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Showing posts from August, 2023

Teach Access free courses

  https://teachaccess.org/accessibility-courses/

To add as a section for lit review

Explore and summarise the literature in terms of theoretical approaches and methodological approaches and sample sizes in order to evaluate appropriate approaches. Mind shifting from medical model mindset to social model.

TO ADD: Discussion notes

Discussion The implementation of the public bodies web regulations in the UK is in its infancy, introduced in 2018 (ref) with monitoring only started in 2020 (ref). Currently progress is slow in ensuring accessible public body websites, and this is also echoed in the international context (ref) with much work still to be done. Highlighted as one of the largest challenges is the lack of appropriate training for those in web development, but also those in other roles related to creating digital content. People are entering the workplace without the skills needed (PEAT, 2018, Teach Access, 2023), and due to lack of education recruiting for digital accessibility is challenging as the skills and expertise are rare (Hassell, 2019). In education the picture is similar, with learners entering computer programs at university with very little prior awareness (Ref) and there are few educational establishments formally teaching accessibility on the curriculum (Ref) with many learners graduating ha...

TO ADD: Hassell book notes

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  Hassell (2019) The reality is that many organisations commitment to inclusion and accessibility often doesn’t line up to their words and their staff aren’t trained to live out the commitment and projects fail (p.48). It is clear that if accessibility is important today, it will only get more important over the coming years as the number of people with impairments in the aging population who wish to use digital products will grow (p.54). The business case for accessibility is the ethical business case. The basis of this is the assertion that it is unethical or contrary to human rights to unnecessarily exclude disabled people from the benefits of modern digital technologies that increase their ability to live independently and be fully engaged members of society (p.63). Some money spent on making a digital product accessible during its development can save you lots of money once it’s launched in terms of minimising complaints and lower the cost and time of building accessibly rathe...

NVDA video

  https://youtu.be/3iTZeDkjtu8?si=iOe7G4ktQ8Tlj8Ds

TO ADD: Wilson, 2023 and Ludi et al, 2018

 Wilson (2023) teaching it with permanent, temporary and situational and design for all approach makes it relatable to real-life situations to help prompt making empathetic connections. After exploring the literature into teaching interventions that are effective for underpinning accessibility awareness, Ludi et al (2018) conducted a study of learners on a three semester undergraduate course where a subset of learners interacted and were exposed to disabled stakeholders as part of their learning experience in addition to traditional accessibility lectures that both groups were given. They used pre and post course surveys with 95 students to examine changes in attitudes and awareness. 63 were in the non-exposed group and 32 in the exposed group. Overall all students after completing the course demonstrated a significant difference in awareness pre and post course, an indication and some validation that knowledge can be improved with an intervention. When it came to analysing the dif...

TO ADD: Petrie and Edwards, 2006

 Bringing learning to life you could ask a user of assistive technology to come and give a demonstration, or you might recruit a blind person who is a competent screen reader user or a person with a physical disability who uses an alternate device such as a switch. However if you do you need to make sure you are able to compensate them appropriately for their time, as no one should be asked to do this type of thing for free.  Me: Having these types of valuable people and their experiences is not a viable solution at scale in education but similar ways could be adopted such as simulations or video demonstrations or interviews. Simulations can help immerse students into a scenario to help build a similar emotional reaction and empathy.

TO ADD: Shinohara, Bennett and Wobbrock 2016

 Shinohara, Bennett and Wobbrock (2016) refer specifically to encouraging accessibility awareness by working with users with disabilities that can help designers create more accessible technologies (Bigelow, 2012; Ludi, 2007; Newell et al, 2011; Waller, Hanson and Sloan, 2009). Students initially assumed it was unnecessary to include accessibility. Findings confirm that the inclusion of diverse users can indeed influence designers towards accessible solutions. Working with both disabled and non disabled users surfaced different tensions and challenges that encouraged designers to consider accessibility as a key component of all designs, not just a speciality, guidance fulfilment or after thought. The tensions were about designing for one group or the other rather than considering a feasible design for all and encouraged students to re-assess the need for accessible design and how small changes in placement, sizing and labelling can modify the overall effectiveness and usability for...

TO ADD: Putnam et al 2015

 In top level findings from the discussion in relation to learning resources and activities Putnam et al (2015) identified that a common approach to teach accessibility was to facilitate direct interaction with people with disabilities, with one participant summarising this impetus by saying ‘I believe its really critical for people to get some first hand exposure, some interaction with people with disabilities. I think accessibility is a subject that is difficult to appreciate from a book-learning point of view. And not just it can be hard to understand, but it’s easy to misunderstand’ (p.334) Another said ‘I think if it’s just a lecture alone on the topic I think sometimes it’s hard to really help students gain empathy and understanding’ (p. 334) To help build empathy another common approach is to simulate disabilities to help build empathy. The most commonly discussed was empathy related projects involving people with disabilities in a group by adopting a user-centred or collabo...

TO ADD: Harrison 2005

 Harrison (2005) explains that the most serious accessibility problems often relate to blind users and users with visual impairments (Nielsen, 2000) yet the majority of undergraduate students interested in web design are often unaware of the challenges faced by the blind. In a case study called ‘opening the eyes of those who can see to the world of those who can’t’, Harrison (2005) asked students to use screen readers to be able to locate a particular reference book on a local library website as well as select a greetings card from a greeting card website. Students worked in pairs with one of them blindfolded using the screen reader and the other serving as a guide and then swapping roles. As well as this activity students were introduced to a blind member of the university who demonstrated how she navigated websites showing how rapidly she skimmed pages with her ears in the same way users do with eyes. With these activities students were able to compare the differences that exist ...

TO ADD: Shi et al 2020

 Shi et al (2020) found that empathy plays a strong part in learning about accessibility. Using empathy labs they found that empathy based activities can increase learning retention and motivate participants in the importance of creating accessible products and software. They compare three groups of learners using different types of teaching approaches. Group A were taught with traditional lectures and information, Group B also had the lectures but additionally had empathy-based videos of user’s stories and Group C used activities in an empathy lab that simulated the challenges disabled people face. The lab addressed several different topics related to disability such as activities related to Deaf/deaf or hard of hearing; colour blindness, blindness, dexterity challenges and cognitive impairments. One example given was in the Deaf/deaf empathy lab where users had to click on an image when a sound appeared, but with no visual cue as an alternative to sound, to those who were Deaf/de...

TO ADD: Freire et al 2007

 Created a course focused on web accessibility using an approach that used screen readers to immerse students in the problems experienced by blind users when using the web. Students were asked to evaluate websites using a screen reader, but also by asking them to either blindfold themselves or switch off their monitors to truly experience how users would interpret what they were hearing. They were asked to evaluate issues such as alternative text on images, meaningful frame names, keyboard shortcuts such as skip to contents, navigation and form field labels. It was observed in the study that using screen readers to familiarise students with how assistive technology worked helped them better understand the challenges and needs that disabled users have whilst using the web. Most students had little prior knowledge of assistive technology, accessibility awareness or understanding of the legal requirements prior to the course, but results verified and indicated with a significance that...

UK Digital skills gap

  https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-digital-strategy-to-make-uk-a-global-tech-superpower https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uks-digital-strategy The skills gap identified in digital accessibility sits within a backdrop of a wider skills shortage for the UK tech industry. This research can contribute to this wider strategy to help educate the future 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-paid jobs  across the economy. It is the ambition of this government to ensure the development of digital skills across the wh...

UDL in schools paper

  https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/education/education-13-00867/article_deploy/education-13-00867.pdf?version=1692945924

Teaching in 21st Century book

  https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/42936/1/2021_Book_ImplementingDeeperLearningAnd2.pdf#page=65 https://www.nie.edu.sg/docs/default-source/te21_docs/te21_executive-summary_14052010---updated.pdf

A11yCat website

  https://raindrop.io/a11ycat/a-35893871

Technology Acceptance Model and web accessibility

  https://users.wpi.edu/~djamasbi/PDFS/Conference%20papers/Djamasbi%20et%20al-Accessibility(AMCIS%202006).pdf

Teach Access Repository and Facebook research link

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 #Educators, do your students know what assistive technology means? From tactile maps to screen readers, #AssistiveTechnology includes a number of devices that enable and foster the inclusion of people with disabilities. The Teach Access Curriculum Repository (TACR) has various resources designed to build out your courses and introduce your students to these types of technologies.  Go to the TACR (https://lnkd.in/gWMxzk2e) and check out the presentation slide deck on assistive technology and the assignment for using a screen reader, under the Psychology section.    #BackToSchool #Accessibility #Inclusion #ScreenReader #AssistiveDevices #Psychology #Disability #Disabilities #A11y https://teachaccess.org/curriculum-repository/ Facebook research post: PhD Thesis Writing Process: A Systematic Approach—How to Write Your Introduction To download complete article, use the link: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED590321.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED590321.pdf?f...

RNIB video for L2E

  https://youtu.be/Rh7rItjjKWs

Unlearning

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Unlearning  https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/53767919/Why_the_problem_with_learning_is_unlearning-libre.pdf?1499264049=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DWhy_the_Problem_with_Learning_Is_Unlearn.pdf&Expires=1691787574&Signature=RqsfDHWThztpetZ5DXO-Kmpz6JNVC3HC-uU-hE5dAMzQYuozUtabrVdIev3Js46Fi-fHwCBp1ddAOqFpW0bHEA6ZfxPbMUYt9ev-f8ZHEFvw3MdH67uYtxb-A0OuuoemNwwsPKgiz8sKSA8WtpuEKjv6P2xVpFpqSBat2M7u97-hu8w8Svyi-AEkRJ-wA5rIzB44cL6YRHAcOsuOXpohj1kkby9pBnMTArJcCRfJWK~7ETXDujVSAZkOYDoOr57gc8LUbwOLhGtU8WtdyTuSlVUxnlnEA15-8IYJFt0CTkGhTTWLZmPfok5QSwfQ3M0YuKAwcOKDvR5HPzUY1LFh8g__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA

Sections for literature review

Context will have 1 in 5 Assistive tech not working unless content accessible  Sections in literature review: Learning from industry to inform education The theoretical lens of enquiry (social justice or pedagogy) Learning from previous studies and pedagogical practices (multidisciplinary - technical versus empathy) Teacher support for digital accessibility delivery (UDL, knowledge and barriers) Identifying the primary curriculum opportunity  Notes: Backdrop of AI, Lord Holmes asking for review of digital curriculum. Even with developments like this, this research and education is about understanding others needs which is part of citizenship and awareness of differences.

TO ADD: Kulkarni 2018

 Kulkarni (2018) round table of experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of digital accessibility. Kulkarni (2018) Even though accessibility may have been originated to facilitate a particular sub-group of people, it is important to view accessibility as beneficial for everyone, not just a sub-group. Kulkarni (2018) The authoring tool accessibility guidelines (ATAG) provide recommendations for making accessible authoring tools such as content creation software, and this takes its lead from WCAG. Kulkarni (2018) The user agent accessibility guidelines (UAAG) are for the evaluation of user agent technologies such as web browsers, media players, document viewers and assistive technologies. All of these help to ensure all digital products are usable by those with disabilities, but also offer guidance for those procuring systems. Kulkarni (2018) The perception of lower profits, cost and time to make content accessible may dampen overall efforts and progress (Goggin and Newell...

Skills gap report Teach Access

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  https://teachaccess.org/accessibility-skills-gap/

Talking books RNIB post

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Great to use for L2E

The book on accessibility

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  https://www.thebookonaccessibility.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/enterprise-accessibility-dont-miss-crucial-charlie-triplett?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via

The WCAG song

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  https://youtu.be/-IWBT4Tk3t0 Colour and contrast website:  https://colorandcontrast.com/#/ Lord Holmes question https://lordsbusiness.parliament.uk/ItemOfBusiness?itemOfBusinessId=126059&sectionId=38&businessPaperDate=2023-06-08

Lazar to save

  https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=lazar+accessibility&oq=lazar+acc#d=gs_qabs&t=1691011973146&u=%23p%3DZSm4tiCJHGcJ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=lazar+accessibility&oq=lazar+acc#d=gs_qabs&t=1691012050340&u=%23p%3DwjLG0tCS7dUJ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=lazar+accessibility&oq=lazar+acc#d=gs_qabs&t=1691012081079&u=%23p%3DhapdcOoDwSMJ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=lazar+accessibility&oq=lazar+acc#d=gs_qabs&t=1691012108391&u=%23p%3Db3FKn-GSwyoJ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=lazar+accessibility&oq=lazar+acc#d=gs_qabs&t=1691012169788&u=%23p%3D_cGVvvSSYwAJ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=lazar+accessibility&oq=lazar+acc#d=gs_qabs&t=1691012211714&u=%23p%3DHjduPKE2NYsJ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=...

AI MidJourney article for art teachers

  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/midjourney-ai-art-guide-teachers-dan-fitzpatrick-the-ai-educator?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via