JISC TechDis, who aim to be the leading educational advisory service, working across the UK, in the fields of accessibility and inclusion, believe that with regard to accessibility and inclusion ‘There should be a shift from specific support for disabled people to help them over institutional barriers, to a focus on reducing the institutional barriers in the first place.‘ Having delved deeper into JISC TechDis website and resources I have come to understand this as, that by changing the way you do some straightforward things you can automatically exclude less people from accessing your information, resources and services or put another way, you can be more inclusive.

A few of the key resources that I have been talking about at our events and using more actively to help me change my own practice to become more inclusive are:

Accessibility Essentials – a series of publications (paper, CD and online) about how to make your Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and pdfs more accessible. They have been round for a few years but have been recently updated for Microsoft Office 2007  and the full series can be found online here: www.techdis.ac.uk/accessibilityessentials.

As a result of becoming familiar with the straightforward guidelines in these publications, one of the key things that I have changed is the way I produce Word documents, which (now it is relatively easy to convert a Word document to a pdf) has also affected how accessible my subsequent pdf documents are. The user personalisation of pdfs section of the Accessibility Essentials pdf guide is also very useful if you want to know more about how accessible pdfs really are with their built in text reader, option to change backgound colours and fonts and easy navigation using bookmarks.

The realisation that most of us (without being aware of it) usually create Word docs (and presentations) based on what we like (prefered font styles, sizes, colours etc) not on what will be more inclusive for more learners (as described in the Accessibility Essentials guidelines) has been the key for the changes I have made here.

Portable, open source, free applications (software) have also been around for some time but with the advent of tools like AccessApps (a USB bundle of portable, open source free apps that support learner’s writing, reading and planning, as well as sensory, cognitive and physical difficulties) and subsequently LearnApps (apps specifically designed for learners), TeachApps (apps specifically designed for teachers) and now My Study Bar (see below), which are all bundled together and branded as EduApps, knowing about and accessing these applications (software) is much easier. Two of the newer tools for accessing a range of selected applications are:

• My Study Bar, a floating toolbar that can be used with many applications,  is the latest tool which helps overcome problems that students commonly experience with studying, reading and writing. Amongst other things it incorporates a talking dictionary, a screen tinter, word prediction, a screen reader and mind mapping software.

• JISC TechDis  have also developed their web browser toolbar, which provides a range of productivity and accessibility tools and aids to help users customise the way they view and interact with web pages.

The Online Accessibility Self Evaluation Service (OASES) from JISC TechDis is a tool to help you (or your department or organisation) identify areas of current strength and weakness in your practice in terms of accessibility and inclusion. As part of this tool JISC TechDis have proposed a simple model of ‘accessibility maturity’ to enable you to work out how at risk your organisation is of not meeting learners needs, based on how you already approach accessibility and inclusion. The highest level of risk equates to the organisations that react to learners needs as they happen, whereas the lowest level of risk is associated with working flexibly with learners and others, being prepared and providing a more inclusive experience all of the time anyway, which is where I guess we would all aspire to be.

Finally, if you would like this blog post as an audio file please click this link or right click the link and choose to save the mp3 file. Please note: the audio file was created quite simply by pasting the text into DSpeech (one of the tools available as part of EduApps) and saving as an mp3 audio file.

I’ve just returned from the RSC UK 2009 conference and one of the main things that I learnt was a bit more about one of the RSCs ‘relatives’ in terms of the JISC family of services, JISC Digital Media (formerly TASI). I haven’t blogged (although I’ve continued to microblog via Twitter, passing the 500 marker earlier this week) for a few weeks but the rediscovery of this service has inspired me today… so here goes with a quick reminder of the services JISC Digital Media can offer:

• Advice on still images, moving images and audio via documents, case studies, a helpdesk …
• Training on a wide range of digital media topics. Most training costs but there is a follow up service to check how the training has helped you … and JISC Digital Media are now offering FREE online surgeries on a range of topics, the first of which was yesterday covering audio podcasts. The surgeries are recorded and archived and can be viewed by scrolling down the online surgeries page. The archived ‘Recording Audio Podcasts’ is worth watching and will hopefully encourage you to login to the others that are coming up – camera skills, using screencasting, using Flickr …
• Blog posts about all things Digital Media, including new and very useful resources, such as Aviary Software’s new browser based audio editor/mixer/recorder called Myna. I’ve had a quick look at this and managed to create a basic audio recording, which I embedded into our Moodle, all in a matter of minutes (thanks also to @SHSSTELLS for bringing this one to my attention).
• Newsletter – a new service that can be accessed as a pdf and which this edition covers mobile learning, podcasting, using Flickr and pinhole photography.
• Video Assist – another new service whereby you can apply to JISC Digital Media for specific project support for projects which involve the creation of new moving image resources. 2 projects are already underway for the first term of the 2009-2010 academic year but support for 4 more projects is still up for grabs. Visit the Video Assist pages of the JISC Digital Media website for more information, application guidance and deadlines.

A great range of services and support – hopefully you will be inspired too!

      Within a classroom setting, it would often be helpful to use audio and video – using a TV & video or CD/DVD player is no longer necessary, for all audio/video files can be stored within a PC/lap-top and transmitted via a projector and whiteboard. If the PC is connected to the internet, it would also be possible to find useful pictures and other resources, relevant web-sites (for example of places of interest, local cuisine), and in the case of Welsh, watch TV programmes (eg. S4/Clic – http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/e_index.shtml – with or without subtitles!). There are many useful online dictionaries (eg. www.geiriadur.net  for Welsh) and other online reference works.

    If the PC also has interactive whiteboard software, a wide range of interactive games and activities could be devised eg. matching words to pictures, filling gaps in a piece of text, drawing lines to connect pairs of words (note that whilst an actual interactive whiteboard is helpful, it isn’t essential for most activities – learners could interact with the board using a ‘remote’ mouse and keyboard). Voting systems, also controlled by PC, are another technology that promotes activity and engagement.
     Outside of a classroom situation, learners could benefit from relevant web-sites, and could also listen to audio files, for example on mp3 players, and receive podcasts. They could also record their own conversations and e-mail to tutors – many mobile phones have built-in recorders. Access to a VLE (Virtual learning Environment) could provide other ‘any place, any time’ activities.

Has anyone got other language-learning suggestions?

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