Accessibility

Under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018, public sector organisations are now required by law to produce accessible websites and apps, along with a full accessibility statement. Although CCC is not a public sector body, a commitment to accessibility is at the heart of our practice and extremely important for our work as educators, researchers and independent evaluators.  

At CCC, we advocate for a holistic approach to accessibility that moves beyond legislative requirements. Below we share our accessibility statement, as well as some examples of how we are putting our words into practice within our work and through the resources we produce.   

We are always looking for ways to further develop our practice and understanding of accessibility. If you have any comments, suggestions or ideas about how we can extend and develop this aspect of our work, we warmly invite you to share your thinking through the Padlet Board below.  

Accessibility Statements for some of the key digital tools used during training by the CCC team

• Zoom’s accessibility statement
• Mentimeter’s accessibility statement
  
• Padlet’s accessibility statement
• Wakelet’s accessibility statement
• ThingLink’s accessibility statement

Our teaching and learning practices

At CCC, we take a person-centred approach to teaching and learning, which aims to utilise people’s existing strengths and knowledges as experts in their own lives and learning practices.  In order to facilitate equitable teaching and learning opportunities, we continually undertake attentive, dialogical quality assurance processes within the CCC team, helping ensure that the sessions we design, the materials we develop and the platforms and sources of information we advocate are fully accessible. Recently, we have been using Worchester Council’s SCULPT Model as our point of reference, helping us to consider key aspects of resource development, including: Structure; Colour and contrast; Use of images; effective practice for sharing Links; and the use of Plain English.  

Whether our training is facilitated online, as a hybrid activity or face-to-face in a physical environment, the CCC team embrace evidence-informed pedagogical approaches that model effective practice. Much of this evidence base has been built up through the shared experiences and insights from the many hundreds of practitioners we have worked with and supported in the past, resulting in a tacit knowledge base and the utilisation of co-created practices for accessibility that truly resonate with, and meet the needs of, participants. This approach consists of: 

• Sharing resources and agendas prior to training sessions, so people can access them according to their personal preference (e.g., by changing the colour or font on documents or by putting them through a screen reader).
• Opening both face-to-face and online training rooms before our training sessions begin, so participants can check their equipment and ensure that they feel comfortable within their learning space.
• Wherever possible, embedding digital tools within our website, resources and training practices that enable individual users to set their own preferences.
• Not overloading people with too many different digital tools during training sessions. Instead, we prefer to select a few key digital tools, so people can try them out and develop their confidence in using them. We also strive to only use digital tools that have been developed with accessibility requirements in mind (to read the accessibility statements for some of the key digital tools we commonly use during our training sessions, please see above).
• Taking an ‘under the bonnet’ approach to accessibility that (where appropriate) makes our pedagogical decision making explicit. By articulating not only what we are doing but why we are doing it, we are able to share our learning with others so they can adapt and contextualise it for their own practice.
• Creating participatory spaces within our training sessions for meaningful discussion, ideas sharing and creativity around the facilitation of inclusive learning and effective practices for accessibility.
• Embedding opportunities for digital literacy development, supporting and empowering people to articulate and address accessibility challenges and engage in learning in ways that meet their individual needs.
• Offering people a choice about how they engage in or respond to a learning activity. For example, in an online training situation, participants may be encouraged to share their responses to a stimulus question using Mentimeter, with the chat function on Zoom also provided as an alternative method of response.  
• Checking how our teaching and learning content and resources look and how they are accessed on a range of devices. This approach supports us to consider how the materials we use for our training and events is experienced by people who are accessing the session using different devices (for instance via a tablet, mobile phone, face-to-face or on a computer).  
• Sending a follow-up email or evaluation form following training events, asking people to share their experiences of the training, whether they felt their needs were addressed effectively and to share their ideas about how we can continue to develop and improve our practice.  

 

Stories from the team about how CCC’s commitment to accessibility works in practice

• Navigating Digital Accessibility in ‘Am I Doing Enough’ blog by Chloë
• Using chat as a collaborative space in ‘The Double Decker’ blog by Chloë
• PowerPoint Tips and Tricks a reflection and resource by Chloë
• Stimulating thinking about digital accessibility by Chloë

Our values: continuing to grow and learn