The EDTeC Accessibility Support Site is a collection of resources to support UNSW staff in designing online educational courses and resources that are accessible and inclusive of the whole student population.
EDTeC is committed to supporting and encouraging inclusive and accessible practices in online learning and has undertaken a number of initiatives to help facilitate this. We can help staff with any aspect of inclusive design, development and implementation of websites, online courses and educational resources that are accessible to students with disabilities.
EDTeC has employed an additional support person who works jointly with the Equity and Diversity Unit (EaDU) to provide technical support and advice in the use and application of assistive technologies, and to keep up to date with current developments in assistive technologies. For help with any aspect of assistive technologies please contact Barry Cheung. All EDTeC staff keep abreast of new developments and can assist you in ensuring we maintain, as far as possible, inclusive practices.
In collaboration with an accessibility specialist (Elaine Pearson) from the Special Needs Computing Research Unit at the University of Teesside (UoT), UK we have carried out a study which resulted in the publication of a set of Guidelines for Accessible Online Courses aimed at the average non-technical developer of online courses and resources in WebCT. Through the partnership, we have also developed a mixed mode course in Accessible Course Design as a component of the ITET Fellowship scheme. In addition we disseminate our work internationally through journal publications and conference presentations. We also provide seminars and workshops on accessible course design at UNSW and other institutions. If you are interested in attending seminars or workshops or undertaking a hands-on training course in accessible practices, please contact the Director, Tony Koppi.
We have also developed an additional website, Accessibility in Web Design, produced by EDTeC's Senior Graphic Designer (Belinda Allen), which provides technical advice for website production and for web designers to become familiar with accessibility issues in online education in general, and website production in particular. The site also includes links to resources for further exploration.
The remainder of this section has information and links to sites and resources relating to accessibility. It is by no means exhaustive but should provide you with good starting points.
|