Challenges for disabled students - Topic 4

Following my last post, which I shared in the OU disabled students Facebook group, I discovered that tables on webpages are not read so easily by screen readers. One visually impaired lady entered into quite a detailed and helpful discussion, which gave me better insight as to what blind web users experience. I have to confess, it left me a little frustrated because I looked into how I could make tables more accessible and the issue seems to be with using tables to present information, rather than data. This post would have also been easier to present in a table but I don't want to exclude anyone, so for now, I will avoid tables, though I'm sure eventually I will find a solution using divs or something.

Activity 4.1 asks us to list some of the challenges faced by disabled students in:

• all post-compulsory education
• campus based modules
• online learning
• particular subjects/contexts (not dealt with in my blog)

I split it into different categories of disability:

• mobility impairments
• visual impairments
• hearing impairments
• learning disabilities

I'll edit this over several sessions before sharing on social media but here's today's sections, which are about mobility challenges.

common to all post-compulsory education

• sitting comfortably for long periods of time

specific to campus-based modules

• Parking
• Getting to the campus
• Getting around the campus
• Toilets
• Regular attendance
• Fire drills
• Unexpected fire alarms – not being able to use lifts and lack of trained staff for evacuchairs
• Temperature control
• Manipulation of physical resources
• Acceptance of assistance dogs
• Large heavy doors

specific to online learning

• using a mouse or keyboard

I think campus-based learning is much harder in terms of challenges for students with a mobility impairment. That's one of the reasons, I've opted for OU study.