I mean obviously, UAL’s policies on being inclusive to students with disabilities and dyslexia are extensive and do provide a whole wealth of information for potential and existing. However, at first glance, I will perhaps digest and consolidate the info first before referring these pages to students in need purely because there is SO MUCH text. I can imagine for a dyslexic student, this can overwhelming. The illustrations used should be much more functional than being ‘pretty’. Also, the animation is too abstract rather than functional and perhaps doesn’t empathize with a partially visually impaired audience. (also should be subtitled for students with hearing impairment too)
Does feel like there’s a missed opportunity here to create a much more dynamic and interactive landing page with a simplified graphic palette with ‘hover points’ which trigger sounds for students who might require audio descriptive assistance.
To reflect this back to the question prompts for the blogging tasks, here are some of the answers given:
- How could you apply the resources to your own teaching practice?
We as a cohort already integrated all the disabilities and learning support information into our unit guides and make sure every student is aware of these services during briefings. Also, we are adhering to inclusive design guidelines to make our lecture and workshop slide much more partially visually impaired friendly.
- How could you integrate the research/work your students do on this subject into your teaching/professional practice?
There could be a possibility to ask students to work on a brief that involves creating projects specifically for the disabled and dyslexic demographic. Here is a relevant Ted talk by Elise Roy about designing for the disabled:
Your write-up made me think about the UAL Website for Disability and Dyslexia Policies and realise it consists of so many texts which some neuro-diversified students will find confusing and intimidating. There is a need for positive design thinking Website so that the targeted students don’t miss the opportunity intended for them.
However, they have supports and help from the Disability Services.
Thank you Hans.
Good ideas in terms of how UAL might think better about their audience in the materials provided to be both clearer and more dynamic. I think the idea of asking students to create a project specifically for “the disabled and dyslexic demographic” is a good start point – but perhaps involving disabled, dyslexic students themselves would be important here too?