2024

0 comments on "Out now: What Every Engineer Needs to Know about Digital Accessibility"

Sarah Horton (our Visiting Fellow) and David Sloan have recently published the landmark book ‘What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility‘ Synthesised from decades of experience working at the cutting-edge of digital accessibility practice, Horton and Sloan distil the key principles, methodologies and approaches that every engineer needs in their tool kit. What Every Engineer Should Know About Accessibility delivers a perfect balance of conceptual and practical content, for a deep dive, or for reference. It also brings in expert voices from the international vanguard of accessibility – advocates, academics and industry leaders. The result is a range of perspectives that highlight the innovation and richness that is at the heart of engineering for accessibility; and the real-world harm that can and does result from digital exclusion. For a product, service, platform or tool to be truly excellent, it must be excellent for everyone. In this ground-breaking book, Horton and Sloan show how this excellence can be engineered for all, with disabled people at the centre.

We heartily recommend this book – and there is a 20% discount available [code: EFLY03] on the £29.99 cover price available from Routledge at time of writing. Congratulations to Sarah H and David on this excellent work!

0 comments on "22/8/24: Teach Access and IAAP Webinar: ‘What Everyone Should Know About Digital Accessibility’"

On Thursday 22nd August, 4pm BST / 11am EDT, join the International Association of Accessibility Professionals and Teach Access for a free 1-hour Webinar focussed on the foundational principles of digital accessibility, with Sarah Horton and David Sloan.

To register: https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/s/webinar-details?id=a0ATn000000VOR3MAO

Panel speakers include:

  • Sarah Horton: UX and Accessibility Strategy Lead at Harvard Web Publishing
  • David Sloan: Chief Accessibility Officer at Vispero® and User Experience Practice Manager at TPGi
  • Dr. Yasmine Elglaly: Associate Professor at Western Washington University and leader of the @KIND lab
  • Dr. Sarah Lewthwaite (University of Southampton – and Principal Investigator of the Teaching Accessibility project).
  • Meenakshi ‘Meena’ Das: Software Engineer at Microsoft focusing on creating inclusive frontend experiences.

The session will be moderated by Samantha Lynch Johnson, Digital Accessibility Engineering Manager at CVS Health. This promises to be an excellent webinar, offering diverse perspectives on ways to establish digital accessibility effectively in a range of contexts. We hope to see you there!

0 comments on "New paper: Digital Accessibility Education in Context"

We have a new Open Access research paper now available in ACM’s Transactions on Accessibility Computing (TACCESS). The paper ‘Digital Accessibility Education in Context: Expert Perspectives on Building Capacity in Academia and the Workplace‘ considers the socio-cultural conditions in which accessibility teaching and learning takes place, the institutional and organisational challenges that fundamentally shape the nature of accessibility education. The paper has ‘Just Accepted’ status, with formal copy to be updated soon.

Abstract

The social model of disability, accessibility legislation, and the digital transformation spurred by COVID-19 expose a lack of accessibility capacity in the workforce, indicating persistent gaps in academic and professional education. We adopt a socio-cultural lens to examine how the context of education and training influences teaching and learning in university and workplace sectors, and how expert educators manage and negotiate these contextual factors to build accessibility capacity. This paper reports qualitative research with 55 experienced educators using expert panel method and focus groups. Analysis highlights the important disconnects and contextual challenges that educators must navigate and negotiate to affect and embed cultural change. We find that faculty and workplace cultures frequently perpetuate precarity in accessibility education, individualising the responsibility to ‘heroes’ or ‘champions’, while disciplinary and role-based silos limit the scope for raising awareness and developing widescale competency. Conversely, centres of excellence and communities of practice can cultivate and sustain links between education and research, engage expert users, and promote interdisciplinary and cross-role learning environments, where accessibility is increasingly recognised as a shared endeavour. We conclude that greater collaboration between academia and industry can enhance pedagogical understanding, to transform accessibility educational practices and build and sustain capacity for the future.

Cite: Coverdale, A. Lewthwaite, S., and Horton, S. (2024) Digital Accessibility Education in Context: Expert Perspectives on Building Capacity in Academia and the Workplace. Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS).