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Alistair McNaught Alternative formats e-books Policy & strategy

Praise a publisher – critique a publisher: Autumn 2017

Universities and colleges have a legal obligation to provide resources in accessible formats to print disabled students. However, many of the e-book platforms they subscribe to have limited accessibility or are tied-in to scarcely accessible third-party tools like Adobe Digital Editions. So it is not unusual to need to get the raw file from the publisher […]

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Alistair McNaught Inclusive Digital Capability Learner Experience Learning space design

Digital classrooms – making the most of inclusion

So what is a digital classroom? And how does it work? More particularly – how might it work for my disabled students? Alistair McNaught explores some of the issues and oppportunities. Introduction Traditional, didactic, methods of teaching can create significant barriers for some students. Where teaching resources are mainly a monoculture of text and learning activities […]

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Alistair McNaught Alternative formats e-books

Accessible library practice – the Bradford example

Sarah George is a Subject Librarian at the University of Bradford. She was made a National Teaching Fellow in 2017 – and her accessibility remit contributed significantly to that recognition. Here she gives a personal take on e-book accessibility and accessibility activism via research and evidence. I am an academic librarian at the University of Bradford, covering the subjects […]

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Alistair McNaught Alternative formats e-books Reading effectively Researching effectively Resources

Open access resources (OERs) and accessibility

It seems tautological to write a blog post on open access and accessibility. Surely if something is open access then it is open to anyone and therefore accessible to anyone? Alistair McNaught argues that the link between open access and accessibility is more nuanced than you might expect. Authors and institutions need simple guidelines to […]

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Alistair McNaught Equality Policy & strategy Quality improvement

Humans, ladders, barriers and fish – the disability paradigm shift

A hectic new term. You come up to breathe. Alistair McNaught explores  a new support service from Jisc and how it might help you better meet the needs of your disabled students. The new term begins. You have a new cohort of disabled students to work with. In many organisations, the support staff will be […]