Education and training for accessible web

design

Jonathan WillsonJenny Craven and Richard

EskinsManchester Metropolitan University

Who we are

• Department of Information and Communications, MMU

• Jonathan lectures in web design, and technology and the law

• Richard lectures in web design, and organising information

• Jenny is a research fellow in CERLIM– Centre for Research in Library and

Information Management

Our take on things

• technology department in a Humanities Faculty

• usability and accessibility are core to achieving web design that is fit for purpose

• ‘traditional’ expertise in information retrieval and storage – e.g. cat & class, card sorting, librarianship,

information management, community profiling

There is a problem

At yesterday’s workshop …

• Chris Power exclaimed “Baffling!”• “What’s going on?”• “Web developers are not being

trained.”

• Helen Petrie later said, “Guidelines are necessary but not sufficient.”

Empirical evidence

• there is a lack of progress in improving the accessibility of web sites per se

• progress has stalled in the public sector

– Riga Declaration– Cabinet Office eAccessibility study–MeAC Report– EC e-Inclusion campaign

web_access

• 2-year multilateral project funded by EC Lifelong Learning Programme– Erasmus sub-programme under the Action

‘Curriculum development: Development of European modules’

• main outcome is the ‘development of a distance learning module with regard to national diversity at a European level in the field of accessible web design’

Project Partners

• Austria – Coordinators• Germany• Hungary• Ireland• Spain• UK

• interest already expressed in Czech Republic and Switzerland

Deliverables

• State of the Art • Curriculum• Content and learning materials• Accredited courses• eLearning tool including authoring• Dissemination

State of the Art

What have we found?

• A lot of ‘stuff’ … TechDIS packs, Netskills training materials, AbilityNet courses, EASI

• Accredited provision … a drop in the ocean… EASI and the University of Southern Maine, Design for All survey

• Accredited degrees … ?? Linz

Curriculum

6 content areas, 19 (-ish) courses

• Fundamentals of accessibility (3)• Guidelines and legal requirements (2)• Design and usability (2)• Assistive technologies (3)• Special knowledge on accessibility (7)• Project development (2) (or 6 ?)

Our wishes

• Distance Masters in Accessible Web Design at MMU

• credit-bearing modules• short courses• a quiet life