Time for digital inclusion at scale

Design based research, otherwise known as ‘educational design research’ or ‘development research’ is an iterative framework that lends itself to the field of educational research ( Anderson and Shattuck, 2012).  It fosters collaborative design and development of new artefacts and tools to further an existing theory or develop new theories (Kennedy-Clark, 2013; McKenny and Reeves, 2013; 2021), helps to identify new insights through developing prototypes or pilots (Akker et al, 2011) or explores the testing of an intervention in the context of practice ( Anderson and Shattuck, 2012).  One of the main motivations behind using design based research for this study, is that it makes the learning more relevant for classroom practice (Riemann, 2011) and because it’s  situated in a real educational context it provides a sense of validity to the research with results can be effectively used to assess, inform and improve practice (Anderson and Shattuck, 2012; p.16).  Design bas...

Research about the process of student or teacher learning in the context of a situated classroom is described as profoundly people centred and often sits within a human and social situation, rather than an easily controlled scientific experiment that measures specific outcomes (Hargreaves in Hammersley, 2007). Planning for and interpreting the teaching context can be complex because in any social situation there maybe multiple realities (Blaikie, 1993) and because the process of teaching can depend on so many variables (Bassey in Hammersley, 2007). Interpretivism as a paradigm and qualitative data collection methods have been chosen for this study as they are often favoured by educational researchers to account for such complexities in classroom research and practice (REF). Building further upon interpretivism, is the social construction of knowledge that is characterised through the involvement, active engagement, inquiry problem solving and collaboration with others (Kroll and Labosk...

  Summary Text Background and context  The trajectory of the digital age shows no sign of slowing down (Hassell, 2019), and just like the physical space has ramps, automatic doors, hearing loops and braille signage, the scale of digital provision and information needs to be as equally accommodating, and this is known as digital accessibility (AbilityNet, 2024). The need for digital content to be accessible permeates every aspect of public and private lives for millions of disabled people in society (Holmes and Maeda, 2018; Gilbert and Rateau, 2019; Lewthwaite, Horton and Coverdale, 2023).  There have been significant advances in digital and assistive technologies, but most available mainstream assistive technologies only work when content is created in an accessible way (Gilbert and Rateau, 2019). Although this need is recognised in legislation both nationally and internationally (REF), inaccessible content that doesn’t work is still regularly excluding a significant amou...

Background and context   The trajectory of the digital age shows no sign of slowing down (Hassell, 2019), and just like the physical space has ramps, automatic doors, hearing loops and braille signage, the scale of digital provision and information needs to be as equally accommodating and this is known as digital accessibility (AbilityNet, 2024; Youngblood YEAR). The need for digital content to be accessible permeates every aspect of public and private lives for millions of disabled people (Holmes and Maeda, 2018; Gilbert and Rateau, 2019; Lewthwaite, Horton and Coverdale, 2023). There have been significant advances in digital technologies, but most mainstream available assistive technologies only work when content is created in an accessible way (Gilbert and Rateau, 2019), yet inaccessible content that doesn’t work is still regularly excluding a significant amount of people in our society (Shinohara et al, 2018; Sonka, McArdle and Potts, 2021, Coverdale, Lewthwaite and Horton, 202...

 Ideas: The progress of addressing mainstream inaccessible content is reported to be slow (ref), the same is said about adoption by digital professionals and that of wider adoption in the workplace (ref). One of the biggest challenges to progress is the lack of training (ref), as well as the lack of skills of those entering the workplace (ref) and lack of awareness of young people prior to being introduced to the subject at college or university (ref). Student observation and feedback will be used and this will act as stimulus for the post lesson briefing sessions. Involving students voices into the narratives wil help…(ref) and (ref) which is a core part of the lesson study methodology. Phases of the research - incorporating pre and post intervention knowledge, participatory and collaborative action research following the lesson study approach and an evaluation of the experience and development of teacher knowledge to be able to teach the basics of DA awareness. The outputs of the...

  ARTICULATING THE CCM APPROACH AND LESSON STUDY: a promising teacher professional development towards inclusive education Fluminhan, C.  S.  L., Castro, P.  T.  de, Schlünzen, E.  T.  M., & Schlünzen, K, Jr.    (2022).  Articulating the CCM   approach   and   lesson   study:   a   promising   teacher professional development towards inclusive education. Video   Journal   of   Social   and   Human   Research, 1(1).  84-96.  http// doi.org/10.18817/vjshr . v1i1.17  ARTICULATION BETWEEN THE CCM APPROACH AND THE LESSON STUDY: promising teacher professional development for inclusive education (uema.br) Fluminhan et al (2022) Even considering  the  intense  complex relations  and  structures  inherent  to  teaching  and learning through inclusive ...