Report from workshop: Introducing web accessibility in higher education
On the 21th of November, around 50 participants from the public sector and 6 different universitites gathered for a workshop at Oslo Metropolitan university. The topic for the day was how to make sure accessibility training becomes part of the curricula.
The day offered interesting case studies from Miriam Begnum from The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), who shared her experiences about how NTNU had embedded Universal Design in higher education. We also listened to Weiqin Chen from Oslo Metropolitan University, sharing her experiences about how they have included web accessibility in their ITC education.
In smaller groups there were discussions around the case studies and what we can learn from them, and what would be needed for the inclusion of accessibility into the curriculum to come true. There were also discussions regarding certification and if universities should offer that kind of services. All the participants agreed on that universal design and web accessibility should be a part of all IT and design education programs and that the awareness around these issues need to increase. Enthusiastic and educated teachers spreading the word is also an important factor to make the change.
The workshop was the first workshop in a 2 year project, where the project partners will discuss and analyse the current status of web accessibility training in higher education and gather best practices for dissemination.
In this project, funded by Nordplus, IAAP Nordic, Funka and four Nordic universities will work to ensure that web accessibility will become a natural part of the universities education programs. The universities in the project are Laurea University, Oslo Metropolitan University, Lunds University and Technical University of Denmark.
The page was updated: December 13, 2023