Lit rev argument narrative NEW
Background and context
This study is framed by the social model of disability within the context of our digital society.
The social model of disability is…
It is put in place by following the principles of universal and inclusive design which is…
Digital accessibility is…and how AT doesn’t work without accessible content…
This is reinforced by a set of legal requirements…
These legal requirements are both national and international…
Making accessible digital content a human right, social responsibility etc…
Inaccessible content is still posing a barrier to many in society…
WebAIM… evidence
Beyond the web, there is everyday content such as docs, presentations, emails and social media…Robin Christopherson.
According to Microsoft there are xxxx documents produced daily, so the scale of what needs to be addressed is clearly significant…
However, although there is a legal obligation and data to support the scale of inaccessible content, the topic of inclusive digital content is not yet formally on the educational curriculum nor is it part of workplace training, meaning that as a society many people are not yet fully aware of how to make content accessible…perpetuating a cycle of inaccessible content creation that is creating ongoing barriers for many in our digital society.
We need to reverse this situation for the social model of disability to work in the context of our digital society …
We clearly need to address this educational need.
There is also a skills gap in the workplace due to lack of education and training…
Echoed by the UK disability strategy…
Echoed by others too…
To uphold this argument, over 20 years ago, Lazar (2004) identified that education and training are key societal foundations to ensure that accessible content can be created. According to (Cao and Loiacono, 2022) this model has already been cited more than 300 times. Lazar elaborate his ideas…
More recently Abbott (2021; 2022) similarly emphasised the importance of education in his three pillars of accessibility model, and the need for all three components of compliance, culture and education to be in place.
He asserts that if you lack any of these three components over a sustained period of time, you cannot sustainably or consistently deliver accessible services.
With the reported scale of inaccessible content, and education said to play a significant part in the process of implementing and embedding digital accessibility yet not being significantly in place, it is understandable why implementation in society is slow.
This research will therefore contribute to the educational context of digital accessibility and address this gap by exploring an educational intervention.
With 20% of the population both nationally and echoed internationally reported to have a disability, this is a significant portion of the population…making this an important contribution to knowledge.
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To teach the topic of digital accessibility teachers play an important role in implementing the curriculum…
Need to emphasise lack of teachers, teacher knowledge and resources first, to specify the specific participants targeted. Subject knowledge and pedagogical teaching knowledge and experience.
At the end of this literature review section then summarise the new MIDAS model to identify the specific need identified in the research.
Conceptual model of the focus and participants targeted within the context of the research.
Teacher knowledge and practice issues - introduce the concept of PCK and that teachers appear to lack subject knowledge as well as own educational knowledge, planning for the topic, or classroom experience. The next to develop PCK for the subject to be taught.
The creation of resources and the development of PCK means this research needs to be embedded within pedagogical practice.
Pedagogical practice is defined as (pedagogy as planned, enacted and experienced) and all three of these make up the context of teaching.
PCK to support the process of teaching.
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The teaching context. Where does teaching or training currently take place and where are the gaps.
Mainly HE and workplace specialisms, meaning that wider awareness is still not being addressed. Everyone makes digital content, not just web designers.
Learners go into workplace with no knowledge or enter their degree courses having never been exposed to the concept of digital accessibility.
Unlearning challenges, the need for earlier intervention in schools.
Retrofit of skills and knowledge adding to the perceived complexity of the topic of digital accessibility- retrofit of fixes making it complex and costly making it a subject that gets overlooked or not addressed due to perceived cost. Potential impact on education - hard to get engagement, assumptions of not their responsibility or a niche topic.
One way to explain how it needs to be baked in as a priority is - data security analogy- you wouldn’t want to have money stolen before a website is made secure.
You also wouldn’t build a building and then go back and change the size of all the doorways after it’s finished, you’d consider it at the planning stage.
It’s simpler all round when implemented earlier in the creation stage, and learning is easier when done from the offset as a ‘norm’ not an add-on or extra thing to think about and do (duplication) - should be part of the normal practice and mindset as content is created. It’s ultimately about knowing how to format a document correctly rather than technical complexities.
The upper KS2 context justification.
Not just a one-off as one off as this doesn’t have impact.
Then this early education of establishing the topic can be built upon to build a trajectory of learning about digital accessibility throughout the educational lifecycle, from school to college to more technical specialisms in university and then feed into the workplace and careers eventually filling the gap.
Conceptually the three circles of learning or ‘unlearning’ skills.
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To be able to explore the teaching of digital accessibility in schools needs a set of learning objectives, activities and assessments.
To ascertain what this is look at where it’s taught, what type of studies exist and what can be learned from them to design an intervention.
What we can learn from that to be able to design an educational intervention - only reflective and small accounts, no empirical data or body of knowledge.
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