Starting again from social model

Literature review:

  • Introduction 
  • Social model of disability 
  • Inclusive design principles
  • The teaching of digital accessibility
  • Learning objectives 
  • Learning activities 
  • Support for teachers
  • Conclusions for this study
  • -Objectives
  • -Activities
  • -Tools and resources
  • #Theoretical framework 
  • #Methodology
  • #Methods

The world has changed ‘digital by default’, digital first’.

One in five - impact and scale of needs to be able to provide digitally accessible content.

This research is framed by the social model of disability as the driver for introducing digital accessibility awareness education in schools. For the social model of disability to work effectively to prevent barriers in society, all members of society need to be able to contribute. ‘Quotes’

*The social model of disability was first introduced by Mike Oliver (198?) - environments, products and attitudes.

*Influenced by UPIAS

The social model challenges the previous medical model of disability*. The barriers are the disabilities or impairments of people to participate in mainstream society.

*Medical model held medical professionals in charge of making decisions for those with disabilities- led to ‘nothing about us without us’

*Social model now used to underpin legal policy strategies internationally etc to make society more inclusive.

*For education this shift in thinking is critical in helping the next generation understand perceptions and understanding for disabilities.

In law digital content for inclusion is covered internationally. - in web discipline and WCAG guidelines to aid the development of accessible websites. Public bodies, EU stretched that further. Airlines/tv videos.

These laws have been welcomed. People with disabilities now have a means to report issues and get needs met (quotes).

For education the way digital accessibility is understood, articulated and implemented is important. This research takes the stance of inclusive design. Inclusive design has a nuanced difference from the concepts universal design and web design which are referred to in law, but have evolved from these. Inclusive design specifically involves the human aspect of understanding digital accessibility, whereas web accessibility and universal design are primarily focused on outputs and products. There is a fundamental difference for awareness education, in that awareness is related to underlying principles of digital accessibility and why it’s needed to prevent barriers for people in a diverse society, whereas a product can measurable for compliance and features. This aligns closet to the broader understanding of the social model of disability and the need to understand barriers of people and how they can be prevented.

Inclusive design also incorporates the ‘nothing about us without us’ paying particular attention to people’s needs and developing personas to help design and involve real-world people in decisions. This broader understanding steers this educationally away from just the computing curriculum in schools to that of citizenship and supporting others in our society (Ref).

Education in digital accessibility currently focuses heavily on the outputs, and in the case of web accessibility comes in the form of a measurable checklist to measure compliance of websites, and is framed primarily around the professional discipline of web and software development, rather than a more broader multidisciplinary approach to disability and digital content. 

Universal design has its roots in architecture, one size to fit all or as many as possible, yet this isn’t always possible and more flexibility of understanding is needed to accommodate wider diversity of needs and to be able to acknowledge the broader application of meeting needs beyond one single ‘universal’ design.

Inclusive design acknowledges universal design but also the broader needs. For example people need to be aware when they can’t deliver content that doesn’t work for everyone, what else is available to support with broader needs, be this individualised settings or equipment to widen participation further. One size does not fit all.

However there is far more digital content beyond that of just public body websites, the context and scale of digital content needs a broader approach of social responsibility to educate all that create digital content and contribute to our digital and information society ‘school quote’.

Wider application by more members of society is clearly needed for an effective social model of disability, therefore a broader awareness approach is necessary to be able to educate a whole society, and this type of blanket education is found in schools. Schools have already adopted a similar stance to education around online safety as a social responsibility that everyone needs to be aware of. Schools do not yet teach about digital accessibility and the importance of creating accessible materials to support our wider society.

This research will contribute to the body of knowledge in literature around the teaching of digital accessibility, which currently is immature (regs). In practice, the teaching of digital accessibility is also scarce in both education and in the workplace (Lewthwaite, Horton and Coverdale, 2023).

Progress in the adoption and implementation of the web regulations therefore is slow - WebAim, GDS and others. In reports from industry this is also echoed, with education and training identified as the biggest challenge for progress (regs). Where teaching is happening it is mainly within the context of higher education and on courses directly related to web development and software engineering (Refs). However teaching isn’t yet a mandatory module and students don’t yet see the relevance and value of the topic to engage. Many studies report that learner awareness around digital accessibility was minimal or nothing prior to attendance on modules (regs)

It is clear from this situation that to truly enable a social model of disability more work and research is needed to be able to educate around the diverse needs of society in the digital world. The concerns are echoed internationally.

The research that does exist is mainly singular reflective accounts of teaching (Ref) but could offer vital insight for this study to ascertain a consensus on ‘learning objectives’ for a school curriculum, ‘learning activities’ that are ideal for beginner’s level and what ‘support and tools teachers can draw on’ to teach digital accessibility awareness in the school setting.

Foundational knowledge for teaching- new Lewthwaite paper.


##Educators are the ones who teach children and therefore they need to have the knowledge beforehand (p.372). This study will therefore adopt an approach focusing on how to support teachers to understand and deliver the basic principles of digital accessibility awareness. Using the learning objectives and activities identified in this literature review, teachers can explore and then adopt activities for classroom delivery as a collaborative and supportive effort.

Collate the ideal coverage on the course - multidisciplinary (inclusive design principles that match the multidisciplinary principles, and support the consensus of learning objectives, that are also supported by Microsoft’s inclusive design personas/activities of Gay paper?



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