LIT REV - Digital Accessibility definitions and so on

 Background and context

Society fabric has changed due to the internet - not slowing down or going away. 

Digital by default- digital first.

Tim - Berners Lee.

Disability 1 in 5 - this is a significant proportion of society.

Accessibility is - framed around social model, and nothing about us without us

Assistive technology only works when content is made compatible e.g. accessible. 

Legal backdrop - equality act and those to make content accessible - disability rights movement helped. International as well as national.

UK Strategies and policy frameworks (general and educational).

Rise in acknowledgment for accessibility, - laws now give a clear pathway for disabled users to report and this is welcomed, but…

Even though regulations are in place progress is slow.

Inaccessible content issue (WebAIM etc). Training and education identified as a significant issue. 

Due to the proportion of people this potentially affects, the need to address digital accessibility awareness is described as a mainstream issue (not just about public body websites).

Many don’t realise they have created barriers.

This research is framed around the conceptual argument of how can society prevent mainstream barriers without a scalable approach to awareness or education in digital accessibility.

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LIT REVIEW

Introduction to literature review

This literature review will commence by defining digital accessibility, how and where it is currently taught, and what learning objectives are covered. It will then move on to explore the current guidance in place for teachers to deliver the subject, what learning activities are appropriate for basic level awareness, and at what age or key stage this intervention should be introduced within the school curriculum context. It will conclude with a set of recommendations for an appropriate lesson intervention that will help to facilitate the identification of teacher support needs.

The definition of digital accessibility

Digital accessibility is defined and described within the context of many terms, such as universal design (ref), web accessibility (ref) and inclusive design (ref). These terms have slight nuances as they originate from different disciplines.

Universal design

Universal design - architecture

- studies that specifically discuss the topic of digital accessibility from the perspective of universal design focus on design for all (ref) designing for as many people as possible (ref) and explore blah blah (ref)

Web accessibility

Web design - internet and websites - Tim Berners Lee - web regulations and WCAG - describe the checking and fixing

- studies from the perspective of web accessibility tend to focus on designing for adherence to WCAG (ref), testing websites for WCAG (ref) or exploring comparisons before and after fixes (ref).

Inclusive design

Inclusive design - personas and involving disabled people in the design and development of digital content - nothing about us, without us. 

- Studies around inclusive design primarily focus on personas of those with disabilities (ref) or working directly with people who have disabilities (ref) or empathy based explorations (ref).

Other definitions of digital accessibility encompass or combine many aspects of the definitions discussed, such as blah, blah, blah.

AbilityNet (Year); Mancilla and Frey (Book).

Digital accessibility also encompasses everyday digital content beyond websites, such as documents, emails, video and social media.

Hope (year).

The teaching of digital accessibility 

The need for teaching digital accessibility -  the knowledge gap as well as training in the workplace ad-hoc

The new roles and career pathways now available for young people. (Accessible technology skills gap) PEAT, Teach Access and the UK Disability Strategy)

Pathways for learning currently mainly focused towards web design in industry.

Take from assignment intro - taught at Workplace, PG, HE, college and one high school study identified.

Nothing in primary

Where taught, it’s optional or elective. - mainly specialist pathways or discipline courses.

Multidisciplinary- all the dimensions of inclusive design and disability, legal frameworks and digital skills- echoing most of the definitions.

The wider subjects it impacts- libraries, legal, business, media students, disability studies, EDI, teachers creating resources etc.

Objectives covered within studies from literature.

Teacher knowledge 

Lack of resources- lack of pedagogical support - no current curriculum framework to guide it.

Still learning about creating own materials, never mind teach it.

UDL touches on accessibility 

Guidance currently available is from the discipline of web design and development or packaged in terms of technical guidance rather than pedagogy.

Lack of teachers who understand it to teach it and sustainability - hero model.

The need to support teachers to learn and adopt the subject- teaching can’t happen without teachers.

Digital accessibility awareness for the school curriculum

Assistive technology on the curriculum - not the content creation aspect.- strategies from DfE

Reform of computing curriculum 

Wider than just computing - multidisciplinary nature of the topic - spans more broadly across curriculum.

Unlearning- lack of awareness of those going into college or HE or workplace.

What age at school would be the ideal place to establish initial awareness - explain.

What is appropriate for beginner level awareness 

Teachers in primary schools have likely not heard of digital accessibility or potentially know very little about the subject to be able to teach it.

Studies identify WCAG as too complex - WCAG 2.2 was supposed to be more educational 

Disability a complex subject- fear and lack of contact.

Study of high school and the aspects of not too technical, not too complex, bite-sized.

Studies that say easy to adopt for teachers - generic basics 

Low hanging fruit - SCULPT, Thrives - Hope paper, links example etc.

Examples of barriers and giving it relatability, empathy helps with engagement. 

Relevant for everyday context 

Relevant classroom and assessment activities that appeared to engage students.

Intervention recommendations

Conclude that this will be aimed at key stage 2.

Conclude what the initial lesson to teachers could include:

List objectives, activities and resources concluded from literature review - disability barriers and equity needs, basic skills principles. (What, why and how - Context, empathy activities and how to).

This could lead into methodology- how this lesson framework can be taught to teachers as the initial research lesson, then developed and adapted for the primary school classroom.

How can it be explored from both the teacher’s perspective but also focus on how learners learn it to develop insight into what works.