Time for digital inclusion at scale

There appears to be several major schools of thought that make up the debate in the digital accessibility skills area. These often depend on the specific discipline people are involved in or associate with digital accessibility and how it can be measured or achieved. Digital accessibility is either perceived as a complex area or an area where some basic application of skills and understanding can help to address it. The web regulations (ref) refer heavily to the technical specifications and measurable criteria of the web content accessibility guidelines (ref), which involves in-depth understanding of code or programming language aimed at web design and content developers. Internet searches on the topic of digital accessibility or web accessibility can reinforce this technical notion (Ref). There is also information on document remediation and the expertise needed to fix inaccessible documents, again upholding the need for specialists in this area and that it can be complex to address, ...

  Background and rationale. - 1 in 5 notes and drafts Where it sits in strategy and legal context nationally and internationally  - text written The skills and research gap and accessibility education. - text written / school education and similar contexts Key debates and perceptions - text drafted hand written  Aims and gaps in knowledge and research  LITERATURE - Intro - The multi disciplinary nature of digital accessibility  - Disability and empathy  - User based research  - Digital skill set and WCAG - Discussion  Theoretical   - Models of disabilities  - Pedagogical theories (the science, craft and art of teaching) Methodology - Design based research  - Lesson study approach 

Multi-disciplinary perspectives ‘as per conceptual model’ theme to keep reiterating. Accessibility is described as ‘’ Digital accessibility is defined as ‘disability perspective quote’ yet also lives in the technical field as ‘’ This crosses over the disciplines of both disability awareness in society and digital skills development. In terms of disability awareness on the curriculum this is touched on in PSHE, Citizenship curriculum, yet the associated digital skills are not there. Start the literature review with different perspectives of disability - medical, functional and social. Nothing for us without us. Essentially accessibility in the traditional sense is about making the world accessible to those with disabilities. Reference to the social model in government strategy. This literature review will focus on the teaching ‘of’ accessibility not teaching accessibly - explain the difference as per - (Teach Access, ??; Sonka, ???). Perspectives and perceptions of digital accessibility...

The government guidance around digital accessibility appears to be primarily focused around the web regulations (Ref), but in strategies it has been recognised that due to the legal requirements and the scale of delivering accessible services under this legislation, the skills and need for that professional field need addressing. Several government strategies and reports acknowledge the skills gap crisis in this area (Refs) and the need to plan for it appropriately both in education and in the workplace. An action to create an accessibility profession to help specifically address the scope and demand for delivering accessible digital services was presented in the National Disability Strategy (Ref). As a result, in August 2022 the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), the Crown Commercial Service, and the Home Office created the role of Accessibility Specialist (Ref) that sits with the CDDO content team of central government (Ref). The recommendation in the National Disability Strateg...

  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-disability-strategy Survey of lived experience. Findings from the UK Disability Survey and our lived experience research are being published alongside this strategy. We hope these are useful additions to the qualitative and quantitative evidence base on disability, as well as useful context for the development of this strategy. The UK Disability Survey and lived experience research complements a wider programme of engagement which has been running since February 2020, including: • meetings with our existing disability stakeholder forums: • 42 regional meetings of the nine Regional Stakeholder Networks (RSNs) involving disabled people, their organisations, parents and carers, totalling 225 members • 10meetingswiththeDisabilityCharitiesConsortium,agroupof10ofthe UK’s largest disability charities • 4 meetings of the Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) Forum • 11 roundtable discussions with a total of 98 disabled people about their...

  https://design-system.service.gov.uk/community/accessibility-strategy/ Very heavily is about their content at government rather than a national strategy for others to follow and adhere to. This accessibility strategy outlines the current principles and work needed to improve the accessibility of the GOV.UK Design System. The primary goals of this strategy are to inform decision-making and enhance the success of accessibility-related activities within the GOV.UK Design System team. Given the continuous and iterative nature of accessibility work, this strategy will continue to change and adapt over time. Using the GOV.UK Design System in a service does not immediately make that service accessible. Additional research, design, development and testing work is needed to make any service accessible, even when using accessible styles, components and patterns. Accessibility and design systems At least  1 in 5 people report having a disability  in the UK, making accessibility an...

  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-digital-inclusion-strategy/government-digital-inclusion-strategy Digital accessibility doesn’t appear to factor in this in an obvious way. Executive summary This strategy sets out how government and partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors will increase digital inclusion. This means helping people become capable of using and benefiting from the internet Helping more people to go online can also help tackle wider social issues, support economic growth and close equality gaps. This strategy says how we will work over the next 2 years to reduce the number of people without basic digital skills and capabilities by a quarter. At that point, we will review our approach to ensure we are on course to have everyone who can be online by 2020. We believe that just under 10% of the adult population may never be able to gain basic digital capabilities, because of disabilities or basic literacy skills.  Our approach to a...

Government Digital Strategy   https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uks-digital-strategy/uk-digital-strategy Increasing the supply of digitally and tech enabled workers at all levels will be crucial for our long term economic prosperity and is integral to unlocking productivity improvements across the economy.  The digital skills gap is estimated to cost the UK economy £63 billion  per year in lost potential gross domestic product (GDP) and is expected to widen, resulting in a workforce inadequately equipped to meet the demands of the digital age.  Employers say that only 48% of people leaving full-time education have the advanced digital skills required , and many companies cite  lack of available talent  as the single biggest constraining factor to their growth. Improving the availability of digital skills not only unlocks the full economic potential of businesses, it helps individuals and opens up careers in interesting, sustainable, and  well-...

Prior to the Digital strategy being launched by government (Ref,year), the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee (2016) put together a report to examine digital skills and how these are being experienced in the workplace, schools and in higher education. They make it clear that the evidence shows that the UK faces a digital skills crisis and based on that make some key recommendations. They explain, there are skills gaps presenting themselves at all stages in the education and training pipeline, from schools to the workplace (p.?). They put forward that it is vital for the Government to coordinate a coherent strategy to address the digital skills crisis at all stages in the education and training pipeline. The report later refers to the digital inclusion strategy (2014) which set out a two-year time frame to reduce the number of people digitally excluded by 25%. The Strategy identified several actions that government, private, public and voluntary sector stakeholders need t...

  https://www.magentaa11y.com/ https://m3.material.io/foundations/accessible-design/overview https://about.google/belonging/accessibility-resources/ https://inclusivedesignprinciples.org/ https://thisiswcag.com/ This PDF is the title image and so true in my own organisation, and the rest of the PDF is so familiar too. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6071fa745947937fc933ecbb/t/60a02725893d22758a6207c5/1621108519636/Giving-a-damn-about-accessibility.pdf

 Digital literacy in school leavers https://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/tel/2023/04/25/digital-literacy-and-capability-in-school-leavers/ No accessibility without disabilities  https://yatil.net/blog/no-accessibility-without-disabilities https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/accessibility-resources-tools-articles-books-for-designer/ https://linktr.ee/thedigitalaccessibilitypodcast

  Useful sites: https://inclusivedesignprinciples.org/ https://www.americancityandcounty.com/2023/04/21/expanding-accessibility-how-local-governments-can-digitize-inclusively/ https://www.buzzsprout.com/719037/10692597?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Twitter Webinars to watch: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uUSUvulzpUw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VZoQmerCwmo&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/live/k6VmSjEIiks?feature=share https://accessibilitycraft.com/010-accessibility-is-more-important-than-seo-stroopwafel-liqueur/ https://www.buzzsprout.com/719037/12719166 Design for Accessibility - SERIES in May 6-7pm BST https://www.linkedin.com/events/designforaccessibility7056332007445790720/ 

  https://anngagne.ca/biography/ https://anngagne.ca/podcast/episode-3-accessible-pedagogy-is-not-just-udl/

Planning of a taster activity so people to take away some activities and handouts to teach students about digital accessibility.  I want to put people in pairs or groups to consider how it fits in certain subject areas, e.g. put them into groups of adult social care, business, art and design and travel and tourism to identify how digital accessibility impacts that subject area. Get them to present back ideas and essentially tell them their ideas could end up in the learn to enable website in terms of examples to show learners. Off the back of it people might use the site with learners, as well as use the poster. Inspired by the Hassell posters, but specifically for subject areas, topics or where it’s relevant in professions. https://assets.hassellinclusion.com/uploads/2020/09/Hassell_Inclusion_Aging_Design_Poster.pdf Accessibility is everywhere and is the responsibility of everyone. Rationale - PHD - education as social responsibility e.g. staying safe online, cyber security, GDPR ...

 The book that changed it all. This is clearly going to be the go-to for me. It changed everything and made me realise the different paradigm approaches to measure teaching and learning and how each have their own merit. A fantastic resource for my next piece of writing.

 A great read to inspire and organise the methods needed to specifically look at how something is taught. Notes from this book will be taken and a section on this needs to be discussed, would be good to align to the social constructivist perspective.

 Using this model I will start to write a paradigm and perspectives section arguing what I’m doing and the focus of the study. Digital accessibility perspectives (ontology and epistemology) Pedagogical models  Lesson study 

  Ontologically there is no one reality of digital accessibility outside the human experience. The reality and understanding of what the meaning of digital accessibility is very much depends on what lens from which it is being viewed, such as addressing awareness around disabilities, procedural knowledge or technical skills (Ref). These are very much the why, what, and how components that serve to compliment and reinforce wider understanding on the topic of digital accessibility.  Which aspect is deemed the priority can be predetermined or dependent on what role people have as the actors in our society, or their lived experiences and beliefs of what is important. The competing priorities between meeting basic legal compliance that avoids penalties or placing an importance on meeting real user needs is a common debate in digital accessibility (ref). The component that primarily serves to describe the ‘why’ aspect is disability awareness and that refers to understanding the barr...