Throughout my education year here in the UK, in all honesty, I was struggling with my studies – it was hard to process and communicate information, leading me to not understand/ miss many important tasks/ assignments/ exams. I would ask my friends around to break down paragraphs/ questions in ‘simple English’ often. In my second year of BA course, instead of the UAL disability student services webpage, I had heard about screening for dyslexia from my peers – I remember emailing the service the next day. While it is my own personal responsibility to look around for support when in need, during my time of study I wasn’t aware of these sorts of student services [or don’t remember being signposted]. Through the screening, I was diagnosed with dyslexia – through this, I was able to have benefits such as an extension for submission and access to software/ equipment that supported my learning differences (this was funded by UAL).
Within my limited teaching context (currently on a placement with CSM foundation), I have not engaged with UAL Disability Services webpage. However, I understand the importance of signposting these services/ resources to students so that they remain aware of the available support from the university and are encouraged to use them too. I believe that when signposting, it should never be a ‘one-time thing’, actively sharing these important resources in between parts of the course can benefit many students (act as a reminder/ encouragement). During my placement, I have been actively checking in with students to learn of any additional support that they would need for their studies (for e.g, students’ mental health and wellbeing – I have been signposting students to UAL wellbeing services).
As I engage with the webpage, I realise how informative it is. The webpage is the first point of contact – personally, it feels easy to navigate from one page to another, but with how text-heavy the webpage is, it feels overwhelming. While spending some time around the webpage, only, later on, I realised that UAL has embedded ‘Recite me’ to make the pages accessible and inclusive. Being able to change the colour of the background, the size of the texts, the audio description and changing the default language (and many more accessibility tools) allowed the information to be broken down/ made it digestible. However, I wonder if having the Accessibility menu in a much more visible area of the webpage would make a difference as at the moment it blends in/ looks more like a header. Shades of Noir‘s Accessibility menu is at the bottom left corner and uses a different colour – this caught my attention [and use those accessibility tools] more easily than UAL’s student service webpages.
Having a separate page for ‘feedback’ from the students seeking/ using the services shows a small intervention for change – which I am in support of, after all like the video states “we are disabled by a world of barriers, we do not need to change who we are. we must advocate and promote change in the world around us. ” (Social Model of Disability, UAL).
Notes (while reflecting on service accessibility, I was reflecting on digital accessibility)
- Digital literacy (privileges, adaptation and confidence)
- Netiquette (safer space online)
- Who, why and how some people are affected by digital exclusion?
- Sustainability and authenticity
Further reading: COV-ID AND DIGITAL EXCLUSION
Really interesting to read your take on this, Suprina. I didn’t notice the ‘recite me’ function here either, and I suppose your post proves that there are actually lots of great tools and resources available but we just don’t always know about them.
Maybe it’s about the induction process for new staff? Or how info on new tools is shared with us? Your reflections on your own experiences made me wonder how a unit leader might flag this up at the start of a unit, rather than waiting for the student to ask. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone do this and I don’t know why!
It was also nice to hear how your friends helped you out and it shows how important friendship and a sense of belonging is for students who are finding uni challenging.
Thank you Fenella for your comment! Yeah the recite me function although there, it felt invisible! While I don’t have much experience in teaching (so I’m not sure about induction process), I agree with you [ on how new tools are/ should be shared] – especially with Covid and the blended approach of teaching/ learning (I believe UAL has a digital learning service/ training??)
And yes Fenella, sense of belonging and building a classroom community is so important – especially when students are there finding themselves out/ in their journey.
I also suffer with dyslexia and with this website and the info that it holds i was able to get the right contacts to help me get the support i needed for work. i was put ini contact with access to work and they arranged one on one consultation with a specialist to teach me ways that i can deal with my dyslexia. i to refer students to this site for guidance.
Thank you for your comment Luke!
I’m glad to hear that through the webpage you were able to receive the right support. It’s good that you are signposting this service to your students – this is something that I am practicing myself so that students can receive support early on in their education than later on in their course.