TechDis is a JISC center focused on enhancing access to education for disabled students through technology. Their projects include evaluating the accessibility of virtual learning environments, examining wireless networking issues for deaf students, and identifying tools to help web developers comply with legislation like SENDA requiring reasonable adjustments and prohibiting less favorable treatment of disabled students. SENDA brings education under disability discrimination law from 2002 onward, and a relevant legal case established that organizations have a duty to provide accessible websites.

1. Lawrie Phipps, TechDis
www.techdis.ac.uk
helpdesk@techdis.ac.uk
Legislation, Disabilities and Education
Web Sites

2. Introduction
• TechDis - who we are and what we do
• SENDA – what it means for education web
sites

3. TechDis
• Joint Information Systems Committee – JISC
• Technologies Centre
• Mission:
Enhancing access for Disabled students and staff and students
with learning learning difficulties learning, teaching, research
and administration across further and higher education through
the use of Information and Communication Technologies.
• Remit: Technology and disabilities

4. TechDis
• Projects:
• VLE accessibility: 2 stages
• VLE usability
• Wireless networking issues for Deaf & Hearing Impaired
students
• PDA accessibility
• ICT for students with learning difficulties (new project)
• Tools for web development
• Advice
• Staff development
• Databases

5. TechDis Projects
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and Accessibility
• Collating the corporate position of VLE vendors toward
accessibility
• Examined the VLEs involved in JISC Interoperability
Projects
• Paper will be available in June and act as prelude to another
TechDis project “VLE Usability”
• The project established TechDis dialogue with all major
vendors

6. TechDis Projects
Virtual Learning Environment Usability
• Based at the RNCB, Shirley Evans
• Looking at how students with disabilities use VLEs, e.g. how
long does it take a student to take an online computer based
test
• Builds on the Neilson/Norman research which demonstrated
that ‘non-educational’ web users, using screen readers took
6 times longer to accomplish tasks, and screen magnifier
users 3 times longer than users not using assitive
technology
• The report will be used as a basis for a TechDis special
interest group to establish a set of guidance notes for
academic staff using online learning

7. TechDis Projects
Tools to Support Web Developers and Learning
Technologists in Education
• Being undertaken by the Internet Research Group at the
University of Plymouth
• An initial trawl of as identified ~30 web evaluation tools, ~10
repair tools, ~20 filter and transformation tools
• Tools will be mapped against TechDis criteria that are most
likely to comply with SENDA
• Two matrices will be produced: the first will show how the
tools perform to those criteria, e.g. does Bobby approved
mean legislation compliant, the second will show how
usable the tools are
• The report will be released in October and a series of free
workshops will also be given

8. Legislation
• SENDA – Special Educational Needs and
Disability Act
• Amends the Disability Discrimination Act
• Brings education (previously excluded) into the
Act
• In force from September 2002 with the following
exceptions:
• Auxiliary Services (e.g. induction loop systems) –
Sept 2003
• Changes to Buildings – Sept 2005

9. Legislation
• Learning Technology e.g. CAA, VLEs,
websites etc. will be affected from
September 2002
• Two key phrases

10. Less Favourable Treatment
• ...not to treat disabled students less
favourably, without justification, for a
reason which relates to their disability

11. A student who is a wheelchair user is treated rudely
by a member of computing service.
The staff member is rude to everybody that day; his
bad treatment of the disabled student is not related
to the student’s disability. The disabled student has
not been treated less favourably than other
students.

12. Reasonable Adjustment
• to make reasonable adjustments to
ensure that people who are disabled are
not put at a substantial disadvantage
compared to people who are not disabled
in accessing further, higher and Local
Education Authority-secured education.

13. A partially deaf student who lip reads is attending a
Business Studies course. One of her lecturers
continues to lecture while simultaneously writing on
the whiteboard. The student asks him to stop
speaking when he turns his back to use the
whiteboard so that she can follow what he is
saying. The student is likely to be at a substantial
disadvantage if this adjustment is not made.

14. Legal Opinion: Maguire v SOCOG
A visually impaired Australian, took a legal action under the
Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth DDA), which the
UK Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) broadly mirrors.
Mr Maguire argued that the organisers of the Sydney Olympics were in
breach of their obligations under the Cth DDA by providing a Web site
which was inaccessible.
Rejecting SOCOG’s defence that unjustifiable financial hardship would be
incurred in making the site accessible, the Human Rights and Equal
Opportunities Commission (HREOC) held that as a service provider
SOCOG did have a duty to provide an accessible Web site and not
discriminate against the disabled.
In doing so, reference was made to the W3C’s WAI guidelines as a
technical benchmark that SOCOG should have followed and which could
be used to measure Web accessibility.

15. Legal Opinion
• Maguire v SOCOG
• Australian case law is not binding in the UK but:
• In cases that are unconsidered and undecided, it
can be considered persuasive, hence:
• Maguire v SOCOG will probably be used in any
legal action
• Legal Advice Suggests:
W3C priority 2
• Bobby Approved is not compliant

16. Contacting TechDis
Email: helpdesk@techdis.ac.uk
Web: www.techdis.ac.uk
Tel: 01904 754530
Fax: 01904 754599