The Open University aims to be at the forefront of teaching, learning and student support in higher education and to do this the Open University aims to ensure:
- that it provides opportunities for previously excluded groups to study by means of online distance education,
- that it fulfils its legal and moral responsibilities to specific groups by ensuring that it removes any barriers to their participation, attainment, personal and professional development.
- have a better understanding of the extent to which it is providing real opportunities for previously excluded groups
- appreciate more fully the obstacles that are faced by specific groups in their participation, attainment and personal development.
The following activities are included in the programme:
- Securing Greater Accessibility (SeGA) project (including the learner experience from a disabled person's perspective, access to maths project, accessibility specialist training, accessibility standards, digital talking books)
- Disabled Student Data (NSS & EMS Data, Data bank of current/recent research on disabled student satisfaction, Satisfaction/dissatisfaction surveys, OU systems interface review, interview disabled students, impact of OU study on disabled students)
- Systems/systematic Data collection of VLE Data
- LA4STEM
- Accessibility services (user testing, Referral panel and practitioner groups, Accessibility specialist group)
- Accessibility of OERs
- The OU media player
- Consultancy to module (course) teams on inclusivity and accessibility. This support is focussed on modules in planning and development. The Student Services principally offers support on accessibility issues that arise for modules in presentation.
- The module Accessible online learning: supporting Disabled students (H810)
Completed projects
- EU4ALL (European Unified Framework for Accessible Lifelong Learning) project
- Accessibility Standards Work: Involvement in a range of International and National Standards efforts promoting Accessibility in eLearning
The support offered by IET includes
- Faculty wide staff development workshops
- The production and maintenance of online resources for staff on accessibility
- Consultations on the accessibility implications of innovatory approaches
- Consultation on the specification of eLearning components that are accessible
- Undertaking expert and disabled student evaluations of prototype moduleware
- Research on the specific accessibility issues of new technologies
IET cannot have routine involvement in all module (course) teams but issues raised by an individual module team are often ones of strategic importance because they are issues for other module teams and faculties.
Accessibility Research
Information about research activities and projects concerning accessible educational media can be found at Computers and Learning Research Group (CALRG)
See also Martyn Cooper's sideshare presentation about Embedding Accessibility and Usability considerations into eLearning research and development projects
Accessibility and Usability testing research is usually carried out in the Jennie Lee Research Laboratories.