A sustainable university-wide approach to embedding accessibility in e-learning practice and developments

Angela Trikic, Lindsay Evett
Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom

Nottingham Trent University has been involved in a year long VLE implementation project. This has prioritised enrichment of the quality of the learning and teaching experience for all students and staff, regardless of disability whilst also helping the university to meet its legal obligations towards people with disabilities. An external accessibility evaluation of the VLE was carried out by the Digital Media Access Group (DMAG), University of Dundee, to help identify the support and barriers to enabling access to the VLE and its core component functionality.

This poster describes the approach to supporting accessibility during the VLE implementation project. The focus is placed equally on the accessibility of the VLE to people with disabilities and on ways the VLE supports the authoring of accessible content by authors, regardless of technical expertise. This work is informed by the findings from the DMAG evaluation report and from internally conducted acceptance tests with university students with disabilities. The university accessibility group is overseeing developments and is working in collaboration with the VLE’s Usability Specialist Group based in Canada. The poster highlights accessibility issues and rationale for prioritising developments.

The poster gives a diagrammatic presentation of the methodology the university is adopting to achieve its goal of providing a universally accessible learning environment for contributors as well as its extensive community of learners. The key results from the evaluation and acceptance tests are presented and developmental priorities identified for improving the accessibility of the environment. A staff development approach is outlined with production of policy, guidelines and checklists aimed at supporting staff to produce online materials and activities that are accessible. Additionally a stepwise approach to integrating accessibility support into ongoing VLE and e-tools training and support is presented.

Different strands are illustrated including policy and staff development as well as the pathways offered to staff and student. Pedagogic issues are also highlighted related to the need for symbol manipulation and presentation of equations. The technical issues, challenges and some resolution is discussed and illustrated.

The ongoing challenges that accessibility to e-learning resources and systems present implicate commitment to a sustainable organisational learning methodology. The poster will propose a model methodology drawing on experience of the VLE project and focus on processes and infrastructure needed to support staff and students. The impact of the work is aimed at raising awareness of staff about disability issues and incorporating good practice models in VLE training and support materials and delivery. An expected outcome is highlighting of further development for improving accessibility and to facilitate steps towards accessibility for all, of relevance to the HE sector generally.