Further Education minister unveils improved accessability tools for FE sector

20 Oct 2008 05:13 PM

The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) has launched an online toolkit which provides practical guidelines for teachers and trainers to make learning materials even more accessible. Now available on Excellence Gateway is a simple, one-stop shop for resources that merge pedagogical and technical advice where previously these have been scattered over several different channels.

Siôn Simon, MP, Minister for Further Education at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) unveiled these new accessibility guidelines, designed to ensure that teachers and trainers find the right guidance to widen participation and support all learners, at an event at Lewisham College.

Produced for LSIS by JISC TechDis, a leading educational advisory service in accessibility and inclusion, the materials are available exclusively on the Excellence Gateway - the national online service for those working in the further education system in England. Grouped into eight categories (users who have difficulty seeing things; hearing things; understanding things; concentrating; handling and manipulating things, communicating with others, difficulty accessing text; or are dyslexic) the resources will enable staff to create effective, engaging and accessible learning materials.

The Minister was joined by Roger McClure, chief executive of LSIS at one of the first events of the new sector-led FE improvement body. Also speaking was Kevin Carey, Director of HumanITy, who advised on the creation of the materials, and a learner and tutor from Lewisham College who discussed the day-to-day reality of improvements in accessibility.

In addition to the accessibility guidelines, the Excellence Gateway incorporates some 50 education websites and an impressive resource bank comprising more than 75,000 pages and 12,000 separate pieces of content. Registration and use of the Excellence Gateway is completely free, along with more information, by visiting http://excellence.qia.org.uk/