JISC RSC Scotland has been working with learners to seek their views and perspectives on a number of issues that concern them, and in this video resource Matthew Clark a first year undergraduate student at the University of Glasgow shares his experience of transition.
He talks about his journey from New College Worcester, a national residential school and college for young people aged 11 to 19 who are blind or partially sighted to the University of Glasgow.
During this 30 minute interview, Matthew talks about the research he carried out in advance of applying to university, and about the partnerships he made in preparing the support he would require.
He also explains the process he undertook to apply for DSA and about the important of collaboration with key staff across the institution to ensure his support needs would be met. 
A visual overview of the range of mind mapping tools out there and their access on different OS and platforms. The Publishers Association (PA) is the leading trade organisation serving book, journal, audio and electronic publishers in the UK . The PA have created a joint statement on accessibility & e-books in collaboration with EDItEUR international standards, RNIB, Dyslexia Action and JISC TechDis.
The supporters of this Joint Statement applaud these advances, and encourage others to ensure that everyone can enjoy the widest possible choice of publications through whatever medium works best for them.
Going bananas...... Laughing your head off.......
Phrases that aren't literally true but can make no sense at all if you have autism, like Michael Barton...
This article provides really valuable insight into the day to day practical issues that people who live with autism experience. 
A role for Learner Analytics in identifying intervention points for accessibility improvement.
With 3 colleagues from other UK universities I have just had the following paper accepted for W4A2012: A Challenge to Web Accessibility Metrics and Guidelines: Putting People and Processes First.
In this paper we argue that web accessibility guidelines such as WCAG 2.0 are insufficient in ensuring accessibility is achieved in any web-based resource or service. A key deficiency is in an appropriate level of understanding of the users, their needs and behaviors. In a higher education context one approach to address this that I am currently exploring is based on Learner Analytics. This blog posts expands on the ideas floated in the above paper and invites comment on them. I am just beginning to draft a project proposal to fund a pilot project exploring these ideas with real data and real students in their learning contexts. If this project might be of interest then please e-mail me: m.cooper@open.ac.uk. 
Sarah Lewthwaite's blog about Social Media, Disability and Education 
Useful insights about Office 2010 text to speech from Emma Millard of JISC Techdis. 
Dr Ernesto Compatangelo, Technabling Ltd at Aberdeen University introduces Portable Sign Language Translator (PLST). The PSLT aims at bridging the current communication gap between people who can only speak using sign language and the wider community surrounding them.
ACCESSMSOR working group have produced a document which pulls together much of the current guidance in maths and related subjects, particularly accessible ways of handling mathematical notation for blind and visually impaired students. The OATS software centre - open source assistive technology software. 
Is your colleege or university using technology for good?
These unique awards are organised by AbilityNet and BT and bring together a range of charities and businesses whose work enables people to improve their lives through the use of IT.
Nominations for 2012 Technology4Good Awards 2012 are open to UK-based charities, businesses, public bodies, individuals, social enterprises, schools, colleges, community organisations and anyone else who is using technology for good. 
Xerte is an Open Source content creation tool that allows non-technical staff to quickly and easily build rich, interactive and engaging resources with high levels of accessibility already built in.
Techdis have been running Xerte Friday online sessions which provide insights into how this content creation tool can be used in different ways to enhance learning and teaching. The next Xerte Friday Online Session will feature on good practice for accessible assessment.
Date: 30 Mar 2012
Why does it matter and how do you do it? Many people have heard about the importance of structuring a document for accessibility. It sounds a good idea it practice but where do you begin? Is it difficult to do? Can you retrofit accessibility into an existing document? The most important, what difference does it make and is it really worth it? |
Are you involved in Supported Learning in FE colleges in Scotland or do you support vulnerable learners? If so this e-Safety webinar might be of interest to you.
Delivered by JISC Legal in collaboration with JISC RSC Scotland and Scotland's Colleges this webinar will be designed and delivered with you in mind.
Our plan is to encourage practitioners in Scottish FE Colleges to email their questions, concerns and issues to us and JISC Legal will use this as the basis of their webinar.... "I Have a Blind Student in My Maths/Science Class, Should I panic? How to promote inclusion for blind students" Invited speaker session by Donal Fitzpatrick,... Via alistairm 
Over the last few weeks Technabling, the winners of the Making Waves element of the SBRI initiative, based at the University of Aberdeen have been receiving quite a bit of attention in the Scottish and UK press and within the JISC community. Their Portable Sign Language Translator (PSLT) initiative aims to bridge the communication divide between Deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL) and non BSL users.
Many in the BSL community are watching with interest to see how this initiative progresses, and to consider how PSLT could be used in both educational and social settings. High quality video with clarity and lack of latency will be important in ensuring that signs are conveyed clearly by video.
There is also interest in considering how this resource will manage BSL as a two way process which will have mutual benefit in assisting hearing community in communicating to BSL users, but also how hearing people will reciprocate their communication to BSL user, in particular where BSL users often regard written English as their second language.
With this in mind Dr Ernesto Compatangelo, a lecturer in computing science at the University of Aberdeen, and founder/director of Technabling is keen to interact with as many interested people as possible so that the PSLT development is truly user-driven in all its aspects.
Technabling have set up a website, www.pslt.org, which is dedicated to whoever wants to help them make the application a real success. If you are interested in liaising with Dr Compatangelo or participating in the user testing element of this exciting initiative you can email him at: pslt@technabling.co.uk. 
The ATbar created by the University of Southampton has been re written and updated.
This tool which in a previous existence, was trialed by the University of the West of Scotland Enabling Support Team who placed this on their departmental website. This case study featured as one of the iTech case studies by the JISC RSC Scotland (http://bit.ly/H9OBUv).
The standard ATbar Lite is a bookmark that can be dragged to the browser toolbar (or added to favorites). Fonts can be enlarged, their style changed with increased line spacing to aid readability. There is a spell checker and dictionary. Text to speech for reading selected text uses a female Acapela voice in both languages.
The use of Readability reduces clutter on a web page and word prediction comes thanks to AItype. It works with all plain text edit boxes.
The entire look and feel of an accessible web page can be changed to offer high contrast mode with linear text or just colour changes to the text and links. The toolbar colour can be changed. It is possible to reset pages and exit the toolbar at anytime.
When a new web page is loaded the toolbar has to be relaunched. ATIS4all is a European Thematic Network which main objective seeks to facilitate everyone's access to the most suitable AT or accessibility device and service according to their needs, preferences and contextual characteristics (e.g. ICT solution, environment constraints, user device, language, etc.). 
EASI a USA based resource offer a range of excellent free and also fee based webinars. These will be taking place over the next few months and the free webinars include:
Free and Inexpensive Software The Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) Better Communication With Plain English
Dr Simon Ball of JISC Techdis offers feedback on the EASI webinar - the accessibility of Google Apps.
You can access a recording of the session and the summary of the research provided on the slides here: http://easi.cc/archive/google2012/resources.htm
SocialSpeech: Facebook & Twitter on iPad or iPhone for Anyone Who Struggles with Reading and/or Writing. This app will provide a text to speech feature that reads your Twitter tweets or Facebook updates in the preferred accent of your selected language.
Converting gestures into text or audio output enables learners to communicate with other people. In addition, conversion to electronic command signals means that those with limited motor control can gain greater independence.
Funded by the SBRI initiave the Making Waves stream of funding looked at converting gesture (or sign) language into digital data.
As part of this process Technabling Ltd developed a software prototype for translating sign language into text and commands, capable of working with a wide range of handheld camera-enabled devices, such as smart phones, notebooks and tablet PCs and using open-source operating systems.
The solution is designed to enable people who experience communication difficulties to overcome the consequences of their impairment, empowering them with easy to use and unobtrusive devices that allow them to more easily express themselves and re-integrate them into the community. 
The Hargreaves copyright consultation closes on 21 March and we all know that getting resources in alternative formats can be a major headache for libraries and learner support staff in FE/HE.
JISC Advance services are really keen to get as many responses from ordinary librarians in FE/HE as well as disability advisors, lecturers and and from all those supporting students with barriers to learning. In order to promote participation and to simplify matters concerning the on-going consultation on proposals to amend the UK’s copyright system, JISC Legal and JISC Techdis have worked with experts within the field to produce their simple ‘How to’ guide.
With your help it is feasible to get HUNDREDS of meaningful responses from the people at the sharp end of copyright – teaching and support staff. We’ve made it really easy for staff to respond to the consultation – 5 minutes to make a difference…
'More libraries are lending eBooks and downloadble audio books' by Paul Nisbet of CALL Scotland.
The eBook revolution continues apace in all sorts of ways, and more Scottish public libraries are joining in by lending eBooks and downloadable audiobooks, for us to borrow and read or listen to on our computers, iPhone or iPad, and Android devices. 
E-books and E-content 2012 |
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Thanks Matthew and Margaret - BBC next? :-)