Ensuring Digital Accessibility for Students with Disabilities in Higher Education through Digital Accessibility Online Tools and Digital Accessibility Training
Posted: 29 June, 2023 Filed under: Alecia Samuels | Tags: accessibility, accessibility issues, Audio alternatives, difficulties in accessibility, Digital accessibility, digital content, Electronic Braille, ePub, higher education, Higher Education Act, learning impairments, Learning Management Systems, narrated video content, navigational methods, Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, Semantic HTML, South Africa, South African Schools Act, Students with Disabilities, universal accessibility standards, visual impairments 1 Comment
Author: Alecia Samuels
Associate Professor, Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication , University of Pretoria
When teaching and learning moved almost exclusively online during the COVID-19 pandemic, it brought into sharper focus for universities, the accessibility of their digital content especially for students with disabilities. Digital accessibility is the process of making digital products and content (websites, mobile apps, documents and other digital media and technologies) accessible for everyone regardless of any barriers they might have. While becoming increasingly relevant during the COVID 19 pandemic when universities were forced to move teaching and learning almost exclusively online, for many students with disabilities, difficulties in accessibility of the digital portions of their studies has predated the pandemic not just globally but in South Africa as well. If they are to be successful in their courses and conduct their own research, students with disabilities in higher education need learning materials and information to not just be available but also accessible in various formats that will allow them to be engaged in their learning.
The upcoming Hate Crimes Bill: A welcome development in the fight against xenophobia and hate crimes in South Africa
Posted: 5 August, 2016 Filed under: Gideon Muchiri | Tags: Abubacarr Saidykhan, belief, birth, constitution, crime, culture, disability, Equality Act, ethnic or social origin, gender, gender identity, Hate Crimes Bill, hate speech, human rights, language, law, legislation, monitoring mechanism, National Prosecution Authority, nationality, NPA, occupation, police, Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, race, religion, sex, sexual orientat, South Africa, South African Constitution, victim, xenophobia 1 Comment
Author: Gideon Muchiri
LLD student, Department of Jurisprudence, University of Pretoria
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJCD) of South Africa is working on the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes Bill,[1] due for tabling in Parliament in September 2016. This Bill, if enacted into law, will strengthen the role of law enforcement officials including the police, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and courts in holding perpetrators of hate crimes, including xenophobic conduct, legally accountable for not only the criminal acts committed, but also for the hate motive. The new law will foster a rights-based approach to enhancement of the rights of victims and thus send a clear and unequivocal message to the society that crimes motivated by hate and xenophobia will not be tolerated in South Africa and are subject to punishment.
AfricLaw 