JISC TechDis Accessibility Passport: Building a Culture of Accessibility

Introduction

The Accessibility Passport is a way of encouraging people who commission or design learning objects or software to:

• Record the quality of their current practice
• Be guided towards better practice
• More effectively communicate accessibility features to users
• Get feedback from users

Accessibility is not just about standards, it’s about how materials get delivered and their fitness for purpose. The Passport provides feedback from the user and the deliverer to the commissioners and designers to encourage productive interaction. The Passport is an online document that is available to everyone and the link to it is carried within the learning object or software. Content developers can sign up to the free accessibility passport generator tool.

Passport Stages

The site guides them through the following stages and automatically compiles a passport url at the end of it.

Commissioning stage - The specification of the Learning Object or software and the requirements for accessibility.

Design stage - The Designer/ Developer enters the description of the object and describes how the objectives set out in the commission are to be accomplished.

User testing - Most materials are delivered with the help, support and encouragement of a tutor or support worker. They are in the best position to judge how accessible the object is in their situation and how well it works for the user, and are therefore best placed to give advice on how its features might be improved.

User feedback - The user is the ultimate judge of how the object works in delivering learning, their interaction with their tutor or learning support is the most valuable form of feedback for the designer and commissioner.

The JISC Techdis service has provided the online Accessibility Passport generator as a free tool to support educational and commercial content developers on the one hand and provide richer more accessible learning experiences for users on the other. Sign up to the free accessibility passport generator tool.

For more information on the background to the development of the Accessibility Passport generator, see the resource Developing the Accessibility Passport