Teaching Accessibility in the Digital Skill Set
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Southampton Education School
Abstract
This research focusses on digital accessibility education in technical disciplines and the digital workforce, to ensure an inclusive digital society that meets the requirements of disabled and older people. Despite advances in digital disability rights, older and disabled people remain amongst the most digitally disenfranchised groups. COVID-19 has intensified the need for accessible services and tools, with society now reliant on digital platforms for societal participation. However, despite the social cost of exclusion, and a trajectory of growing demand, we still lack a detailed understanding of the teaching and learning characteristics of accessibility education and how digital accessibility can be effectively taught and scaled. My Fellowship addresses this urgent issue, continuing an ambitious programme of research. It remains uniquely positioned to generate evidence-rich insights for academic and workforce education at a time of critical need.
To date, Teaching Accessibility in the Digital Skill Set has delivered a detailed account of the pedagogies of accessibility education, and how digital accessibility can be effectively taught in workplace and higher education settings, with a particular focus on explicit and implicit teaching approaches, learning theories and values that characterise teaching at a community level. The study has established key dimensions of disciplinary pedagogic content knowledge. However, major challenges remain. There are disconnects between industry and education, pedagogic culture is nascent, and there is still a reliance on individualised self-directed learning as the primary learning mechanism across the field. In view of these findings, the current project proposes an ambitious renewal of the research that extends the focus from teaching, to learning across the careers life-course, and strategically addresses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its' impact on digital accessibility as a learning ecology. The research will:
1) Establish a new body of knowledge to enhance the teaching and learning competencies of digital accessibility educators and professionals.
2) Broaden engagement with evidence-based pedagogy among accessibility professionals to create new learning and teaching networks.
3) Understand the impact of AI on accessibility education.
4) Continue to establish digital accessibility education as a research field.
The research is articulated through three Work Packages (WPs). WP1 investigates learner journeys in digital accessibility across the career life-course, inclusive of workplace and university settings. WP2 delivers an in-depth understanding of the role of online communities of practice for peer-learning in developing and scaling accessibility expertise. WP3 scopes the impact of Artificial Intelligence on teacher and learner perceptions of, and approaches to, accessibility skills development, curricula and pedagogy. This is done to discover how AI is influencing the accessibility skills and capacity discourses of the tech sector, and to consider how professional approaches to AI and accessibility are in turn shaping the teaching in higher education.
Impact will be via: 1) Knowledge exchange and co-production, collaborating with stakeholders and potential research users; (2) wider accessibility community engagement, inclusive of disabled people's organisations (3) Creating a platform for future research through high profile international networks and events.
This work also connects accessibility with advances in pedagogic research in inclusion, disability studies and related disciplines. It benefits from being based in the Centre for Research in Inclusion, a centre of excellence in pedagogic research, and continues to capitalise on accessibility expertise and the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton, and links to the World Wide Web Consortium.
To date, Teaching Accessibility in the Digital Skill Set has delivered a detailed account of the pedagogies of accessibility education, and how digital accessibility can be effectively taught in workplace and higher education settings, with a particular focus on explicit and implicit teaching approaches, learning theories and values that characterise teaching at a community level. The study has established key dimensions of disciplinary pedagogic content knowledge. However, major challenges remain. There are disconnects between industry and education, pedagogic culture is nascent, and there is still a reliance on individualised self-directed learning as the primary learning mechanism across the field. In view of these findings, the current project proposes an ambitious renewal of the research that extends the focus from teaching, to learning across the careers life-course, and strategically addresses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its' impact on digital accessibility as a learning ecology. The research will:
1) Establish a new body of knowledge to enhance the teaching and learning competencies of digital accessibility educators and professionals.
2) Broaden engagement with evidence-based pedagogy among accessibility professionals to create new learning and teaching networks.
3) Understand the impact of AI on accessibility education.
4) Continue to establish digital accessibility education as a research field.
The research is articulated through three Work Packages (WPs). WP1 investigates learner journeys in digital accessibility across the career life-course, inclusive of workplace and university settings. WP2 delivers an in-depth understanding of the role of online communities of practice for peer-learning in developing and scaling accessibility expertise. WP3 scopes the impact of Artificial Intelligence on teacher and learner perceptions of, and approaches to, accessibility skills development, curricula and pedagogy. This is done to discover how AI is influencing the accessibility skills and capacity discourses of the tech sector, and to consider how professional approaches to AI and accessibility are in turn shaping the teaching in higher education.
Impact will be via: 1) Knowledge exchange and co-production, collaborating with stakeholders and potential research users; (2) wider accessibility community engagement, inclusive of disabled people's organisations (3) Creating a platform for future research through high profile international networks and events.
This work also connects accessibility with advances in pedagogic research in inclusion, disability studies and related disciplines. It benefits from being based in the Centre for Research in Inclusion, a centre of excellence in pedagogic research, and continues to capitalise on accessibility expertise and the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton, and links to the World Wide Web Consortium.
