Reading order of arguments

Frame its relevance and context in society

Education needs to be relevant to ‘real life’ and can see authentic learning connections - the world has changed and so does our understanding as citizens of a digital society.

1-5 and who it impacts and inaccessible content discriminates. Main issue is Screen readers don’t work if content not made in accessible way.

Social model of disability frames much of the laws around accessibility. Social justice.

Tim Berners-Lee quote

Legal context (international/UK) - UK legal, guidance

Legal impetus quotes (this will help) show Examples of legal cases that it promotes justice for those challenging discrimination.

Roles, jobs apprenticeships, training and materials available, IAAP certification, BSL GCSE etc.

Mentioned in skills and competences frameworks for teachers and professionals.

- ‘maturity models’ exist to broaden the perspective and awareness of responsibilities and implementation of accessible practices within organisations (Hassell, AbilityNet, McNaught, BDF)

UDL in education to support and include learners - creating content and learning experiences for all (learning styles/ differentiation/ SEND etc).

Implementation in society- discussion:

Progress slow - WebAim homepages/web professionals, Gov Digital Service, Hassell, AbilityNet etc

Several reasons for slow progress:

Lack of involvement of disabled community ‘nothing about us with us’ 

Retrofitting- Add-on at end rather than in the development process adding to complexity and perceptions it’s a specialist role.

Complex, time consuming, costly and reinforcing the idea it is the role of specialists. - return on investment.

Simplifying situation with Checklist and compliance culture verses user lived experience input (Hassell)

Hero model - not enough people who know/ have expertise or time to do it ‘all’

Lack of knowledge and awareness put down to education- there is an industry gap for skills but nobody seems to have made the formal connection between industry and education to educate next generation of technologists- education in the workplace add-hoc (not mandatory)

Wider digital skills gaps identified (part of bigger picture)

Even with legal impetus internationally Digital accessibility therefore is still a problem for society where people still can’t access digital content. (Add refs).

Teaching and learning of digital accessibility awareness context

Lack of teaching to prepare tomorrow’s professionals, but teachers also struggling to teach it (some still struggling to make their own resources accessible within their own practice never mind teach it). (Add academic papers around this and workshops with developers).

Without addressing this, as a society we are letting people down where it comes to accessibility and inclusion (well-being) - yet other topics for similar social responsibility e.g. online safety is treated differently (wallet empathy quote). This study therefore has an element of addressing the construction of knowledge around disability awareness for social justice and ethical reasons and ensure the needs of those with disabilities are catered for in our ‘digital first’ society. This needs to be addressed.

Lack of training (workplace), education and resources to support the teaching of embracing digital accessibility (echo everyone that says this is an issue in education) there is a lack of pedagogical guidance for teaching and training to fill the skills and knowledge gap for teachers, learners and professionals in the workplace.

However, when surveyed or interviewed most people do see the benefit of accessibility, doing the right thing and understand the importance of it (Ref) therefore the lack of social justice in this case is not necessarily about changing mindsets or perceptions  but about providing the right support for them to change their practices and knowledge to be able to implement it.

Identified in many of the reports looking into why progress is slow, highlighting one of the biggest challenges being lack of training (Refs of reports) and the teaching of accessibility in computer science courses to fill the population and knowledge gap in the workplace (PEAT, 2018). 

Lack of teaching of the subject and does not formally exist on the curriculum.

Previous attempts at creating a curriculum IT2008, IDCnet (Nicolle).

But there are studies available where this has been introduced but these are sparce and mainly reflective accounts rather than empirical studies which robust evidence based practices or pedagogical guidance (Ref).

Where it is taught - mainly in computer science to contribute to the computing, software and web professions and almost all studies sit at higher education degree or post graduate level.

Putnam - authentic learning for real life.

No teaching of digital accessibility or universal design in schools have been identified. Students had no existing knowledge or awareness prior to degree courses.

Putman/Baker/Shinohara - what computer science programs it’s taught on and how is it introduced or included (single course/module/integrated)

Multidisciplinary mixture of several elements- conceptual, procedural and technical 

Knowing these different lenses - What are the main learning objectives and pedagogical approaches/activities.

Subject relevant in every context that creates digital content - the need beyond the computer science disciplines (Refs).

Youngblood - media

BDF - media (gov communication service guidance)

Libraries (Kimura)

Disability studies, law ethics (Sonka)

Knowing the broad application and need for digital content and every day use - ‘Intense computing’ Mainstream knowledge (Christopherson, Wilson others).

However there is a concern that one size does not fit all, not even in computer science areas e.g. web and software development. E.g. In-depth full WCAG skills to do with code are not applicable in the social media context (ref) and the emphasis on highly technical skills is favoured in software development (ref).

No multi/cross discipline related learning objectives or learning materials.

The relevance of digital accessibility relates to all disciplines and everyday scenarios that use computers to create any type of content, from writing documentation for customers or clients, giving presentations to diverse audiences and sending emails for communication and marketing purposes. ‘We live in an age of Intense computing- Christopherson, 2022).

To be able to find out what could work across more mainstream topics and how to introduce or teach the subject in a school environment, we can look to literature to explore how the main learning objectives and activities have been taught and how effective they are for learners.

Digital skills discipline- mainly WCAG

Wealth of guidance available- WCAG updated to make it easier to check and apply

Complex for beginners - assumes a level of understanding- difficult to interpret- both teachers and learners struggle.

Not appropriate for introductory level teaching - pedagogies of empathy better to introduce it and identify as more lightweight to build awareness.

The more basic of digital principles- low hanging fruit- simple, impactful- people can do these without being asked. Example of links on a screen reader as a simple change but a powerful example of how a simple change can prevent a large barrier. SCULPT stuff - retro fit skills (similar to the challenges of retrofitting content).

Everyone’s responsibility- easier to adopt across wider contexts and subjects. 

At school level these more introductory digital skills would be more appropriate to explore to see if these simple principles can be understood and applied.

Then onto the empathy related pedagogies highlighted by (ref above).

Simulations and screen readers - with this knowledge then testing examples of existing sites or sites students have made (cloned website example study) - barriers you are causing people by not including these principles. 

Personas - recent papers and Scope report for reframing positive narrative. Earlier on with young people to reconstruct perceptions.

Involving real users and videos of real people and personas to be able to identify what is needed. Design for all - universal design from the offset - recognisable real-life examples- Microsoft personas description and study that tested knowledge).

Empathy and user involvement is missed out in the workplace environment reverting to technical checklists and automated tools, yet these are the most effective and impactful for teaching and learning.

Effectiveness of learning interventions- pre and post course surveys (overall good Refs) but contexts as a long term solution (longitude study says no long term accessibility gain- notes - Zhao).

Discussion:

Not a social justice issue but willingness heavily compounded by lack of education, resources and support to teach and learn it.

*Add on culture due to lack of training about where and how it needs to be applied, training primarily in technical skills for WCAG in workplace. Workplace taught by technical people so comes from lenses of technical know-how, meeting criteria and compliance. Gold standard is the checklist.

*Checklist Compliance culture not reliable to meet needs of real people- Hassell?

Unlearning to relearn skills- needs to be addressed earlier. This study to explore the potential of where the Lifelong learning starting point could be be a vision that from here the topic is reinforced throughout a whole educational learning journey and eventually through to the workplace (Zhao).

Students with no awareness prior to going on courses calls for widening remit earlier.

Explain school- but what age - explore it as needed at the same time similar topics are introduced e.g. online safety, (cross reference wallet quote) citizenship (learning about others) - disability perception of others and developing empathy (Ref) - Piaget (Ref) - this sits around upper key stage 2.

Basic digital skills appear to be appropriate for beginners ‘low hanging fruit’ as well as empathy related awareness teaching and identifying meds described as ‘lightweight’ suggesting all teachers could find this possible.

This study will therefore explore the possibility of how we could teach learners at the same time as introducing online safety and explore their understanding of others needs in a digital world to be able to make small changes that could make a big difference should these be adopted at scale from an early age.

Very few studies looking at introductory awareness and none were identified in schools.