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.
AfricLaw 