The hidden world of everyday accessibility work. Now, I know that title might sound like the opener for a new sci-fi series, but stay with me. Here’s what’s been absorbing my thoughts recently. What do we do when the digital systems and resources in our organisations don’t quite work for our students or staff? Most […]
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 […]
A recent question on the Assistive-technology Jisc mail list (https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=ASSISTIVE-TECHNOLOGY) sparked some interesting debate. Alistair McNaught thought the debate was worthwhile enough to summarise as a blog post. In the process he discovered some weird and wonderful things about redeeming inaccessible PDFs… How are PDFs good for accessibility? If a PDF document has been created […]
There is no single ‘ideal’ way of sourcing your alternative formats because so much depends on the nature of learner, the nature of the resource and the amount of information required. However, just because there is no unique ‘magical workflow’ doesn’t mean it’s not worth looking at what’s available and putting together a starting point […]
How can you improve the offer of textbooks in alternative format for disabled learners, particularly for those hit by changes to the DSA? The best solution is, ideally, to already have an accessible e-book on an accessible e-book platform. Even if the book or platform lacks accessibility they may often be more than adequate for […]
It’s good to share, it’s easy to share, it’s legal to share For many years libraries and disability support teams have had the frustration of wasted time and effort in scanning books that others had already scanned… but that licences prevented them from sharing. Now that copyright laws have changed (see previous blog post) it […]
The Law got better for disabled learners The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Disability) Regulations 2014 legislation enshrined a right for HEI’s to share accessible “intermediate copies” of textbooks with one another. However, the lack of definition of “intermediate copy” meant that, in practice, hardly any sharing was taking place for fear of falling foul […]