Accessibility in Digital Communication Higher Education Curricula

The prevalence of disability among the world population, coupled with a shift towards providing and consuming information in digital formats, has increased the need for accessible content publishi...

The main objective was to educate university teaching and training staff working in communication on accessible content publishing and how to provide a more inclusive teaching experience in communication programs. The specific objectives included: 1. Analyzing the current situation and bridging the gaps regarding the accessibility training needs of university teaching and training staff in the field of communication. 2. Identifying higher education courses and programs related to the field of communication where there is an opportunity to include accessibility in the curricula. 3. Improving the accessibility knowledge of university teachers and trainers in communication. 4. Facilitating access to the labour market for students of higher education in communication. 5. Stimulating the uptake of accessibility in the higher education communication curricula in European universities. The ADORE project also established a partnership between higher education institutions, training organizations, and the private sector, mainstreaming accessibility skills in higher education curricula for communication disciplines and training teaching staff on publishing accessible content on the internet for all users.

The ADORE project included the following activities: • Interviews with key experts to gather information on current practices to design the survey on accessibility training needs of higher education communications programme (IO1). • Survey on accessibility training needs of higher education communications programme teaching and training staff (IO1). • Survey on accessibility training needs of higher education communications programme teaching and training staff: A student's perspective (IO1). • Survey on issues faced by underrepresented groups (people with disabilities, older adults, immigrants) when accessing digital communication content (IO1). • Mapping of higher education communication programmes where accessibility training can be included (IO2). • Co-creation and testing workshops for accessibility training toolkit (IO3) • Interviews with communication professionals in different communication job roles to develop the Personas (IO4) • Interviews with experts to establish connections between communication science fields and the topic of accessibility (IO5) • Participatory workshop aimed to explain the connection between personas (IO4), communication science fields (IO5) and accessibility training modules (IO3) for the final report • Validation of the results by experts who participated in the interviews (IO5).