It’s rare - at least in my experience - to walk around a corner and have your breath taken away by a technology that feels so intuitively right that you wonder why it isn’t already everywhere, but that’s what happened early in 2019, and I’ve been working out ever since why that moment made such a dramatic impact.
I was accustomed to a variety of styles of presentation, in both physical space and on screen:
The actor, who uses the space available to the full, and for whom a projection screen with slides serves as a backdrop;
The newscaster, who stays firmly behind the desk or lectern, facing front, while their slides are displayed beside them in space;
The weather forecaster, who moves in front of their slides but is fastidious about facing the front, and practiced enough to point uncannily to things seemingly by touch (probably because they have a screen relaying the camera feed somewhere off to the side) and not to obscure anything important;
The irrepressible enthusiast, who starts off like a weather forecaster, but - overcome with passion - often turns away from the audience to talk into the screen while pointing at some or other part of it.
The wizard (of Oz?) who is never even seen, manifesting only as a disembodied voice over full-screen pictures;
The Cheshire cat - a talking head that appears in front of the material being presented, speaks, and then often disappears again.
What I saw as I came around that corner, though, was none of these. Rather it was a presentation style reminiscent of the puppeteers and presenters of the children’s TV of my youth. A technology that demanded that the presenter face the front, but that placed the stuff of the presentation between them and me, on an invisible surface that I felt like I could reach out and touch.
I’d met the lightboard - you should too, if you get the chance.
On a chilly morning in early January 2025, a small gathering of the BLE-London Digital Accessibility Working Group met at the Wellcome Collection to see the inspiring and creatively innovative exhibition by artist, Jason Wilsher-Mills. The exhibition tracks the period of Wilsher-Mills' childhood during the 1980s when he was laid up in hospital, paralysed from the neck down. The installations (sculptures, dioramas and illustrations) bring together vivid colour, avant-garde design and cheeky humour to convey what was happening to the artist at the time, and how the experience awakened his artistic skills.
Colleagues who attended the outing have shared their responses to the exhibition below. Huge thanks for their contributions. The exhibition has now finished (we caught it in its last week), but the website is still available here.
Simon Parr, School of Advance Study:
"I found the ‘Jason and the Adventure of 254’ exhibition a highly enjoyable and thought-provoking experience. It engaged with issues of disability, the body, creativity, and self-expression in a profound, engaging and sometimes, light-hearted way. It also used metaphors effectively to describe the experience of illness and disability, and the two that had the most impact on me were the small virus-carrying soldiers attacking the patient and the flashing lights on the giant patient. The lights illustrated the breakdown in communication between the brain and the body.
"An important thing I took from the exhibition was the capacity of young people to create rich worlds of their own with the influences available to them, even when they have limited movement and spend much of their lives in hospital. It all demonstrated the importance of nurturing the rich insights and contribution to all conversations from people with disabilities and how we need to do everything in our power to make this possible. For example, in the 1980s, the main piece of assistive technology available to Jason was a mouth-operated paintbrush, and even this rudimentary tool allowed him to share his creativity. This made me think about how we can all benefit when the improved technologies we have today are properly deployed."
Angela Taylor, SOAS:
"A fun and playful exhibition that introduces the social model of disability through art and lived experience. Great to share this with the digital accessibility working group and get out of the office at the start of term!"
Naomi Bain, Birkbeck:
"It was an unusual exhibition experience. Everything had a distinctive look, which was bold, busy, jarring, even ugly. While the exhibition was about the experiences of someone from a different background to me and was about his illness, medical procedures and disability, it was immediately relatable as I also grew up in the 80s. The style, the colours and the news and popular culture references took me back.
"The central piece, the figure in bed, was a compelling depiction of how the artist felt as a child being confined to a hospital bed and to a body that was not functioning as it previously had and did not feel like home to him any more. To me it brought back memories of childhood illnesses when I had delirium and my hands and feet felt huge and heavy.
"Being able to touch the artwork made the experience really different too. The tactile experience added something."
Carmen Fernandez, University of the Arts:
"I loved the exhibition. The whole concept with the gigantic bed as central point and the artist's style of drawing, which as he explains in the video, is influenced by his growing up in 70s and 80s: psychodelia, comics and TV.
"The artwork reflects a strong connection with his family which I found very moving. There is a mixture of humour and seriousness, addressing the complex range of emotions of a child who had to learn too much about illness, treatment and disability at an early age. I think is fantastic how all this is conveyed in the drawings and especially in the dioramas, and we can see and feel his memories and reinterpretations of childhood experiences form an adult's point of view.
"I found the artist's personal journey very inspiring: learning who you are, which were the people and experiences that influenced both who you are now and your current view of the world.
Steven McCombe, Educational Video & Multimedia Specialist at City St George's, University of London, recently published a beautifully written case study about how he developed an app to give his friend a voice. By exploring a range of audio technologies and harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence, Steven was able to create a way for his friend to communicate with his own voice after he lost the ability to speak due to an aggressive form of cancer.
The full article, which is both inspiring and moving, can be accessed here on the Learning at City blog.
This blog post was authored by Dr Sylwia Frankowska-Takhari, Educational Technologist specialising in Digital Accessibility at City St George's, University of London. The original article is available here.
3 December marks the United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), an annual opportunity to reflect on and promote the rights, well-being, and inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of life. Established in 1992, the IDPD seeks to raise awareness of disability issues and mobilise support for creating a more inclusive world. This year’s theme highlights the leadership of people with disabilities, which invites us to focus on and amplify the voices of disabled students and staff in our university community.
The IDPD is a perfect moment to commit to practical actions that uphold accessibility and inclusion. Here are a few ways staff can get involved this year:
Commit to teaching accessibly Whether you’re delivering lectures, facilitating group work, or designing online content, consider how your approach can be more inclusive. Simple changes like ensuring videos are captioned, using accessible presentation formats, or sharing materials in advance can make a significant difference.
Improve the accessibility of your resources Review the digital materials you create or use in your teaching and administrative roles. Ensure documents, PDFs, and slides meet accessibility standards and are usable for everyone, including screen reader users.
By taking these steps, we can build a more inclusive university where disabled students and staff feel valued and empowered. Let’s use this IDPD not just to celebrate progress but to commit to improving accessibility and inclusion across our institution. Hope you feel inspired!
Dr Fiona Harvey, Faculty Learning Technology Lead for Social and Historical Sciences at UCL, shares her experience of attending a recent Jisc meeting, to which the BLE also contributed.
A couple of weeks ago we attended the JISC network meeting for Student Experience. Obviously, being JISC the focus is always on the effective use of digital educational technology to support and enhance students academic journeys. This was the first meeting I had attended since 2018 and it was great to see familiar faces and meet new people. It was the first time I had spoken in person since the pandemic, and the JISC meetings are always a good place to do that. There was a group of about 50 people and from the moment you walked into the room it was friendly and welcoming. Natasha Catnott, our Faculty EDI Coordinator, attended with me as we were presenting the outcome of The SHS International Students Digital Experiences project (report on the way). Natasha remarked about how friendly everyone was.
The focus for this meeting was on the JISC International Students work, which has produced a series of reports, briefing papers, and articles, and contributors to the day included some of the institutions involved in these projects. There were also presentations from those of us who have been inspired by the reports and articles and included The Bloomsbury Learning Exchange (Sarah Sherman), who introduced their new Mooc ‘Is a PhD Right for Me?, which is designed to encourage participation from a whole range of different groups of students, especially under-represented students.
Having been part of this network for many years, it was interesting to see who was now attending these events. In the past it was digital education folks, those who were actively supporting and introducing educational technology and included academic staff as well as educational developers and some learning technologists. This event was different in that there were representatives from across support services for students who were actively considering how digital technologies are applied in the context of their work. It was the first time that we were asked “How many of you are actively involved in your institutional Access and Participation Plan?” I thought that was an interesting question to ask but completely relevant. My recent research on how we perceive and make decisions on behalf of non-traditional students reflected on that very point. We must demonstrate a whole institutional approach and yet many not directly involved in preparing their APP feel that it is nothing to do with them.
The themes for the day were inclusivity and belonging which was exciting and interesting to hear about. Particularly how the impact of educational technology and administrative systems that students need to engage with can impact the student experience. From the presentations and the discussions during the day it was clear that this work had shone a light on the kind of support we provide for the ‘standard student’ (white, middle class and domestic) and how that doesn’t allow for any kind of difference. It sounds obvious when you say it out loud, but there are so many assumptions made about students prior digital experiences, and we just don’t make it clear enough to our students from different cultures about what happens when they come to the UK. JISC called these experiences ‘Digital Shocks’ which is a good
way of describing it. When we spoke to students in our study, they didn’t describe shocks, but they were confused and bewildered about the unwritten rules of engagement with non-university based systems, especially social media.
The presentations that focused on Belonging were creative and inspiring. There was a thoughtful approach taken to helping students become accustomed to the ‘ways of digital’ for their UK institutions. Sumeya Loonat from De Montford University introduced us to the Business and Law faculty initiatives to help students feel part of the university by using digital technology to help them cope with the various challenges of being in a new place and not knowing anyone. Finding out about the city (Leicester) by producing maps and finding out about each other by creating a Digital Cookbook (such a great idea) and sharing tips and experiences through podcasts. All of these initiatives help to build a community and a supportive environment.
Dr Patrice Seuwou from Northampton talked about their strong focus on social justice, equality and inclusion and made a strong case for raising awareness across the support services for international students as they recognised that the digital challenges were in addition to many cultural challenges their students faced. There was a clear emphasis on Global Ethnic Majority (GEM) students and they had made changes to the information they provided students before they arrived as a result of their involvement with the JISC projects. They also made use of the JISC Digital Insights surveys to monitor and enhance their students digital experiences. They hoped to focus on developing their digital education services to include a more integrated approach. This will, of course, help all students.
With a focus on student partnership, Plymouth University was represented by Hannah Miles and Dr Helen Bowstead, who built on their raft of peer learning activities (including PALS, Hello Project, Digital Champions, and Writing Cafe Mentors) by bringing in a focus on international students. They had run a project called Transitioning Successfully into University as a way of identifying the gaps they had for international students and used their existing student networks to help bridge these gaps. Again, they mentioned the different levels of digital skills and literacies that these students had that had previously gone unaddressed.
Simon Golshetti and Juan Raman Mullor from Staffordshire University talked about their research project for postgraduate students looking into challenges around assessments, learning resources, and skills. Their work is still underway, but they highlighted the barriers that their students faced in terms of cultural forms of assessment practice and experiences. Their mission was to improve student outcomes for international students, and in turn, this will help all students.
There were also panels and discussions throughout the day. The overriding message was to unpick assumptions we make about who we ‘think’ these students are and what they know about how we do things. There were also links on the value of cross institutional teams, such as widening participation, digital education and IT departments bringing their own perspectives (and assumptions), and the benefits we all bring when we work together.
It was a valuable experience, and we enjoyed meeting new people (we already have a meeting set up with another university). It has spurred us on to think about our own projects on belonging and digital experiences for all students and reminded us that we should be mindful that not all international students are as prepared for the UK digital education experience as we have assumed and that we need to explicitly think about what we can do to smooth any challenges to aid their academic success.
