Dear All,
As a university, being inclusive is a core value for us. This includes the student experience and the learning content that we make available to our students. Over the next year, there’s going to be a focus on the digital accessibility of our learning content as well as the accessibility of our online systems. This is in part in response to the new Public Sector Web Accessibility Regulations which come into force this September.
The new regulations build on existing equality regulations but emphasise the need for public sector bodies such as ourselves to be more proactive in ensuring that our websites, intranets and documents are accessible for all. Many of you already produce content and learning that is inclusive and digitally accessible and we encourage the sharing of good practice with colleagues.
The regulations are staged so it’s not necessary for all websites and intranets and content to be fully accessible straight away, but we do need to work proactively towards ensuring our systems and content are accessible by the academic year 20/21. Over the next year we will be providing advice, guidance and support on how to make your content digitally accessible.
What do you need to do now?
- Look at the FAQs on IT help pages about the new regulations.
- Check that all newly created content e.g. documents and presentations are accessible. IT have produced a new help page with advice and guidance on how to make Office 365 documents (Word and PowerPoint) accessible.
- Review any documents, templates or content that you are intending to use this year and discuss with colleagues plans to make these accessible.
- Guidance is being produced to assist colleagues producing and reviewing procedures, policies or guidelines to help with ensuring all published documents are accessible.
- Have a look at the TEL Unit Guidance on making your Blackboard course accessible.
- Keep a look out for a range of blogs and webinars providing further tips and tricks which will support this activity.
University of Worcester Staff News 