Accessibility in higher education

Advice on tackling accessibility challenges in higher education to ensure all students and staff can fully participate in their studies and work. These resources explore topics such as digital accessibility, remote and in-person working, course design, technology use and assessment practices through an accessibility lens, alongside insight on widening access to higher education for more diverse populations.

By Laura.Duckett, 17 November, 2023

Make universities disability-inclusive, part two: co-creation, workloads and promotion processes

Institutions can become more accessible by co-creating or consulting on their university strategies and strategic changes. Other ways include managing student and staff workloads and making promotion processes more equitable

Reading time

4minutes

By Laura.Duckett, 16 October, 2023

Make universities disability-inclusive, part one: feedback, access and language

A teacher in her 20s holding a laptop smiling at the camera while her students work at desks behind her

Meredith Wilkinson offers advice on how to promote inclusivity for disabled students and staff at universities

Reading time

4minutes

By Eliza.Compton, 9 October, 2023

How do we write alternative text for images in education?

Female vision-impaired student using laptop

Descriptions of images in online documents help all readers – not just those with vision impairment – to fully understand the photograph, chart or graph and make the information accessible

By Miranda Prynne, 3 October, 2023

Open educational resources to make lifelong learning accessible to all

How open educational resources can be created and managed to ensure courses and materials that support lifelong learning are accessible to all aspiring students at little or no cost

Reading time

4minutes

By Miranda Prynne, 28 September, 2023

How to make access to doctoral study more equitable

A three-pronged look at how to make access to doctoral study more equitable and remove barriers to entry that disproportionately impact students from ethnic minority backgrounds, based on findings of the Equator Project

Reading time

4minutes

By Miranda Prynne, 15 September, 2023

Ten steps to equity: making fieldwork accessible

A man with a prosthetic leg sitting in a forest with his laptop

Fieldwork can be isolating for disabled students and academics when it is not designed with inclusivity in mind. Becky Alexis-Martin shares 10 strategies to ensure disabled students and academics are included by field-based disciplines

Reading time

4minutes

By Eliza.Compton, 31 July, 2023

Digital accessibility is real and tangible

A workshop using real-life examples and first-hand experience of how assistive technology works can result in a deeper understanding of accessibility needs

Reading time

4minutes

By Eliza.Compton, 12 July, 2023

Grow your own accessibility allies

The steps to making learning content accessible include identifying areas that need attention, overcoming barriers and recruiting allies to get the job done, writes Luke Searle

Reading time

4minutes

By Eliza.Compton, 7 July, 2023

Making an inclusive ‘unconference’

Many people in minority communities within our universities do not have enough opportunities to be platformed or validated, or to share their lived expertise within our institutions. An ‘unconference’ could cultivate these voices for positive impact

By Eliza.Compton, 4 July, 2023

A colour matrix to make visual content more accessible

“Feedback” appears in white text with a yellow background, with a contrast ratio of 1.7:1. The image has a reflection of an open window on it, making the text much harder to read. In some places the contrast of the text is as low as 1.0001:1

Accessible content is better content. One way to boost accessibility in visual materials is paying attention to colour contrast during the design process. Here’s a tool to make that simpler

Accessibility in higher education