In a content area on a 2020 module in studentcentral/My Studies you may notice a small speedometer icon to the bottom left of uploaded documents. This is the ‘Ally’ tool.

If you click the icon it will show you how accessible your document is, and how you can make it more accessible.

The students don’t see this meter, or the report.

They do see the Alternative formats icon.

If you click the alternative format icon it will offer a range different formats.

That’s it.

Who does this?

Under the 2010 Equality act we are all obliged to make access to stuff equitable, and not hinder folks with poor vision, or hearing etc. In the real world this has meant adding wheelchair ramps and lifts so people can in to buildings. In the online world this means producing well formatted documents, and easily navigated content… basically it’s about thoughtful design.

Specifically, credit for the ‘Perfect’ document goes to  Suzanne Hutchinson’s Fine Art area.

If you want to know more about creating accessible documents we run regular workshops https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/staffdev/Pages/Equality.aspx

If you want to find out more about using the accessibility tools in studentcentral/My Studies we are running weekly workshops through till October: http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/teachingcontingency/microsoft-teams-workshop/