There is a growing demand for graduates and professionals with the knowledge and skills to produce digital resources that are usable by people who have accessibility needs, including disabled and older people. However, job applicants may not have encountered digital accessibility in their academic and professional development programs. As a field of research and endeavor, accessibility education is relatively under-researched and undeveloped, leading to ad hoc efforts. Requirements for accessibility are absent from many structured education programs, such as program accreditation and curriculum and degree requirements. As a result, many professionals who have accessibility knowledge and skills are self-taught rather than formally educated or trained. With society’s growing reliance on technology and a growing demand for accessibility in the digital world, there is increasing attention and a growing body of knowledge around effective teaching and learning of accessibility in diverse disciplines and roles, giving rise to an emergent pedagogy to underpin digital accessibility education.
The Digital Accessibility Education Research Topic is a collaboration between dedicated initiatives, including Teaching Accessibility in the Digital Skill Set research study in the United Kingdom, Teach Access in the United States, and the global community of accessibility researchers, educators, advocates, and professionals working to build digital accessibility capacity among technology professionals. The goal of the Research Topic is to join and expand the community, to further examine, develop, and resource the field of digital accessibility education. The aim is to build a foundation for digital accessibility education that builds capacity across sectors and contexts and supports a collective commitment and shared responsibility for accessibility in the digital world.
The topics of interest for the Digital Accessibility Education Research Topic include, but are not limited to:
● Pedagogy for teaching digital accessibility
● Course design and structure
● Teaching approaches and methods
● Learning contexts and environments
● Learning outcomes and assessments
● Learner motivation and engagement
● Organizational context and culture
● Accessibility education in industry and the workplace
● International approaches to accessibility education
● Collaborating on accessibility education with disability user groups
● Assistive technologies and adaptive strategies in learning contexts
● Informal learning of digital accessibility
● Conceptual approaches to disability in accessibility education
Contributions of the following article types are sought for this Research Topic:
● Original Research (A-level)
● Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy (CIP) (B-level)
● General Commentary (C-level)
● Opinion (C-level)
Original manuscripts and extended versions of papers previously published will be considered for publication. For extended versions of previous work, at least 30% of the content must be original (see section 1.4.3. Conferences, Proceedings, and Abstracts of Policies and Publication Ethics).
There is a growing demand for graduates and professionals with the knowledge and skills to produce digital resources that are usable by people who have accessibility needs, including disabled and older people. However, job applicants may not have encountered digital accessibility in their academic and professional development programs. As a field of research and endeavor, accessibility education is relatively under-researched and undeveloped, leading to ad hoc efforts. Requirements for accessibility are absent from many structured education programs, such as program accreditation and curriculum and degree requirements. As a result, many professionals who have accessibility knowledge and skills are self-taught rather than formally educated or trained. With society’s growing reliance on technology and a growing demand for accessibility in the digital world, there is increasing attention and a growing body of knowledge around effective teaching and learning of accessibility in diverse disciplines and roles, giving rise to an emergent pedagogy to underpin digital accessibility education.
The Digital Accessibility Education Research Topic is a collaboration between dedicated initiatives, including Teaching Accessibility in the Digital Skill Set research study in the United Kingdom, Teach Access in the United States, and the global community of accessibility researchers, educators, advocates, and professionals working to build digital accessibility capacity among technology professionals. The goal of the Research Topic is to join and expand the community, to further examine, develop, and resource the field of digital accessibility education. The aim is to build a foundation for digital accessibility education that builds capacity across sectors and contexts and supports a collective commitment and shared responsibility for accessibility in the digital world.
The topics of interest for the Digital Accessibility Education Research Topic include, but are not limited to:
● Pedagogy for teaching digital accessibility
● Course design and structure
● Teaching approaches and methods
● Learning contexts and environments
● Learning outcomes and assessments
● Learner motivation and engagement
● Organizational context and culture
● Accessibility education in industry and the workplace
● International approaches to accessibility education
● Collaborating on accessibility education with disability user groups
● Assistive technologies and adaptive strategies in learning contexts
● Informal learning of digital accessibility
● Conceptual approaches to disability in accessibility education
Contributions of the following article types are sought for this Research Topic:
● Original Research (A-level)
● Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy (CIP) (B-level)
● General Commentary (C-level)
● Opinion (C-level)
Original manuscripts and extended versions of papers previously published will be considered for publication. For extended versions of previous work, at least 30% of the content must be original (see section 1.4.3. Conferences, Proceedings, and Abstracts of Policies and Publication Ethics).