Unlocking Potential

Joining it up and checking it out

Embedding good practice and measuring progress

Unlocking Potential

JISC TechDis

• Supporting the education sector in achieving greater accessibility and inclusion by stimulating innovation and providing expert advice and guidance on disability and technology.

• Good practice for disabled users is good practice for all.

Unlocking Potential

Checklists or creative compromises?

Unlocking Potential

I googled it.

There may be a gap between what learners think they know or do and what they actually know or do.

Unlocking Potential

The informal knowledge economy

Attractions

Portability• Home. Work. College. Uni.• Desktop. Laptop. Mobile.

Manipulability• Copy, paste, edit.

Shareability• Email. USB. Facebook.

Variety• Text. Images. Video. Audio.

Risks

Provenance• Bias. Accuracy.

Quality• Depth. Breadth. Level

Source• Referencing. Licensing.

Unlocking Potential

Reclaiming libraries

Unlocking Potential

Guerrilla Libraries

• Promoting the cause• Podcasts, videos, blogs and subject bookmarking

• Tracking and trails• NLN materials, • Audio/ Video collections• E-text resources.

• Confidence and converts• User confidence.• Staff confidence.• Kit confidence

Unlocking Potential

Promoting the cause

• Creating audio and video guides.• Original library guide with two ironies…• Much more accessible library guide• Instant(ish) human version – audacity• Instant(ish) synthetic speech version –

www.readthewords.com

• Subject specificity• Delicious

Unlocking Potential

Tracking and trails

• NLN materials, • Externally Q-A’d collections - Intute, SCRAN,

BUBL • Internally Q-A’d – videojug, youtube,

podcasts (Naked Scientist) • E-text resources.• Mobile resources - MoleShare

Unlocking Potential

Confidence and converts

Staff confidence • SimDis; WatchWords; AE1,2• Getting hold of alternative formats –

www.publisherlookup.org.uk

User confidence • Personalising views of knowledge (AE1)• Referencing plug in for FireFox. • Aspire CD for dyslexic learners• Free and Portable AT from ScottishRSCs /TechDis

Unlocking Potential

Further reading

• SCONUL publication “Access for library users with disabilities:” http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/pubs/access_disabilities.pdf

• See TechDis LRC section on main websitehttp://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=6_8

• See TechDis advice on alternative formats www.techdis.ac.uk/getaltformat

• TechDis Accessibility Essentials serieswww.techdis.ac.uk/accessibilityessentials

• britspeech@robobraille.org Translates the attached document into synthetic speech using an British English Text-to-Speech engine.

• www.readthewords.com – free web based text to speech service with downloadable mp3s.