Accessibility as a Part of Formal and Non-Formal Education Syllabi

In the 21st century the knowledge-based economy, new technologies, artificial intelligence and globalization put emphasis on the needs to employees’ upskilling and reskilling. The emergence of new competences has become a key concept in the labour market. In general, the majority of employees should be able to acquire new practical skills so as to be able to change their job as well as career.

Then, it is worth noticing that a range of new competences acquired in all sectors of the formal education system can empower people to improve the EU economy and break down communication barriers in particular in the group of disabled people. According to RFDC, this process covers the formal systems from “pre-school through primary and secondary schools to higher education”. What is more, the EU supports the non-formal and informal learning, which coexist on the parallel routes. This diversified path can be available in-person, online, via mobile applications, etc. as well as through supplemental resources such as textbooks, virtual reality applications, multimedia, and so on.

Taking into account such a great range of possibilities, the learning environment should be treated in a holistic way. The key role of this diversified sector is connected with the promotion of accessibility that is an integral part of the learning-teaching process. This is why, a syllabus of formal and non-formal courses, workshops and training should cover a synergy of traditional topics and accessibility elements. For example, the departments of arts can implement colour contrast ratio or colourblindness into their curricula, the IT departments can implement the WCAG rules into computer programming, the foreign language courses can cover alternative texts translation, etc.

Figure 1. Synergy of accessibility elements with the selected formal and non-formal education syllabi: Foreign Language curricula and alternative text translation, the arts curriculum and color contrast ratio, medical curricula and visual problems, business curricula and readability/typography, ICT curricula and WCAG standard

In this panel you can share your ideas how to organize courses, workshops, training or classes both in formal and non-formal education to advance accessibility. Show your holistic way of using accessibility elements in a range of subjects. The presentations can cover the following topics:

Implementing accessibility in website localization
Accessibility in the translation process
Colour contrast in the arts classes
AI in translation of alternative text
Accessible documents in business correspondence
Typography vs accessible marketing

Chairs

Izabela Mrochen, MultiAccess Centre

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