New regulations came into force in September 2018. We don’t know exactly what this means for us at the moment, but it does have implications for content on Blackboard, which will need to be in an accessible format.
Guidance on Gov.uk website
Full details are available on the government Make your public sector website or app accessible webpage. In particular, you may find the WCAG 2.1 Primer Checklist full of useful guidance.
UWE’s Weekly News for staff (27 August 2019) includes an article on the ‘Accessibility regulations impact in 2019/20’ and what’s due to be in place for October 2019.
UWE guidance
In the meantime, we have pulled together some existing resources to help you make a start:
- If you are creating new documents, you may find UWE’s Creating accessible documents webpage helpful.
- The Learning Development Centre is running a webinar on creating accessible documents on 16 October 2-3 pm and 12 Nov 10-11 am. To find out more and to book, please visit the Creating accessible documents in Microsoft Office (basics) webpage.
- The lynda.com course on Creating Accessible Documents in Microsoft Office (25 mins) provides some easy to follow tips.
Additional resources
UWE has procured Blackboard Ally (software that checks document for accessibility issues), with a view to this being available some time in November 2019. In the meantime, we are including a link to the Blackboard Ally Accessibility Checklist so that you can use this as a guide when creating new content.
Also, in the interim, if you are creating documents in Microsoft, you can use the in-built accessibility checker. When you have created your document, open the file and click on File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility. For more information, visit Microsoft’s Make your Word documents accessible webpage.
A set of designing learning materials and other resources for accessibility (PDF) by UK Home Office is displayed below. Accessible HTML versions of these posters are also available.
