Activity 1.6 - Review of Seale Chapters 6 - 10

Communication between key stakeholders seemed to me to be the underlying theme of Seale Chapters 6 -9 and is something that was familiar to my own context.

From the lecturers perspective, communicating with students and support staff to determine context specific problems and communicating with management regarding learning design approaches to be adopted and how they should be followed.

From the learning technologists perspective, communicating with academic staff and/or students regarding their technical needs in a way that does not convey an "I know best, I'm a professional" sense of patronisation. They also need real experience of these difficulties via simulations, experimenting with assistive technologies and so on, as well as understanding guidlines and the techniocal aspects of conformance. Working with academic staff to provide accessible learning environments that are flexible enough to meet the needs of a range of students is required.

The student support service could provide a key role in getting different stakeholders communicating with one another as they need to be able to coordinate efforts for the sake of supporting the students. Two-way communication may improve the efficiency with which students can be supported. As the area with direct responsibility for the support of disabled students the effectiveness of this department will have a large impact on student satisfaction.

Likewise, staff development departments can play a key role in facilitating interdepartmental communication through disability awareness programmes and ongoing training. Working with all stakeholders to determine the needs and expectations of training will be important to the success of such awareness drives.

Without effective policy and leadership from senior management none of the above is likely to be realised, however senior management must also realise that all stakeholders can make a valid contribution to the development of an accessibility action plan. If it is implemented in a top-down fashion with little consultation with the ground level staff who will be responsible for facilitating the change most policy will be doomed to fail (or sit on the intranet unnoticed and ineffective.