{"id":7212,"date":"2022-05-18T12:14:16","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T11:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/digital-learning\/?p=7212"},"modified":"2023-08-23T15:37:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T14:37:44","slug":"academic-voice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/digital-learning\/2022\/05\/18\/academic-voice-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic voice: Improving digital accessibility with Blackboard Ally (2\/3)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Ms
Ms Sharon Williams<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Recently, Luke met with Ms Sharon Williams, a senior teaching fellow in the Fashion Design Department, Winchester School of Art to explore how digital accessibility has been improved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interview is the second in a series of three, in which the digital learning team will share our academic experiences of improving digital accessibility from a range of subject areas. The first in the series can be accessed on the digital learning blog<\/a>. Book a 1-2-1 with Luke Searle<\/a> to learn how to improve the accessibility of your learning content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does accessibility mean to you?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Accessibility means enabling learners with differing abilities so everybody has equal access to learning. In my remit, I consider the accessibility of my learning content and strive to design content that meets the needs of my students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about how you first discovered the Ally tool?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I came across Blackboard Ally<\/a> when I opened a module on Blackboard at the start of the academic year and saw the red, amber and green accessibility file indicators. So I clicked on the icons which opened the remediation guidance window, here it explained everything I needed to know, instead of having to attend a training session to use the tool I could start remediating right away. I did attend one of the Ally roadshows which helped me learn more about what I can do to make content more accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does accessibility matter to you?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Accessibility impacts everybody, so, improving accessibility benefits everyone. Yes, it is primarily considered to ensure that people with impairments have equity in access to learning. However, it goes further than this. It begins to branch into learning content type preference. By using Blackboard Ally, I ensure that content that I upload to Blackboard is accessible and can be accessed in a variety of formats. The alternative formats feature helps learners with learning preferences since they can download an alternative format of the content I upload without me having to design this separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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