Introduction
Access in Education can mean many things: identifying gatekeepers, moving towards student-centered access, and ensuring practices and strategies at our institution are designed to give an opportunity for all students to succeed. At the University of Washington (UW) Libraries, this progress toward access has manifested itself in a number of ways. This resource will discuss three main channels we facilitate access: through our teaching and learning practices, the ways in which we test and seek to improve the tools that our patrons and staff use, and how we advocate for the need of accessible design in our IT products and with our vendor partners.
You will learn about our experiences working in these three distinct areas and why these areas are important from an awareness, advocacy, and access perspective. From developing accessible assignments, incorporating assistive technologies into the evaluation of our tools, and communicating with companies to solicit accessibility tests to improve their products, you will hear about the strategies and practices we have chosen to incorporate into our responsibilities as library workers.
The work described in these areas is important to consider as we wish to welcome all users. Inaccessible content introduces barriers that exclude users and leave students out of the conversation. Watch the following video developed by Rooted in Rights, a part of Disability Rights Washington.