Abstract draft PGR Conference

Argument, Evidence, Contribution to knowledge/literature 


Our world has changed. We now live in a digital age, where everyday communications, transactions and information that were once either in physical spaces or face to face are either online or in some form of digital format. 

That digital shift also impacts how accessible our world is for those now using digital content. Assistive technologies and screen readers only work when the content they read is designed with accessibility principles applied. Content also needs to be created to consider a whole range of user needs. 1 in 5 people in society have some form of disability who need such inclusive content, so it’s vital we have some form of awareness education around this.

Young people are both consumers as well as creators in our digital world, so it seems right to teach them some basic principles of digital accessibility to educate and prepare them to be inclusive in our digital society.

The education curriculum currently only teaches about online safety, cyber security and information searching, but very rarely, if at all, refers to creating accessible or inclusive content.

This research aims to take a design based research approach to co-produce a basic awareness and skills curriculum with multiple stakeholders to fill that teaching and learning gap in schools.

Digital accessibility is multidisciplinary, it combines the lenses and perspectives of disability awareness, procedural or legal knowledge, as well as technical and digital skills.

The current research literature on the teaching of digital accessibility is limited and only explores this type of teaching and learning from within a college or university context, and specifically only in a digital skill set. 

This research aims to explore this topic from the perspectives of the school PSHE, citizenship and computing curriculum. It aims to account for the multiple disciplines it spans across, and for awareness to be embedded much earlier in a young persons development for the world in which they live.

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