Events

0 comments on "Oxford Annual Disability Lecture 2026: video, podcast and transcript"

In early June, Sarah Lewthwaite delivered the Oxford Annual Disability Lecture (“Digital Accessibility at the Crossroads: Infrastructure, AI, and the Future We Build“) at an online and in person event at Oxford’s Life and Mind Building.

The lecture is now available as a video (including BSL, captions), podcast, and transcript with alternative formats are available via https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/2026-disability-lecture

Screenshot of Sarah's presentation, with the title slide, and Sarah gesturing and a BSL interpreter, Mark Bennett, signing.

Sarah’s talk considered that state of digital accessibility in view of new laws committing to accessibility as a foundation for digital life, and recognising that accessibility must be built into systems and infrastructure from the start. Artificial intelligence, by contrast, does not have the same settled direction. AI has the potential to build and scale accessibility, but it also risks reinforcing patterns of exclusion and creating new ones if left unchecked. 

Hosted by the Disability and Neurodivergence Advisory Group and the Equality and Diversity Unit, Sarah explored contemporary answers to long-standing questions about who technology serves. How do we ensure our universities, workplaces and wider digital society are accessible to all? How do we make sure that lived experience of disability is recognised and valued in the design and development process? These questions are not new, but the scale, speed, and nature of AI demands new answers. Sarah’s talk will draw on current research into digital accessibility, accessibility education and AI. She will consider key issues, conceptual tools, and research-led routes for positive action.

0 comments on "June 2025: AI and Accessibility: Building the accessibility professional of the future"

Later this month, we are hosting an event with Jisc in London.

‘AI and accessibility skills: building the accessibility professional of the future’ is a collaborative workshop exploring the future of accessibility work and skills development in the context of Artificial Intelligence, on Friday 27th June, 12 noon-16.30, at Jisc London.  The event is free to attend, with lunch included. For more details and to register, please visit the Jisc Registration page. For those unable to attend, future events are planned across the UK. We will be reporting from the workshop – so watch this space for updates, or get in touch directly.

0 comments on "Visiting Speaker: Kate Sonka @ Soton, 11 Nov 2024"

On Monday 11th November (12-1pm GMT), Southampton Education School launches a new Education Seminar Series, focused on leadership in education practice, advocacy and the professions. We’re delighted that the inaugural seminar will be presented by visiting speaker Kate Sonka, Executive Director of Teach Access, a US non-profit organisation working with industry, disability advocacy groups and educators to address the digital accessibility skills gap. Kate is visiting the University of Southampton as a guest of our UKRI Teaching Accessibility project. Kate’s presentation will explore how educators can make classrooms and curricula more inclusive and accessible for all. If you would like to attend via Zoom, please contact the Soton Education Office directly via: EducationFOS@soton.ac.uk. This event will include BSL interpretation, and recordings will also be available after the event. We hope to see you there!

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 "Accessibility Teachers’ Coffee Hour – 20th May 2021"

Teaching Accessibility at the University of Southampton and Teach Access are hosting a Global Accessibility Awareness (GAAD) event for teachers of accessibility. We hope you will join us in celebrating the role of teaching in building accessibility awareness, knowledge, skills, and action.

Thursday, May 20, 2021 from 15:30 – 16:30 BST (10:30 – 11:30 am EST)

Details and registration

Our Accessibility Teachers’ Coffee Hour is a chance for educators from around the world to gather virtually and discuss the unique and rewarding work of teaching accessibility.

The hour-long event will start with a welcome and introduction, followed by breakout groups focused on special interest topics:

  • Challenges of teaching accessibility
  • Values and approaches
  • Strategies for student engagement
  • Teaching and learning tasks and activities

Following the breakout groups we will reconvene for a short report back from groups, and end with a discussion of ways to advance the field of accessibility education.

Event hosts will include members of the Teaching Accessibility research team and accessibility teachers from Teach Access university partners. See the Teach Access website for more details and to register.

Teach Access
University of Southampton
0 comments on "British Sociological Association Conference – 15 April 2021"

On the 15th April 2021, Sarah Lewthwaite will be presenting to the Sociology of Education stream at the annual British Sociological Association (BSA) Conference. Her paper ‘Dichotomies of disability and ageing in the teaching and discourses of digital accessibility’ draws on ongoing Teaching Accessibility research with expert teachers and considers how and where disability and ageing discourses are intersected in formal and informal accessibility education. The full abstract follows:

Dichotomies of disability and ageing in the teaching and discourses of digital accessibility.

Sarah Lewthwaite and Angharad Butler Rees,
Centre for Research in Inclusion, University of Southampton.

COVID-19 has brought about unprecedented change in our society and the mediating role of technology in everyday life. The pandemic has left many, especially older and disabled people, isolated and reliant on digital platforms and services which are not always accessible. Digital accessibility is a technical discipline within Human Computer Interaction that seeks to make technologies accessible to all. Yet within teaching, disability and ageing are frequently articulated separately. Technical communities recognise a need to consider the ways in which accessibility and inclusive design practices must cater for both groups, yet they are rarely inter-related. This paper considers this discursive divide within accessibility. We broach where there is capacity for these boundaries to be more productively and critically engaged. To elucidate the issues, we draw upon qualitative research with international pedagogic leaders, to ask where older people fit within contemporary discourses of accessibility teaching. This is theorised, in light of the biopolitics of Web accessibility standards, and their pedagogic influence in a context of ‘digital first’ public services, growing regulatory frameworks, compliance culture and litigation in industry. What are the pedagogic roles of such standards, and how do teachers negotiate and answer the subtle hierarchies of impairment and ageing that standards can convey? How can the socio-technical and cultural experiences of disability and ageing be imbricated and realised within this frame, to build a more inclusive digital future? We invite delegates to engage in this dialogue and discussion.

0 comments on "Cross Government Accessibility Meetup 25 November 2020"

In November, Sarah Lewthwaite presented to the bi-annual UK Cross-Government Accessibility Meetup, talking about ways to build accessibility capacity in teams. In January, Richard Morton (Head of Accessibility, Government Digital Service) and Josie Partridge published a blog about the event – discussing some of the key themes and activities discussed during the day. The next Meetup will be in March 2021.

Join the UK Government’s Accessibility Community group to keep up to date and discover more about the diverse accessibility work taking place across UK government and government agencies.

0 comments on "#AXSchat Twitter Chat on teaching accessibility – 11 February 2020"

On Friday, Sarah and Angharad were in conversation with Neil Milliken, Debra Ruh and Antonio Santos on the Teaching Accessibility project ahead of a forthcoming Twitter Chat – #AXSchat – focussed on the teaching of accessibility. The conversation is available via iTunes AXSchat podcast, in your browser via BuzzSprout, or on YouTube as a Subtitled video. 

We hope that those of you on Twitter will be able to join the conversation tomorrow, Tuesday 11th Feb, 20:00-21:00 GMT / 15:00-16:00 EST. To do so, follow the questions via @AXSchat and tweet using the hashtag #AXSchat.

We’ve set six questions that we hope will instigate a conversation that raises useful reflections, resources, and dialogue for everyone involved in accessibility: 

Q1: How did you first start to learn about #accessibility? What helped you on your learning journey?

Q2: How do you continue to learn about #accessibility? Has this changed over time?

Q3: How can someone starting out get from #accessibility basics to a specialist/expert level? What does it take in terms of support, mentors, time and resources etc?

Q4: How can the lived experiences of disabled people be best drawn upon for #accessibility training and teaching?

Q5: How can current #accessibility teaching and training be developed? What feedback, networks, events and conversations are needed to do this?

Q6: What does excellent #accessibility teaching and training look/feel like? Are some formats (hackathons, sprints, MOOCs etc) better than others? Why?

0 comments on "Inclusive Design 24 – 10 October 2019"

Inclusive Design 24 (#id24) is a free 24-hour online event for the global community. It celebrates inclusive design and shares knowledge and ideas from analogue to digital, from design to development, from planners to practitioners and everything and everyone inbetween.

Sarah Lewthwaite will be presenting ‘Teaching accessibility: 10 messages from research’ as one of 24 presentations at 14:00 UK time (13:00 UTC) on 10th October 2019.

“This is a talk for everyone who talks about accessibility. People need to know more about accessibility, but it can be challenging to teach. It requires a unique mix of conceptual understanding, technical skill and procedural knowledge. In this talk I will introduce 10 teaching tools – principles and strategies for effective pedagogy – that are drawn from more than a decade of empirical academic research in education. Join me to expand your educational repertoire, so you can more effectively share accessibility with colleagues, teams and wider audiences.”

No sign up or registration is required to follow or participate in sessions. Sessions are streamed live and publically on YouTube. Live captions are available for each session. Videos are available after the event.

This is a fantastic annual event, with a wonderful video back-catalogue that is worth exploring. Do visit the Inclusive Design 24 site to take a look at the full schedule and find out more about how to get involved.

0 comments on "The Accessible Curriculum: Institute of Coding – 30 Sept 2019"

Dr Sarah Lewthwaite will be presenting at a forthcoming Institute of Coding Forum focused on Accessible Curriculum on Monday 30th September.

Event Summary

The new Public sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 on Websites and Mobile Applications comes into force this month, meaning all publicly funded digital platforms require a statement of accessibility.

  • Is education ready for this?
  • Is the tech talent we are producing skilled up to meet these requirements?

This forum will explore inclusive education and the ‘Accessible Curriculum’ in relation to visible and non-visible disabilities, from two perspectives:

  • Is higher education accessible?
  • Are students learning to develop accessible digital products?

The forum brings educators and employers together to generate advice and case studies.

We aim to both share expert knowledge and inspire and support those who are new to this field, and want to improve the accessibility of their offer.

The day will be full of opportunities to share your own experiences and learn new perspectives on how accessibility can be integrated into the workplace and education.

People should leave the event with more and shared knowledge about the different practice of accessibility and understand the identification of required actions.

Please note that this event is only open to:

  • Teachers, lecturers & education professionals
  • Learning technologists
  • Disability service managers
  • Designers and developers of educational products and services (private & public sector)

To register visit the IoC EventBrite pages.