Study Group Australia – Learning & Growing Together

Web and document accessibility

abaho General January 24, 2022January 27, 2022Communication, Learning and Growing, Study Group Australia, Technology 0 Comment

Web accessibility is basically about equal access to the internet to all.

We tend to focus a lot on our students’ inability to access the internet and our online content due to lack of infrastructure (digital divide), environmental factors, the type of device and/ or language barriers. Thus, we overlook the potential factor of our student’s having a form of disability and learning difficulties (low vision, hearing issues, Dyslexia, etc.) and the need to use assistive technologies to content (eg. screen readers).

We also focus mostly on accessibility of the web and do not consider the accessibility of our documents and handouts, in which we, as educators primarily upload and share online.

Over 1 billion (15%) people in the world live with a disability:

56.7 million in the US live with some form of disability in 2010
4.4 million (18%) of people in Australia in 2018
Over 27 million (2.1%) of people in India in 2011
Approximately 85 million (6.5%) in China in 2018

With such big numbers, somehow this group have slipped through the cracks when it comes to accessibility.

According to the World Health Organisation, disability is higher in developing nations. So, we can assume some of our students or potential future students will have some form of disability, that they do not disclose or shared for many reasons including Visa requirements, discrimination, privacy etc.

Legislation such as Australia’s Disability Discrimination Act, 1992, United States’ Section 508, Rehabilitation Act and UK’s Disability Discrimination Act, 1995, also make it a legal requirement for websites, governments, educators etc. to provide accessible content.

Blackboard, like many Learning Management Systems (LMS) meet the accessibility guidelines. However, due to the documents and content we upload, the use of different components etc., the flexibility, consistency and accessibility it provides are compromised.

This can be linked to various factors including:

Lack of commitment, interest and compliancy to provide accessible content
Inadequate financial resources
Lack of knowledge of standards (WCAG, PDF/AU etc.)
Lack of knowledge of technologies and software tools (eg. accessibility checkers in Microsoft Word)

Making online content and documents accessible to those using assistive technologies, are also beneficially to the other students who do not use assistive technologies and/or do not have a disability. These includes:

Clear, uncluttered, and readable content for everyone
Maintaining standards and consistency of structure and material across all subject sites
Quality control, especially when some many teachers and staff interact with a site
Minimisation of duplication
Knowledge and being ahead of the game, in case Study Group or the study centre’s new partner enforces an accessibility policy as government and many companies, or there is a confirmed case of student needing assistive technology

It may just be a few adjustments to make the content or document to make it accessible.

Some simple guidelines to make the content online accessible are:

Using heading tags (h1, h2, h3)
Using alt tags correctly for non-decorative images and figures.
For example: <img src=”library.gif” alt=”a front views of the Library of Congress”> not alt=”library”
Not using fixed/ absolute units for sizing fonts and other elements. Use % or em.
Not using link text “click here” or “read more”

Some simple guidelines to make documents accessible are:

Using Styles for headings
Using san serif fonts
Using and editing alt tags correctly for images and figures as these can be already generated. Mark image or figure if there are decorative.
Not using link text “click here” or “read more”
Formatting table correctly
Not using tables for page layout
Saving the document correctly. The video – Accessible PDF on windows or mac will show you have to save/ export the document as a accessible PDF.
Using the accessibility checker

Resources that can help in creating accessible content include:

Online Accessibility Toolkit by South Australian Government
LinkedIn Learning course – Creating Accessible PDFs. While, it mostly focuses on using a paid software to create accessible PDFs, there is two sections about using Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.
Web Disability Simulator, a Google plugin which lets you experience how people with disabilities (colour blindness, low vision, Dyslexia, Parkinson etc.) experience the web.

A PD was suggested to highlight and address these issues and provide guidelines to improve web accessibility.

Article: Kurt, S. (2019). Moving toward a universally accessible web: Web accessibility and education. Assistive technology, 31(4), 199-208.

Zoom recording 21 January 2022

Charles Sturt University Access and Disability Services supports and assists students studying both on campus and online with physical or sensory impairments, medical conditions, learning disabilities or psychological conditions. To find out more and to register for their services, go to Charles Sturt University Access and Disability Services.

Rethinking “international students”

abaho Journal articles June 2, 2021June 8, 2021Charles Sturt University, Domestic students, International students, Learning and Growing, Study Group Australia 0 Comment

On May 28th, Study Support and the Library discussed the concept of ‘international students’, and the comparison to domestic students in terms of experience and needs, as per article: Jones, E. (2017). Problematising and reimagining the notion of ‘international student experience.’ Studies in Higher Education, 42(5), 933–943.

The article suggests that the over-generalisation and assumptions of international students is problematic as we focus on the student’s shortcomings and ignoring any positive contributions. This, in turn, may reinforce negative stereotyping, and racial behaviour.

These assumptions also “fail to recognize the commonalities between international and domestic students” (Jones 2017, p935). Jones (2017) has categorised a wide range of range of factors, tabulated on pages 937-939, that contribute to the experiences of international students and except a handful, are shared by domestic students.

There is no basis in dividing international students from domestic students. Domestic students come from diverse cultural backgrounds, regardless of whether they were born in Australia or not, as well as various educational background. This does not translate to academic success. If fact, domestic students may struggle more in university as it is assumed they know academic writing and other academic skills, and thus have limited support in these areas.

Charles Sturt Study Centre deals with international students only, so these tensions and comparisons tend to be limited. Support, services, and programs are created with the mindset of ‘everyone is equal’, regardless of origins and educational background, which in turn creates a safe learning environment.

However, there seems to be a disconnect, at times, between the Study Centre and Charles Sturt University (main campus), as their main focus, like many universities, is on domestic students. This has resulted in:

Inappropriate/ irrelevant messaging
Emphasis on certain topics, such as Academic Integrity, and not extending/ further developing it to cover the skills
Some materials not translating very well with our students.

Recording of the discussion

Communities of Practice in Landscapes of Practice

mmoloney General April 26, 2021April 26, 2021Communities of Practice, Landscapes of Practice, Learning and Growing, Networks of Practice, Professional Development, Study Group Australia 0 Comment

On the 16th of April we had an excellent discussion on the Pyrko, Dorfler and Eden (2019) article which focussed on understanding how engaging in communities of practice can be extended beyond functional groups (such as within the confines of the individual study support and library teams) but across broader areas of the organisation (known as the landscape of practice). This engagement allows for incidental learning, reinforcement of shared goals, and the adoption of norms that constitute an organisational culture.

Here is the recording of the discussion.

During the discussion, there was mention of the highly theoretical nature of the article that may have been challenging for those new to concepts within our learning session. I highly recommend this Introduction to Communities of Practice by the seminal authors on the topic (Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner): https://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

Here are some key take-away points from the article:

The social constructivist view of learning whereby knowledge is a product of a social process that allows for group members to draw on others’ performance in their role as a “cue for action” (p.484)
This learning process within a community of practice is largely dependent on the buy-in from members and this often results in differing degrees to which a person interacts meaningfully with
other members, and invests their identity (p.484)
A landscape of practice is the sharing of meaning between different communities, which
may be more challenging than learning within the boundaries of one community of practice: “Learning between different communities requires practitioners to be prepared to go through acts of transformation as they seek to understand how knowledge from another community may fit within the context of their own work, enriching and altering what they know” (p.485).
Taking time to allow for communities of practice to enjoy a shared thinking process is essential for membership to be nurtured, more than would be the case in a simple “deployment of knowledge” from one group member to another (p.489)
It’s essential that mere “islands of practice” (p.494), for example, the Learning and Growing hour, do not stand alone but are the basis of a more integrated approach to improving our program delivery to students and our growth as practitioners.
Attaining, maintaining, and participating in Networks of Practice (this network includes members of a shared field) allow value to be re-invested in the Landscapes of Practice or Communities of Practice.

Please feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks, Monique