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Guest post Productivity/assistive technology

Windows 11: accessibility features get an upgrade

This month we are grateful to our guest Ros Walker, Digital Accessibility Adviser at the University of St Andrews, and member of the Assistive technology network (ATN) steering group. The ATN is a practitioner led community supported by Jisc and TechAbility. In this article, Ros highlights key areas that may be of particular support to […]

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Deaf awareness hearing loss Productivity/assistive technology

Using technologies to support hearing loss in education

Caroline Mathiasen is a hearing impaired graduate student in the UK, in this blog she talks to Margaret McKay about her experience using assistive technologies to support her during her education. About me I lost part of my hearing when I was a young baby. Around sixty per cent of my hearing, to be more […]

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Equality Julia Taylor Learner Experience Policy & strategy Productivity/assistive technology Quality improvement Uncategorized

Web and app accessibility – make the most of the EU Accessibility directive

On 23rd of September 2018 a new EU Directive  came into force in the UK. The new regulations mean that public sector websites and mobile apps will need to be accessible to all users, especially those with disabilities. The regulations will remain part of UK law regardless of our future relationship with the EU. So new […]

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Inclusive Digital Capability Julia Taylor Productivity/assistive technology Uncategorized

Welcome to the Tech Lounge at Gloucestershire College

Tech Lounge is a new social learning project created by the digital team at Gloucestershire College. Husna Ahmed a Digital learning Coach at Gloucestershire College talks about their ‘relaxed’ approach to supporting inclusive teaching skills. We invite staff across the college from different departments to attend a relaxed conversational session to discuss digital tools that […]

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Julia Taylor Learner Experience Productivity/assistive technology Uncategorized

Student Innovators shape Gloucestershire College

Students are shaping the way technology is used at Gloucestershire College through the Student Innovators project. The idea is to involve students in changing the way digital technology is used in the college. Amina Begum, a Digital Learning Coach at the college told Julia Taylor about the project. Who can be an innovator? The idea originally stemmed […]

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Equality Learner Experience Productivity/assistive technology Quality improvement Teaching

Can student data add meaning to inclusive learning?

Our Jisc Learning analytics –Data and disadvantaged student’s webinar in February was well attended. If you missed it, don’t worry, you can still view the recording and download the slides. As anticipated, the audience was diverse. Staff from disability support services, teachers and data managers were attracted by the deliberately broad-ranging title. Our aim was […]

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Policy & strategy Productivity/assistive technology

Signposting Assistive Technology (AT) at UAL

It’s one thing having a range of assistive technology and productivity tools for students to use. It’s another thing making to raise awareness and provide support.  In this case study Barbara Denton and Sara Osman explain how they’ve approached the task at the University of the Arts, London (UAL). Signposting Assistive Technology (AT) at UAL uses […]

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Alternative formats Productivity/assistive technology Reading effectively

Delivering words to eyes

Text to speech is great but not everyone gets on with it. What other ways can we deliver words to eyes more efficiently?  What about people who want to read with their eyes but have visual or other difficulties that make scanning normal pages tiring or inefficient? What about those who need bigger fonts but […]

Categories
Productivity/assistive technology Reading effectively

Supporting personalisation with roaming profiles

We’ve talked before about the inclusivity benefits that are hidden in the tools and technologies that we use every day and are often overlooked.  This blog by Margaret McKay and Rohan Slaughter describe ways of (i) taking advantage of the Ease of Access features in Windows (ii) how Roaming Profiles set up by the IT […]

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Lectures / seminars Policy & strategy Productivity/assistive technology Quality improvement Resources

Accessible learning platforms

Many things influence the accessibility of a learning platform. Here, Alistair McNaught gives some pointers to the main issues. And – as we see below – it is not just about technology; the way you use it matters too. This overview looks at four key areas; users, resources, activities and browser choices. Users  Usability of […]