I’m an Academic Technology Enhanced Learning Advisor in the Learning, Enhancement and Academic Practice (LEAP) Directorate at the University of Hull. Prior to this, I was Senior Lecturer in Education Development at the University of Lincoln. My current research is e-teaching; the missing element of e-learning and I support the pedagogical use of VLE and development of digital capabilities for staff and students. I’ve worked with educational technology since the 1990’s; the days of DOS, 5 ¼ inch floppy disks and dot matrix printers. For me, accessibility is about awareness of the diversity of ways people use computers and access the internet, and taking steps to avoid creating inadvertent barriers when uploading learning and teaching resources.

Digital inclusion and accessibility

It seems likely the proposed changes to the DSA will remove many existing support mechanisms for students who have previously benefited from digital assistance in their studies. Without the DSA payments, institutions will need to revisit their duty to make reasonable adjustments to ensure equality of access. The Digital Inclusion and Accessibility #LTHEchat invites suggestions for reasonable adjustments we can all make within our day to day digital practices. Inclusive design isn’t just about enabling people with disabilities to have equality of access. It’s about ensuring access for everyone, whether they’re using mobile devices, different screen sizes or lacking plug-ins such as Flash etc. It’s also about supporting a range of learning preferences. I often work with a high screen magnification so it helps if content creators have checked their documents still work on 200+ zoom (Ctrl + on your keyboard is a quick way to check this out). Using headings and styles in Word makes it easier to navigate through long documents. Reading online benefits from good colour contrast so avoid combinations like grey text on a white background. Little changes make big differences and this hour is about sharing tips and advice while reminding ourselves how important it is to keep accessibility in mind.

If you are reflecting on this specific #LTHEchat please share your post with us so that we can reblog.

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See you Wednesday, same time, same place 😉 – 8-9PM GMT #LTHEchat

The storify is available here.

The visualisation will be available here

The LTHEchat team
ps. If you would  like to become part of a future organising team, please get in touch with us.