Category: Digital Accessibility

Start the year right: accessible and inclusive practice workshops on offer

From pedagogical behaviourally focused teaching to document remediation and alternatives to time-based media, LEaD’s Digital Education Team regularly run workshops on developing accessible and inclusive practices. It’s incredible that we are only two years into our digital accessibility project. It has kept us so busy it feels like a lot longer, in a good way….Continue Reading Start the year right: accessible and inclusive practice workshops on offer

3 things you can do to help dyslexic people

two people embracing each other side by side

Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that mainly causes problems with reading, writing, and spelling. It’s a specific learning difficulty, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing (NHS, 2022)   It’s estimated up to 1 in every 10 people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia….Continue Reading 3 things you can do to help dyslexic people

Top Tips to make your Moodle Module Accessible

Welcome back and a spring term update, One small change is that the Ally tool is now called Anthology Ally, previously it was called Blackboard Ally. This post is for staff designing and refreshing their Moodle modules, readying for the new academic year and new term. It has been compiled by the Digital Accessibility Project…Continue Reading Top Tips to make your Moodle Module Accessible

Wicked, wicked educationalist massive

Alt this activity card: Ask students to write alternative text (Alt-Text) for a provocative image relating to the subject. Encourage students to create a meaningful description and consider any assumptions and bias that may arise while doing this.

Last month, I was fortunate to attend and present at the Advance HE Teaching & Learning conference 2022 with my colleague Maria Kaffa, the rising star in our digital accessibility team. The overarching theme across all three days of the conference was on Enhancing student success through student engagement. I attended some sensational sessions, but…Continue Reading Wicked, wicked educationalist massive

Caption Ed as a tool for City students to leverage live captions and note taking, a student review

Caption Ed was first created aiming to help students with disabilities more easily interpret audio content, however, with subsequent updates, the tool’s functionalities have been extended into the realm of notetaking and the Learning Enhancement and Development (LEaD) team is currently considering adding it to its range of assistive technologies. Setting up You will find…Continue Reading Caption Ed as a tool for City students to leverage live captions and note taking, a student review

5 tips to improve your use of text alternatives

The Son of Man by Rene Magritte

Note: this blog will use the term “image” as a shorthand for visual (non-text) content to aid brevity. If you have attended the Introduction to Digital Accessibility or Creating Accessible Documents training sessions that Sarny Guzman-Rodriguez and I host a few times per term, you have probably heard us talk about how important it is…Continue Reading 5 tips to improve your use of text alternatives

Moodle update introduces Blackboard Ally

BlackBoard Ally Logo

Moodle updated Moodle was successfully updated over the weekend. Although City is remaining on version 3.9 of Moodle, you will notice one significant addition to the system. Blackboard Ally is available in all Moodle modules to help make learning content more accessible. Blackboard Ally merges into the existing workflow when you upload, rollover or import…Continue Reading Moodle update introduces Blackboard Ally

Blackboard Ally in Moodle

BlackBoard Ally Logo

Following a successful pilot, Blackboard Ally will be available in all Moodle modules following the Moodle update on 18th July 2022 to help make learning content more accessible. Blackboard Ally merges into the existing workflow when lecturers and course officers upload, rollover or import content. Ally produces an accessibility indicator score for common file types. The…Continue Reading Blackboard Ally in Moodle

Alternative formats for students using Anthology Ally on City’s Moodle

group of students with laptops sitting around a table

Note: This blog post was updated on Thursday 27 October 2022. What are alternative formats on Anthology Ally? Anthology Ally is an online tool on your Moodle modules. It offers an alternative formats tool that you can use to change the format of Moodle resources, such as those shared by lecturers, to your desired format….Continue Reading Alternative formats for students using Anthology Ally on City’s Moodle

Moodle update – Key dates 2022

Moodle logo

Key dates Moodle will be unavailable between 8am on Saturday 16th July and 8am on Monday 18th July 2022. This is to update Moodle, optimise the database and allow enough time to resolve any issues that might arise following the update. You will not be able to access modules or run any activities on Moodle…Continue Reading Moodle update – Key dates 2022