The Wider Context
Accessibility
I know that it is important to stay up to date with all legislation and policy that affects the work that I do. Therefore, I attend relevant in-house training and seek external training as necessary. My work is affected by legislation, policies and standards such as GDPR, the Equality Act (2010) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Over the past three years, my knowledge of accessibility and copyright has grown significantly and has changed how I work.
Accessibility & the Equality Act (2010)
I have long been aware of the Equality Act (2010) and its application in non-digital environments, but my knowledge of digital accessibility and disability was limited to the need for and general benefits of closed captioning (cc) and transcription, contrast and saturation, font size and a few other accessibility requirements. While studying the PGCert, I explored what was meant by 'accessibility’ and 'disability', and why learning designers must engage in inclusive/universal design. I also engaged in further learning via MOOCs to better understand accessibility and inclusive design. I was struck by two things in particular: the Social Model of Disability (Finkelstein, 1975; Oliver, 2004) and the 4-Stage Model of Digital Disability (Ellis & Kent, 2017). The Social Model of Disability argues that disability, usually perceived as an individual medical problem, is to a great extent also socially created through social barriers (e.g. via environmental structures, attitudes and organisational policies and practices). In this view, disability is more often caused by situational and environmental limitations (e.g. no ramp; a noisy environment) which dis-able someone from doing something (e.g. wheelchair user can't enter a building; hearing what someone is saying). Applying this idea to digital environments, the 4-stage model posits that instead of retrofitting technology to be accessible (stage 3), the most effective technology-based experiences are as accessible as they can be from their inception through to their design and implementation (stage 4).
Intellectual Property – Copyright
To help me in my materials development role, I did a basic proofreading course with the Publishing Training Centre. As part of the course, I learned more about copyright in digital publishing, which has provided valuable information that I apply when developing digital materials. I also attended company training on copyright practice, and so I better understand how to adhere to copyright legislation and the impact that not following copyright rules can have.
When designing AES and CRAAWS materials, and generally in my teaching, I sometimes use materials from other providers. I made frequent use of third-party images and videos, which I embedded into the VLE. I sourced many videos from YouTube, and I also searched for Creative Commons videos and images using filters on Google. Where an image had been reused, where possible, I checked that the owner of the image had, in fact, licensed it under Creative Commons. I also searched for CC licensed images on Pixabay, Unsplash and Pexels. As well as images and videos, I sourced educational materials from OER Commons, as the materials are made for educational reuse. Often, I made use of materials that may not necessarily have been produced for educational purposes (e.g. asking students to read an original research article). To adhere to copyright regulations and institutional policies, when using resources created by others, I included information about the creator, date (if given), the site where it was obtained and a link to the full source and the licence details. Though I am not an expert on the topic, when working with colleagues, I am also conscious of reminding them to abide by copyright regulations. Part of this includes communicating that not everything available on Google is free for use, and that internal and external resources, images, videos and text must be attributed to a source.
