Abstract
This institutional case study outlines the journey that the University of York (United Kingdom) has been taking towards establishing an assistive technology-enabled culture across the university. A change management strategy is not the first thing that comes to mind when asked to think about how best to advance equality and inclusion in an organisation. However, the authors argue that digital inclusion is not about making quick technical fixes to systems, nor is it about focusing on improvements for disabled students only. Instead, it is about the slow and steady progress in creating and embedding an inclusive culture within an organisation that benefits all categories of students. They challenge the assumption that setting standards will bring about a level playing field. Instead, the authors report on how using a people-centred change management strategy has helped the University of York to promote equity and inclusion, and the impact that this has had in making sustainable changes to digital working practices, informed by policy, training, and guidance provision.
TopBackground
The University of York is a medium-sized, research-based university located in the north of England. With circa 22,000 students and 4,600 staff, it has a longstanding commitment to digital inclusion and accessibility. Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses cover Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences and Science disciplines. The University established an e-Accessibility Forum in 2007 to help it to meet its statutory obligations under the Equality Act of 2010. The Forum sought cooperation between staff and students to improve services to disabled students and to improve the accessibility of resources. Students with a declared disability grew year on year in higher education (Bolton & Hubble, 2021) and in the academic year 21/22, 3,674 students or 16.7% declared a disability to the University. With 1 in 6 students telling the University that they have neurodiverse conditions, mental health issues, long term health conditions or physical impairments, it is vital that the learning environment is made as accessible and inclusive as possible to help students succeed.
In 2018, new standards were set in the UK to further improve equity and inclusion through the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (Gov.uk, 2018). Also known as “digital accessibility”, this is about making websites and resources as usable by as many people as possible (Gov.uk, 2018). It is the ethos behind the digital accessibility regulations that are based on the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard. The University had to encourage staff to engage with the new standards.
Key Terms in this Chapter
R Markdown: Markdown is a text to HTML tool. R Markdown is a Markdown package running within R software, allowing users to generate multiple formats.
WCAG 2.1 AA: The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines were developed by the World Wide Web Consortium and are currently at version 2.1. There are three levels of conformance, A, AA and AAA. UK legislation requires conformance to level AA.
Blackboard Ally: Ally is a licenced accessibility checker integrated with the VLE, Blackboard. It provides guidance to instructors, accessibility reports and it also provides alternative formats to students. Ally is also available for integration with other VLE systems or websites.
Discord: A messaging app widely used by gamers and students to form online communities.
Siteimprove: A licenced tool for automatically checking the accessibility of web sites against the WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
Equality Act 2010: UK legislation that protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. The Act replaced previous anti-discrimination laws, and addressed the requirement to eliminate discrimination and to advance equality of opportunity for all.
WAVE: An accessibility evaluation tool by Webaim for web sites.
Slack: A collaboration platform ( https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/ ) used at the University of York, which includes dedicated team channels, instant messaging channels and a file-sharing toolset within a secure environment.
Mathjax: A technology for displaying maths on the web with accessibility features.
UK Heads of e-Learning Forum (HeLF): The Heads of eLearning Forum (HeLF) is a network of senior staff engaged in promoting, supporting and developing technology enhanced learning (TEL) within UK higher education institutions. ( https://helfuk.blogspot.com/p/about-helf.html )
Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018: introducing in August 2018 a new law requiring all UK public sector websites to meet accessibility standards so that people who use assistive technology or have additional needs can easily access services and information.
Mathtype: Software by Wiris for creating maths equations in Microsoft Office documents.
VLE: Virtual learning environment, widely used in higher education institutions by course instructors to upload course materials and to design online learning experiences for students.
Blackboard Learn: A virtual learning environment used by instructors to upload content and design learning experiences for students.
Xerte: An open source e-learning authoring tool designed with accessibility in mind.
LaTeX: A system for typesetting maths and text used by many maths and STEM lecturers.
Grackledocs: An accessibility checker for Google Suite.
Texthelp: Supplier of a range of assistive technologies for reading and writing.