H810 ... the story so far.

I just feel a little like reflecting on H810 so far ... call it a displacement activity if you like, I should really be writing a long and really rather boring XML file for a document menu for Ofsted but I can't quite seem to get motivated on that but this is the first week that I am completely free from the distractions of H806. That means I can give my full attention to the remaining 17 weeks of H810 (and the end of my MA).

So far on the course I have found the disability simulator from JISC TechDis particularly enlightening. It gives non-impaired computer users some idea of how online content might be experienced by disabled students (in particular, dyslexic, autistic and visual / hearing impaired). Really fascinating actually.

I took a sneaky advance look at TMA01 this morning ... I have some concerns linked to my very limited (almost non-existent) experience or contact with disabled students at work. I think some imagination might be needed ... from a professional point of view however, it is better to think about this stuff before you need to implement it. I guess that would make me "anticipatory".

Anyway ... onwards!

Disability Awareness Training - (Week 3 - Activity 3.1)

As part of H810 I have been asked to write a piece about my previous experience of disability awareness training. This will be a short piece as I have never taken any disability awareness training! It's not that I have missed opportunities it's just that so far in my working life the opportunity has never arose. The only disability awareness training has been through research undertaken by my own initiative on the web, starting with organisations like W3C for online content accessibility. I was aware of this gap in my knowledge base and was one of my reasons for taking H810 as part of my MA ODE.

This question does make me wonder why disability awareness training is something that has never been available to me. Before I worked in education I worked for a commercial internet service provider building websites for SMEs and accessibility was at the bottom of their list of priorities. Even their own company website was inaccessible - very much style over substance. I am not surprised that I didn't receive any there, but as a national company there should really have been something. In my current employment there is at least a policy of inclusion but much more could be done.

Roles and Responsibilies (Week 3 - Activity 1.2)

Read TechDis Senior Management Briefing 2 and write a paragraph in your blog about your role in applying policy and your relationship with others who share that responsibility.

My role as Web and ELearning Devloper sits inside the category of "Technical Team" so I also took a look at the Training and Support for Technical Teams section of the TechDis Website. In terms of appying policy my main role is to ensure that the online content that I produce meets accessibility standards (e.g. the school website or multimedia learning materials). I also identify issues with online content that has been created outside of my department i.e. by teaching staff and recommend solutions. If an issue appears to be a common occurence I may make suggestions to senior management regarding communication of potential problems to staff and/or produce training materials to address the problem.

From the TechDis Senior Management Briefing I identified the following quotes which I felt were pertinent the IT Support Department where my role is based.

"... the conflicts were created not by any unwillingness to serve the needs of disabled learners but by territoriality; isolated decision making without a holistic overview steered and supported by senior management."

"Compromises are inevitable but it is important to invite all the stakeholders to contribute to the final decision. In a Learning Resource Centre (LRC), where to place the computers with assistive technology will have implications for the LRC staff, the network manager, IT Technicians, learners support staff and the learners themselves. How the appropriate communication takes place would be unique to every organisation but the following points would be important:

• The communication is timely.
• The communication is genuine, not simply a rubber-stamping exercise.
• The communication is well documented.
• The communication is communicated – to illustrate how accessibility issues have been tackled and encouraging others to get involved in the process. "

Legislation and policy (Week 3 - Activity 1.3)

Does your particular organisation have a policy on accessibility or inclusive teaching? Are its policies based on national or international legislation? In your country, are disability issues addressed by general legislation about equality and human rights?


I was able to get my hands on the school's 'Disability Policy' pretty easily. It is readily accessible to staff on our Intranet. The policy is made in line with the UK Disability Discrimination Act and covers students, staff and visitors to the site.

The introduction reads, "[The School] is committed to a fair and equal treatment of all individuals regardless of disablement. [The School] will welcome applications from people with
disabilities to join the Academy community as students and staff. [The School] has been designed and built to have provision and accessibility for people with disabilities so that they may be integrated fully into [School] life. The curriculum will be delivered through the use of ICT to provide flexible and equal access to all students whether able or disabled as far as is practicable within a mainstream educational establishment."

The intent to provide accessibility and inclusive teaching is definitely there, but I am aware that there are some improvements to be made before "flexible and equal access to all" is really achieved in terms of our Online Curriculum provision. We should be taking a more 'anticipatory' approach when producing these materials but bad practice is pretty widespread and would be difficult to eradicate given that staff have little interest in the provision of an online curriculum anyway.

Disability Legislation (Week3 - Activity 1.1)

In the conclusion to chapter 4 of Seale (2006) the author suggests that the introduction of standards, guidelines and legislation has not led to a significant improvement in accessibility. Is that how things appear from your context?


Yes, I think so. Although there are guidelines and legislation in place for accessibility I have found that many people who are creating online content are not aware of them. This would be in addition to Seale's concluding reasons that there is confusion over which standards or guidelines to adopt, the differences between them, and difficulties in interpreting and applying them.


The Accessibility Legislation by Techdis outlines the legislation in Europe and the UK. The author expresses the view that some of the terms used are ‘fluffy’ or imprecise. What problems are caused by this imprecision? Does the legislation bring any benefits? If so, who do you think benefits more: disabled students or teaching institutions?

The imprecision might cause problems in that the legislation may be interpreted differently from one organisation to another. In a sense the imprecision is perhaps necessary because the term disability covers such a wide spectrum of impairment and individuals requirements are so widely different. If nothing else the legislation at least helps to disseminate knowledge and raise awareness of potential issues. Taking an "anticipatory" approach rather than a reactive one should benefit both students and institutions in the long term in that the students should encounter fewer problems on a daily basis and the ongoing costs for the institution are likely to be reduced if they are building accessability in (rather than bolting it on later).

Enable (2008) is a global movement from the United Nations to improve the rights of disabled people. One of the rights listed in the convention is the right to education. Has your country ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities? If it hasn’t, why do you think that might be?

I found this article on the UK ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of persons with Disabilities from The Equality and Human Rights Commision from August 2008. It says, "The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into force on 3 May 2008. The UK Government has not yet ratified, but has signalled its intention to do so by the end of 2008. " Reasons for not yet ratifying are that some "Government Departments were considering expressing 'reservations' or 'interpretive declarations' in relation to parts of the Convention in order to be able to ratify," and they "wish to see the UK ratify without reservations."

In Moving legislation into action: the examples of India & South Africa (Wong-Hernandez, 2001) what common factor or factors does she identify as hindering progress?

The main factors that seem to be hindering progress according to Wong-Hernandex seem to be education and enforcement. She suggests that individuals, organisations and establishments should be educated about legislation and the rights of disabled people and would like to see the implementation of a monitoring commitee to see that legislation is met.

Do you think that there are specific issues relating to disability and accessibility that are different from those arising with regard to other aspects of equality and human rights, such as racial discrimination?

I think that the major difference is that issues relating to disability and accessability are often environmental, whereas other equality aspects such as those concerned with race or gender are social issues and (perhaps?) more difficult to overcome.

All Done for H806!

Yesterday I submitted my completed ECA for H806 ... that's my penultimate MAODE course completed. Woohoo! Now I can fully concentrate on H810. It's certainly interesting times!

Activity 1.1 - Challenges for Disabled Students

Updated 23.09.08

Challenges common to all post-compulsory education :

• The decision to declare disability to the institution
• Dealing with failure of the institutions information infrastructure
• Written Communication (spelling, essay writing, note taking, expressing ideas)
• Verbal Communication (presentations, expressing needs/problems)
• Concentration (presentations, lectures, lengthy online media, lack of interactivity)

Challenges specific to campus-based courses

• Physical access to buildings or parts of buildings
• Moving around campus
• Transportation to campus
• Accommodation
• Access to assistance (human) and assistive technologies

Challenges specific to online learning

• Inaccessible content (inaccessible design/layout, inaccessible multimedia, non-compliant development)
• Alternative delivery of content (audio transcripts of visual content, text transcripts of audio content)
• Availability of assistive technologies

Challenges related to particular subjects or contexts.

• Use of specific equipment (e.g. scientific aparatus)
• Field Work (mobility issues)

Activity 1.1 - Challenges for Disabled Students (Questions)

1. Disabled students are often encouraged to declare a disability so that they can receive appropriate support that might, among other things, help them to access online learning (e.g. training, assistive technologies).

• If a student declared a disability in your institution or work context today, what support would be offered to them?

As a main stream secondary education institution Learning Support staff are employed in addition to teachers to support students with specific learning difficulties. Physical impairment (visual, auditory, motor/dexterity) is less common and is dealt with on an individual basis for any student that requires additional support.

• What would be the costs and benefits to the student of accepting or using that support?

I'm not sure ... That's something I should go and have a chat about with the person in charge of social inclusion to find out more about the process. Here's what I do know. In school aged education children with specific learning difficulties e.g. dyslexia, attention deficit disorder and so on, are often still in the process of being diagnosed with thier conditions. This is done in a process of consultation with teaching staff, parents and external specialists. A similar consultation process is used for physically disabled students but the process may also involve the school nurse. The financial costs of supporting these students is likely to be higher (I am unsure if the school recieves extra funds for these students?) as they may need specialist equipment, for example a special lunch tray for the cafeteria, hearing loops, large print text books etc.


2. What technology or technologies do you use most frequently (i.e. on a daily basis or more) to assist in your personal, work or social life; for example a calculator or satellite navigation?

• How much help or support did you need or have to help you learn how to use this to its full potential?

I use spell check A LOT ... I think that fits the bill of an assistive technology and I don't remember being shown how to use it but it's fairly self explainatory. I do, however, remember being told to use it but that's another story.

3. Using the definitions of assistive technology provided in Chapter 3 and others that you come across in your reading, which of the following technologies would you consider to be an assistive technology and why?

• Mobile phone - Assistive Technology. At first I would have classed a mobile phone as primarily a communications technology, but with the increasing availability of internet access on phone handsets they are becoming multi-purpose mobile devices.
• A document folder placed on the desktop of a PC using the short-cut feature within Windows - Assistive Technology. It creates easy access to files which may otherwise have involved substantial navigation using a mouse.
• Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) - still thinking about this. I haven't ever really used one so I'm not sure if its an assistive technology or just a useful thing
• Google search engine - Google search engine makes searching for and retrieving information very easy. The results pages contain lists of links ... would this make it unfriendly for screen readers? Is it accessible? I would imagine it is but I am currently trying to find an accessibility statement or similar to confirm this in google's corporate information.

4. How helpful do you think the metaphor of a ‘level-playing field’ is in:

• persuading practitioners of the need for developing accessible elearning
• counteracting arguments against making adjustments for disabled learners on the grounds that it gives disabled learners an unfair advantage over non-disabled learners?

I think the 'level playing field' metaphor is useful ... but how many practitioners really need persuading of the need to develop in an accessible way? In terms of web content building an accessible website is often just a case of using compliant code and methods along with some common sense! From my industry point of view it is a lack of knowledge and understanding of the problem which causes issues rather than an unwillingness to develop with them in mind.

Activity 1.1 - Challenges for Disabled Students (Notes)

Resource 1 - Seale


Resource 2 - Skills for Access: Challenges to Learning


"There is a tendency to assume that 'disability' can be equated with a complete loss of one specific sensory, cognitive or physical ability. In fact, most people who encounter access barriers when trying to access on-line resources do so as a result of a combination of impairments of varying severity."

• Visual difficulties
• Auditory difficulties
• Motor and/or manual dexterity difficulties
• Sensitivity to flashing or moving content
• Attention and concentration difficulties
• Memory and recall difficulties
• Language and comprehension difficulties

Resource 3 - Dyslexia and difficulties with study skills in higher education

Resource 4 - ‘Managing’ disability: early experiences of university students with disabilities

"From the 1970s onwards, however, the social model has been the guiding framework of disability theorists, increasingly representing disability as a form of social oppression, the appropriate response to which is one of civil rights rather than medical or social care."

"More recently, a more pluralistic approach has been called for. Williams (2001) argued that neither personal nor collective experiences of disability can be understood without recognition of both 'relational' definitions [...] and the 'property' definitions found in welfare and medical categorizations. "

"As late as the early 1990s the majority of British colleges and universities offered little systematic support to disabled students"

Identity matters - "Coming to university constitutes for many a big step in the process of forming an independent personal and social identity. Disabled students may have more complex sets of social relations to negotiate as part of this process than others (Borland & James, 1999). "

Disclosure - "Disclosure acts as a symbol of and repository for a complex nexus of issues and social relations and students had different approaches and attitudes to it. "

Extravisibility - "Students also had to actively manage their identity in terms of their 'extravisibility'. Students with disabilities can become 'invisible' if/when their needs are not met—they are disabled by the environment from full participation and 'disappear from view'. On the other hand, if and when they have to go out of their way to make their needs known they become 'extravisible' in a negative way. "

Emotional work - "The reference above to 'not kicking up a fuss' highlights the emotional work (Hochschild, 1983) students are obliged to undertake in managing their identities as people with a disability"

Being proactive - "Our data frequently contradicted notions of 'victimhood'. They featured students being proactive in accessing learning and teaching. Nevertheless, judgements about the degree of emotional work necessary to access their rights on occasion affected how proactive they felt able to be. Already facing physical and psychological hurdles, they often didn't have the energy to 'do battle'."

Transition into higher education - "If students with disabilities already have 'added bits' to manage in the transition from school to university, it was particularly unfortunate that for a number of those interviewed this transition had been fraught with difficulties. Special provision was not the most important factor for them in deciding which university to apply for [...] but some did explore in advance what kind of provision was available."

The Web Foundation

Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web. He's a director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) who are an organisation that determine web standards for compliant code. The W3C also have an Accessibility Initiative which provides accessibility guidelines for online content as well as practical advice and tools to help you achieve conformance.

This week Tim Berners-Lee launched The Web Foundation. Thier mission is :

• to advance One Web that is free and open,
• to expand the Web's capability and robustness,
• and to extend the Web's benefits to all people on the planet.

A different spin on accessibility than what we might initially think of ... financial and geographic accessibility rather than physical. Still, I thought it was worth making a note of.

Activity 2.5 - Models of Accessibillity

Medical Model (or Individual Model)
"Under the medical model, disabled people are defined by their illness or medical condition [...] The medical model promotes the view of a disabled person as dependent and needing to be cured or cared for, and it justifies the way in which disabled people have been systematically excluded from society. The disabled person is the problem, not society." (Making Your Teaching Inclusive, 2006)

Rehabilitation Model
"An offshoot of the medical model, which regards the disability as a deficiency that must be fixed by a rehabilitation professional or other helping professional" (Kaplan, 2000)

Social Model (or Disability Model)
"The social model has been developed by disabled people in response to the medical model and the impact it has had on their lives. Under the social model, disability is caused by the society in which we live and is not the ‘fault’ of an individual disabled person, or an inevitable consequence of their limitations. Disability is the product of the physical, organisational and attitudinal barriers present within society, which lead to discrimination. The removal of discrimination requires a change of approach and thinking in the way in which society is organised [...] The social model has been developed with the aim of removing barriers so that disabled people have the same opportunity as everyone else to determine their own life styles." (Making Your Teaching Inclusive, 2006)

Charity Model
"Ten to 15 years ago, this model was accused of portraying disabled people as helpless, sad and in need of care and protection. Such portrayals were argued to be perpetuating damaging stereotypes and misconceptions. More recently, charities have been using more positive images to portray (and thus define) disability" (Seale, 2006)

Administrative Model
"Administrative models of disability usually relate to specific areas of life such as education or employment and are used to assess whether or not people are eligible for certain benefits or compensation [...] critics of this model argue that disabled people rarely fit into the neat boxes that administrators provide. " (Seale, 2006)

Moral Model
"A moral model of disability [...] regards disability as the result of sin" (Kaplan, 2000)

Activity 2.4 - Defining Accessibility

How would you define ‘accessibility’?

I would define accessibility as the level to which any person (regardless of specific impairment) is able to interact with a specific object or service.

Who do you think is responsible for accessibility?

I would say that the provider of the service or the producer of the object would be ultimately responsible to ensure thier offering was accessibile. However that can probably only be achieved through a period of consultation with the stakeholders including end users.

What do you understand by accessibility in an educational context?

Accessibility in education would be removing any barriers to learning. These don't necessarily need to be physical impariment. They could be geographical, financial, social ...

What do you understand by accessibility in the context of online learning?

Accessibility in the context of online learning removes some of the barriers to traditional education such as geographical barriers, but in turn raises some different ones. In online learning accessibility would be about producing standards compliant materials and making available / increasing awareness of accessibility tools for online technologies.

Why is accessibility a concern today in your context or country?

To date it has not been too much of a concern in my context, although I anticipate it will become more of a concern in the future. I work in a secondary school which is only a few years old and still gaining reputation, however due to it's facilities and small class sizes it is increasingly attracting applications from students with impairments.

Activity 2.2 - What Is Accessibility

I've just finished reading Chapter 1 and 2 of Seale, J. (2006) "E-Learning and Disability in Higher Education : Accessibility Research and Practice". Here are some observations :

Chapter 1 - Magic Fairies and Accessibility Dust talks about attitudes to accessibility and an ethos of buck-passing where responsibility when it comes to catering for the needs of disabled students. It seems that within institutions no-one seems particularly sure of who should be dealing with what, "[...] it can be very tempting to place all the responsibility for delivering accessible e-learning onto the shoulders of one person, usually the designer or developer." (p.1) Oh - that would be me then ;)

Chapter 2 - Disability and higher Education gives some good definitions of different models of disability, of which the social model seems to be that which is currently most favoured. "According to social models, impariment is an individual limitation while a disability is a socially imposed restriction." (P.12)

Interestingly, definitions of disability themselves can be exclusive in thier specifity e.g. conditions which are not long term (over twelve months) or do not fit neatly into a fixed set of categorisations may not be classed as an impariment. (P.14)

Activity 1.3 - How does your own situation relate to accessibility?

I currently work as Web and ELearning Developer for a secondary school in the west midlands. The school was one of the first to be built as part of the UK governments City Academies program and has excellent facilities and ICT provision. I look after the school's website, intranet and so on but the majority of my time is concerned with the school's online curriculum. It's part of the schools mission statement that all of the curriculum should be accessible for students and their parents from home. As part of my online curriculum responsibilities I find and evaluate useful online tools and resources, and make them available to teaching staff. I produce multimedia online curriculum materials in collaboration with staff. This might be games, quizzes, videos, sounds, animation or presentations. I produce training materials for staff on technical processes for producing online curriculum materials and promote best practices for the creation of online content. I also provide technical support for the online curriculum content management software.

I don't currently have any contact with disabled students, however the school's facilities increasingly attracts applications from students with special needs. At the start of this academic year the intake included students who have visual imparement, hearing difficulties and physical disability. As a result I expect it will become increasingly important for me to develop my own understanding of accessibility for online learning and be able to communicate that to the school's teaching staff.

I already have some experience and understanding of online accessibility issues as I have built websites in accordance with the W3C web accessibility guidelines and I am looking forward to building on that during H810.

Connectivism & Connective Knowledge - Free Online Course

I've just subscribed to the rss feed for a new course - Connectivism & Connective Knowledge. It's interesting because it is free to participate and you only pay if you would like to recieve a qualification at the end of it. Had this come around earlier it would probably have really helped me write my ECA for H806 Learning in the Connected Economy (which may I add is currently giving me quite a headache).

In a professional context this is quite an exciting, not to mention slightly risky, business model ... I suppose it echoes the general Web2.0 trend for social practice, freedom of information, stick-it-to-the-man open source etc. etc. When you think about it the Web2.0 movement is a bit like the world wide web's equivalent of peace and love in the 1960s (or is that just me?)

Anyway, I wont be fully participating in the course but I will be keeping an eye on procedings ... to be fair I have already bit off quite as much as I can chew with H810 when H806 isn't even finished. That said I do now have my tutor details (Dr C Young) , and I can edit the wiki (problems were related to not being allocated a tutor) and I feel much happier knowing that everything is in place and ready to go.

Welcome to H810

In two days time I will start studying on my final course towards my MAODE ... H810 Accessible Online Learning. I am very excited at the prospect of completing my MA in a few months time. I have enjoyed all of it immensly but I have other things I want to get on with too, like some decorating at home and sorting out my abandoned garden.

H810 is going to be a new and interesting experience. It's the first presentation of the course so it's not the well oiled machine I have become used to but it's quite exciting in its own way. I don't have any information about my tutor group yet which is slightly worrying. I also can't edit the tutor group wiki. I was initially horrified to discover that the familiar first class forums of other H80x courses have been replaced by something different (Moodle forums I think, but I'm not sure) but I am already getting used to them and actually I think they are more user friendly. I've come across some familiar names in the forums so far, which is quite reassuring. I suppose I'm a bit of a MAODE veteran now so I'm bound to stumble across some old comrades :)

So, here's to the start of H810. The final chapter in my MAODE adventure.