We should never design our courses for the typical student, the normal student or the average student but rather for each and every student who is qualified to enrol. When our courses are underway we deliver them in a way that is accessible for each and every student who has actually enrolled.

Diversity

When discussing diversity among students and teachers one often thinks first about disability but it can also refer to other issues such as whether they are located in Leeds or elsewhere, whether they are part time or full time, and also what technology they have access to.

Technology

Planning for diversity involves thinking about all types of learning and teaching. On the one hand you may plan to use technology and then find that a subset of the class have difficulties accessing it. On the other hand you may find that adopting a technological solution improves the accessibility of a particular learning activity. The LTU team are available to provide support in both these scenarios. From among the team members Jon Maber takes a particular interest in this.

Standards Compliance

Standards as a subject is related to inclusivity because technological learning resources which don't conform to industry standards may be unusable by a proportion of any class of students. This is a difficult topic to deal with because there are a bewildering array of standards documents and no single organisation that documents them. However, there are some clear cut standards, for example the best way to deliver pages of text on the web is in HTML files and the W3 organisation provides specific standards for HTML. They also provide tools to validate pages - i.e. list errors in them or confirm standards compliance.

Checking for standards compliance is only one small step towards making sure electronic content is accessible. It is still possible for a standards compliant web page to be inaccessible. For example, when describing a set of related concepts one might lay them out in a circle around a central title. It would be feasible to create a valid HTML with information laid out that way but this might be poorly accessible to visually impaired users who use audible browsers because the text wouldn't be read out in the appropriate order. Expert advice can help you create an attractive visual appearance while ensuring that the presentation still makes logical sense for users who cannot access the page graphically.

LTU Papers on Accessibility

• Enrollment of Disabled Students and TEL

International students and TEL

For an overview of the potential for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) to support learning and teaching for International students, please see the following presentation delivered at the Faculty away day in September 2010 by Rob Shaw.

Reference Material

Over time we will be compiling links to useful resources in this area of the web site and when we run workshops or training we will share documentation here.

• W3 Organisation
• JISC'sTechDis