical barriers or difficulties that assistive technologies can help people overcome include:
- Sight
- Text decoding
- Distractibility
- Hearing
This learning element includes information on:
- Examples of Assistive Technology by Domain
- Apps for Mobile Devices
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This table shows the relevant domains of potential AT application by disability. People with particular disabilities are more likely to require particular assistive technologies.
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How to use assistive technologies like screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, Narrator), scanning/text-to-speech tools (Kurzweil 1000 & 3000), screen magnification software (ZoomText), and voice recognition systems (Dragon Naturally Speaking) to help visually impaired students navigate digital content, edit documents, and interact with computers efficiently.
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This article contains guidance on assisting students with manual dexterity issues. It includes guidance on input technologies including:
- Voice inputs,
- Adapted keyboards,
- Accessible mouse input tools.
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Links to the built in accessibilty settings in iOS, Android and Microsoft Windows.
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An interesting slider presentation of assistive technology advances between the first typewriter in 1808 and Microsoft's developments in 2015.
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A set of databases of Assistive technology including:
- The EastIn database of EU assistive tech
- Australia's National Equipment Database
- UK Open Assistive - Open software and hardware
- Belgium - Database of AT for HE
- Southern Africa AT database
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An 8 slide presentation on the use of dispuptive technologies highlighting academic papers with relevance to:
- Co-research
- AR, VR and XR
- Location based services
- Robotics
- Serious games
- Inclusive digital game making
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A ten slide presentation with references (final slide) decribing Learning Management Systems (LMS) that can be used to create Online Educational Resources (OERs) and Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It compares the accessibility available in a number of LMS. It describes the Brickfield accessibility toolkit providing accessibilty tests for Moodle sites, and highlights ways to ensure Atutor and Moodle accessibility. It also highlights classcentral.com - a gateway to thousands of MOOCs.
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Details about SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model) packaged content used in OERs and MOOCs - describing its advantages including:
- Compatibility
- Saving Progress
- Feedback
- Clear Course Structure
- Modularity
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There are a number of accessibilty checkers you can use to assess and improve your learning content. This article summarises the best ones.
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The European Inclusive Learning Hub is a large repository of inclusive, searchable and usable learning resources, methods, tools and mechanisms, already tested, approbated and deployed in certain countries. It acts as a wizard-style driven and semantically supported logical framework for systematization/categorisation of inclusive learning resources, methods, tools and mechanisms in various education levels: early childhood, primary & secondary school, vocational education and training, higher education, adults education. This inclusive education database was created by the Erasmus+ project "MyHUB: a one-stop-shop on inclusion practices, tools, resources and methods for the pedagogical staff at formal and non-formal educational institutions" (MyHUB – 604454-EPP-1-2018-1-LV-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN), and has been integrated into our own portal.
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UNESCO released a background paper prepared for the 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report, addressing inclusion and education, with focus on relevant technology for inclusion. It contains a set of recommendations which we need to consider when we address inclusive education and the usage of AT to support it. This article summarises them.
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A high tech Windows app developed in this project which enables live tracking of engagement of a learner using a webcam, computer interaction data and a set of AI algorithms.
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Ths article contains links to a number of checklists that can be used to enhance accessibility and inclusivity in HE courses. It also includes a 16 slide presentation on how the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals can guide inclusive teaching practice.
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The Inclusive Higher Education SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) -analysis template provides a tool for strategic planning and exploration of a higher education institution’s internal and external environment with regard to inclusion.
The analysis includes identifying current strengths and weaknesses, as well as future opportunities, and threats.
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A summary 'A framework – Ten Top approaches to quality teaching and learning' by Phil Dexter, who worked for the British Council for 30 years and is now a freelance education consultant specialising in inclusive education. The two relevant articles are linked from within this summary if you wish to explore this framework in full.
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A brief slideshow highlighting the definitions of Equity, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice Education.
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Inclusion in terms of gender, sex, disability, ethnicity, race, religion.
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This article highlights the main challenges in inclusive education for:
- Students with SEN
- Students with differecutural/language backgrounds
- Students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds
- The gender of students
- The age of students
It contains a number of interesting academic references.
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A short article containing some academic references to UDL research, and a link to the UDL Framework.
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This article contains links to some very useful resources for supporting inclusion. These include:
- Office of Teaching & Learning Inclusive Teaching Practises at the University of Denver.
- An Inclusive Pedagogy Toolkit from the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship at Georgetown University.
- Inclusive Teaching Toolkit from the University of Illinois Chicago
- An e-learning course from InclusiveHE.eu
- The University of Hull's Inclusive Education Framework
- NHS Education for Scotland's info on inclusive education and learning
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A 50 slide presentation on Guidelines for Inclusive HE prepared by experts from the University of Latvia.
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A seventeen slide presentation highlighting things to do and not to do when considereing the accessibility of your HE course.
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At the core of AT matching lies “feature matching”. This is a process whereby technology features are being identified that would benefit the AT user based on their abilities and needs.
This process of identifying technology features is based on the abilities and needs of the user. As a result, before considering AT, the educational team must clearly identify the user's unique needs and the tasks to be performed in the educational program.
The article describes an AT assessment process which identifies targeted tasks and environments for each student need. The student's needs and abilities should then be evaluated/observed if they have not already been identified. Then AT features are matched to those needs and abilities.
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This article details assitive technologies including audio output devices (e-readers), Refreshing Braille displays, Braille embossers and screen readers.
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This article describes AT for helping with writing when you have a visula impairment. It includes:
- Low vision aids
- Low vision computer sortware
- Note takers
- Scanners
- Scanner readers
- Voice recorders
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An article with breif descriptions of technologies and issues to help with hearing impairments, including:
- Induction loop systems
- Radio aids
- Note takers/Sign Language interpreters/ Lip speakers
- Student safety
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Technologies are being developed which can use a standard camera feed to track facial expressions in real time. This technology has been used in studies to predict the level of engagement or attention in students working on particular tasks. This brief article links some work in this field with which NTU have been involved.
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A brief article describing some of the benefits of AR implementations in teaching. It also highlights and links some of the available technologies on the market.
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A useful slide show of 13 slides, describing the best practices when interacting with people with a range of disabilities. This guidance can help the people with disabilities to understand you and you to work with them in the most effective way.
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This learning element provides a table of terminologies that are acceptable, and terminologies athat are outdated or should be avoided to avoid offence. This can be particularly helpful to people with English as a second language.
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A short article with three questions to ask yourself to check that your course is accessible.
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Some top accessibility tips, including tips on:
- Knowing your students
- Use inclusive pedagogical strategies
- LMS usability
- Welcoming accessibility statements
- Checking files are readable to all
- Using accessibility checkers (with links)
- Using accessible tech
- Using closed captioning for video/live events
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This article includes a number of links to useful external materials, including:
- 8 accessibility checklists from various linked sources
- 3 links to tips on making accessible course content and documents
- 12 links to accessible teaching guidance
- 3 links to online webinars on inclusion and accessibility
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Technical advancement has made applying interactive and attractive solutions easier. One such example is using HTML5 Packaging or H5P which is a SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) supported open source tool, available free for content developers “to create, share and reuse interactive HTML5 content” without the need for knowledge of coding (H5P.org).
This course is presented mainly using H5P formats!
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Key targets for making materials accessible, including:
- Formatting
- Images and labelling alternative text
- Structure
- Colour
- Links
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Preparation of accessible course material - a 4 slide summary highlighting:
- Microsoft Accessibility Fundamentals
- Preparation of Theoretical Content
- Accessability Checking
- InDesign and PDF Accessibility Tools
It also links to a more detailed course by Latvia University - also available here.
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This article shows links on how to create content with Microsoft 365 in a way that enables greater accessibility.
In this module you will:
- Learn how to create accessible content with the Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook apps.
- Explore the built-in accessibility tools and features of each of these apps.
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This article highlights Google's efforts to forefront accessibility in their Android and Chrome operating syatems, their apps and their devices.
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ARASAAC offers graphic and material resources to facilitate communication and cognitive accessibility to all people who, due to different factors (autism, intellectual disability, lack of language, elderly people, etc.), present serious difficulties in these areas, which hinder their inclusion in any area of daily life.
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Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission. Unlike traditionally copyrighted resources, OER have been licensed by their authors to permit no-cost access, reuse, adaptation, and redistribution. They may also exist in the public domain, free of all copyright restrictions. Access free OERs here!
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Details of a number of Book Reader apps, including:
- The BRUNO Book reader which helps to read electronic and printed materials. The device creates audio materials which can be listened to later, and also offers magnified text following.
- OrCam MyEye – A wearable AI device that reads printed and digital text aloud.
- Dyslexia Assistive OCR Device – Scans text and converts it into speech, with an integrated dictionary for better comprehension.
- Text-to-Speech (TTS) Software – Reads digital text aloud, useful for ebooks and web pages.
- Audiobooks & Digital TTS Books – Allow users to listen to books instead of reading.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Tools – Convert printed text into digital speech.
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Microsoft creates technology that is accessible to people around the world of all ages and abilities. This contains links to their youtube channel with many videos on accessibility.
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A 55 slide set of guidelines towards creating an accessible curriculum, by experts from the University of Latvia.
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A 28 slide presentation on developing accessible training materials produced by the University of Latvia.
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A guide on the Universal Design for Learning Framework with concrete examples of courses that can be completed. Including:
- Affective - Provide multiple means of engagement
- Recognition - Provide multiple means of representation
- Strategic - Provide multiple means of action and expression
The free courses provided in the last tab are well worth a look.
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Staff guidance including:
- Recommended AI Tools
- Discipline Specific AI
- Student Assessment
This document is based on information produced by Nottingham Trent University, UK.
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Guidelines on the use of Gen AI for students including:
- What is Gen AI
- Recommended AI Tools
- A list of dos and don'ts
- Ethics
- Limitations
- Responsibilities for both students and educators
This document is based on guidance produced at Nottingham Trent University, UK.
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Includes information on adoption of equality charters including:
- The Athena Swan Charter
- it's main principles
- it's history
- it's global uptake
- The Race Equality Charter
- Good practice database
Content based on information from Advance-HE.
- The Athena Swan Charter
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