On behalf of City’s Digital Accessibility Working Group, I am delighted to welcome you to our celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day taking place during the month of May.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day has been taking place on the third Thursday in May since 2011 and aims to “get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than One Billion people with disabilities/impairments” (Global Accessibility Awareness Day, 2022).
Over the past two years, City’s Digital Accessibility Working Group have been working on an action plan to improve the accessibility of our digital content and systems. City is committed to ensuring that learning resources and online content are accessible and inclusive for the benefit of our students, staff and members of the public. The events and activities taking place during May will raise awareness of our responsibilities to ensure the materials we produce are accessible, showcase some of the work we have been doing to improve the accessibility of our digital systems and provide support and guidance on the steps you can take to improve the accessibility of digital content.
To celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, our activities for staff and students in May include:
- Regular blog posts on the Learning at City blog
- A range of training courses including Introduction to Digital Accessibility (3rd May) and Inclusive technology training for students (4th May)
- Live online events including a LEaD Light Lunch. Improving accessibility with Blackboard Ally (5 May) and a talk from accessibility expert Alistair McNaught From luck to judgement – making accessibility meaningful to everyone (18 May)
- On Thursdays at 11am – staff can come to the Accessible Documents Drop-in Clinic with any documents or tools, they need help with.
- Every Friday at 11am – students are invited to join the Accessibility Coffee Break to discuss any issues, they have experienced.
We hope you enjoy the activities during the month. If you’d like to share your experiences via a blog post, then please get in touch with Maria Kaffa.
Useful links
- Staff Digital Accessibility Guidance
- Students Digital Accessibility Guidance
- Staff Teams Digital Accessibility Community
- Student Teams Digital Support Community
- Linkedin Learning courses collection
References
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (2022)
