TO ADD: Poor et al, Nover, Kawas, Gay2017

 Poor et al (2009) was keen to explore whether or not students had a heightened awareness of accessibility after exposure to being taught the subject. They used a pre and post course survey of 63 items that students needed to rate by importance. They divided these by types of systems such as communication, application, mobile devices and so on. 38 students participated and it was found that items related to accessibility showed a significant change and those that didn’t dropped concluding that the accessibility element of the course had an impact on students attitudes. 

 Kawas, Vonessen and Ko (2019) highlighted the lack of professional development for teachers learning new topics, especially that around digital accessibility. They suggested that there are resources to learn from, but teachers needed more pedagogical resources and time to learn the subject to be able to confidently change what they teach and include it. They conducted 18 semi-structured interviews asking teachers to explore a prototype micro professional development model for teaching accessibility. The vision of this professional development model was to help reduce the amount of time it takes for computer science teachers to be able to learn about accessibility and then incorporate it into their teaching. The idea of the model was to offer teachers a more personalised approach to be able to select courses relevant to their own teaching objectives and have relevant selected materials to adopt. Data indicated that although the idea was deemed promising and valuable there were many constraining factors to their willingness and ability to change their teaching content. These factors included some the curricula frameworks on the model narrowed their choices, departmental values created fear of change and busy schedules limited the time they were willing to engage with even small amounts of professional development (p.988). They concluded that people were motivated to learn but would benefit more from basic materials to get them started to help integrate key ideas and concepts into their teaching. 

Teachers often have no mandatory training to produce materials for their learners and this according to Nover (2021) became amplified during the pandemic. To address this concern funding was sought to ensure her and another member of staff were certified in digital accessibility and then used this knowledge to write a course to disseminate and share their knowledge for others to learn the same principles. The course consisted of three modules along with a pre and post course test for each one. Nover also created a video as part of the course to explain that she was just a regular faculty member who was able to make incremental changes to course delivery that helped improve accessibility. The goal was to inspire other faculty members who felt intimidated or overwhelmed by the topic of accessibility.

Findings from the pre and post course survey identified that time to complete the course and not being certified created challenges to incentivise people to do it. They suggested that organisations should recognise the need to make this type of training mandatory for all faculty to engage with and know how to make accessible content.

Gay et al (2017) explain there are challenges for teaching accessibility as it is rare to find people with both developer skills as well as a broad understanding of disability and the challenges people with disabilities face. 

Gay et al (2017) This means that teaching accessibility presents unique challenges for educators given the differences in characteristics between learners in computer science and disability study disciplines.

Lewthwaite and Sloan (2016) explain that digitally accessibility experts now need a clear understanding of disability in addition to their expert knowledge of web development and technologies and due to this suggest that accessibility needs to be taught as part of a wider learning ecology.

Gay et al (2017) the MOOC course was developed and guided by a committee made up of local businesses, educational institutions and the public. All parties remained involved in the course from the beginning of the project to identify topics covered and throughout to pilot and provide feedback to suggest ongoing improvements. The initial course started with 10 modules but was reduced to 8 as it was reviewed. Each module included self tests and formal quizzes after the learning materials were engaged with. Throughout the course learners assembled a toolkit so they had the tools needed to be able to effectively implement their learning and audit for accessibility. They also engaged in a simulated real-life situation and had to identify barriers for those with disabilities and in an activity called the world through my window had to relate accessibility practices to their own workplace or professional context. The biggest criticism of the course was that although the content was deemed great it was too technical in places, but it was argued that this needed to be the case due to some of the more complex components of web accessibility. The most effective element was the toolkit that people could takeaway and adopt. During the pilots the feedback identified that introducing WCAG in the first week led to an early drop out in week one, so it was improved to introduce the challenges those with disabilities have especially around screen readers to reinforce the empathy and understanding of the needs of users and importance of accessible content.

Wang (2012) ‘web accessibility is a fundamental instrument to support the shift towards an inclusive cyberspace and a socially responsible society’

Wang (2012) the demand for accessible websites and content is continually increasing with no signs of slowing down’

Wang (2012) people with disabilities are the largest minority group in society and need to use the web and participate in the information revolution as much as anyone else, issues surrounding accessibility are as crucial as ever.

In 1994 Sir Timothy Berners-Lee inventor of the World Wide Web and founder of the World Wide Web consortium (W3C) said ‘the power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect’

Wang (2012) these civil rights acts and legislations all send a clear message and legally mandate that people should have equal access to information and services provided by the web (p.55).

Wang (2012) from the perspective of the disabled having access to the information and resources on the web is a matter of basic human rights.

Wang (2012) despite widespread attention to the issue web accessibility continues to be a major problem.

Wang (2012) Assistive technologies, such as screen readers or voice browsers, are supposed to help and promote greater independence for their users. However, if the websites are made impossible for these devices and technologies to operate properly, they become barriers.

Gunderson (2011) An evaluation of over 23,000 web pages at over 180 United States universities reported that most higher education websites lacked even the most basic of accessibility features such as no alt text and form features.

…over ten years later the picture has not significantly changed…Progress is slow and there is a need to address this through education and training, to even get the basics right and in place. 

Even many popular text books on web design do not include sufficient coverage or discussion on accessibility (Rosmaita, 2006; Wang, 2012)

Wang (2012) the inclusion of digital accessibility in education is now crucial to overcome these current challenges and to promote the need for accessibility practices.

In response to meeting the demand towards knowledge and practice in accessible web design Wang (2012) describes teaching the topic in a more holistic way, breaking lectures down throughout a course from the designing of websites to constructing multimedia components such as forms, images, video and audio. This way accessibility was incorporated in a comprehensive manner in all aspects of digital content. In this was some parts do not need in-depth teacher expertise and the topic can be embedded as a theme without significantly modifying a course or module. From the student’s perspective the topic becomes an integral part. The course ‘Multimedia and web design’ was taught in the first year of a degree to introduce the topic of accessibility early on with the aim of creating a general awareness for both those who may go onto specialise in web development or those who may end up in other pathways related to digital content. The introductory lecture of the course introduced the purpose and function of accessibility, its social importance and to build a sense of empathy with the subject. It was acknowledged that most students had not been familiar with or given any thought to the issue prior to taking the course. The learning was assessed by assignments, quizzes, projects and a mid-term and final year exam. The first project asked students to review two existing websites to see what they had learnt and been able to observe around accessibility barriers and future projects required them to create their own accessible website and multimedia content.The course was deemed successful in terms of students accomplishing the course objectives and the websites and multimedia products were mostly usable and met accessibility requirements. This study did not provide any data to back this finding up, but instead refers to one student who had gone on to become a web developer and quoted in her workplace as saying ‘in my first deliverable, I only had a minor error in compliance, which this company thought was amazing, typically most developers have several errors or bugs in their programming. I told them I was taught right’ (p.60).