D4.1.1

=Students told of accessibility support mechanisms and encouraged to make use of the alternatives provided. =

Evidence
Ensuring that materials are accessible to students with disabilities requires careful design and consideration of accessibility issues throughout the creation of materials, as well as the use of development tools to support student use of assistive technologies (Witt and McDermott, 2004). Ensuring that disabled students have meaningful opportunities to engage with courses is commonly a formal legal requirement on institutions. However, according to Dirr (2003), institutional awareness of obligations to disabled students is lacking: ‘Some colleges…were surprised, for example, that they must include the virtual equivalents of wheelchair ramps on the Web sites when building online courses’ (p. 472). Edmonds, (2004) reiterates the common view that implementing accessibility protocols and features for disabled learners inevitably benefits all online learners. He refers to examples such as the ability to keyword search alternative text, and video captioning providing support for students experiencing difficulties with the instructors speech, adding that for students ‘whose primary language differs from the others in the class…additional textual content…may help students succeed academically’ (p. 58). But he also observes that ‘the legal and technical requirements to remove barriers to online learning for disabled learners are complex’ (p. 60).

UK legislation requires that HE institutions publish information describing the supports and accessibility options that they provide. This has enabled disabled students to shop around HE institutions and decide what study options will best suit them. This means that institutions must inform students of support mechanisms available. Informing students of accessibility supports also involves describing the funding options that students may make use of. This is particularly important as disabled students may sometimes have to use accessibility supports at home, and this may involve purchases.

The JISC TechDis service aims to enhance accessibility and inclusion by stimulating innovation. TechDis note that in supporting some disabled learners, resources may be created that are explicitly accessible to some disabled learners but may exclude students with other types of disability. This is acceptable provided a variety of activities and resources are employed.

Resources
A list of potential aids and supports available (in the UK) can be found in Eastwood (2005). Also TechDis provides extensive information on disability support in HE.