A new resource collection from the Education Portfolio and the Accessibility Service is now available. These 8 resources explain digital accessibility via different student personas who each have their own accessibility requirements.
This collection is the latest in a series of resource sets that have been collaboratively created for public access on the Education Express website. Here’s my rundown of what’s available to dip into when you need guidance and inspiration on making your learning material accessible to all students at UTS.
1. The one where students explain
This suite of resources is the best place to start. The ‘original’ collection was devised to help students succeed in their subject by making it accessible. At its core are accessibility practices with topics ranging from content structure and language, to colour contrast and flashing content. There are also technology guides to ensure you are catering for all students when using Canvas, PDFs and Microsoft products. This collection was enhanced with videos featuring UTS students with lived experience; they also contributed a series of blog posts sharing their personal experiences of study at UTS.
2. The one that offers alternatives
The accessibility practices collection was followed up with a series of resources that focus on the process for reasonable adjustments and alternative assessments. Being informed about the different types of accessible formats for documents or assistive technology that students could be using in their studies means you can then apply reasonable adjustments; they may also require extra time or extensions. An alternative assessment can enhance accessibility by removing or reducing barriers that prevent the student from demonstrating their knowledge and skills.
3. The one about using captions
This collection covers the different ways that captions are used at UTS. The process for using captions is similar across a range of UTS-supported platforms, but there are slight differences. These resources show you how to implement professional captions for students registered with the Accessibility Service, with captioning requirements and enable automatic captions to help all students (especially non-expert users of English).
4. The one that guides you on alt text for complicated visuals
Some students might require assistive technology in order to access maths and complex images. To ensure your visuals are accessible for students who use assistive technology, you need to be mindful of how you create maths equations, tables, arrays, matrices, graphs and other complex images. This collection narrows the focus on the more complicated or technical imagery required for your subjects, including how to tackle alternative text and add meaningful image descriptions.
5. The one with real case studies of good practice
This collection highlights effective strategies that UTS academics have used to adapt their subjects to meet specific accessibility requirements. It features the following creative solutions and proactive, accessible design in collaboration with the Inclusive Practices team:
- Making graphs and images accessible for a student with low vision – Rob Bower (the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation)
- Utilised a medical model of the brain to make content accessible for a student with low vision – Peter Stubbs (the Graduate School of Health)
- Making anatomy accessible for a student with low vision – Lee Wallace (the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation)
- Making ECGs and X-rays accessible for a student with low vision – Elise Robinson (the Graduate School of Health)
- Improving Canvas subject accessibility for a student with low vision – Emma Power and Bronwyn Nolan (the Graduate School of Health)
- Accessible PDFs for a student with low vision – Poonam Mehta (the Graduate School of Health)
What decisions or solutions are you making in your practice to make your subject material more accessible?
Love the new resource and the retrospective across so many amazing collections!