Learning and Teaching Centre

Macquarie Accessibility Services

Tips for Staff - Do's and Don'ts

Do's:

  1. Plan for the possibility of students in your Unit who may have a disability and require adjustment to the learning materials and/or assessment tasks.

    1. Multimedia used must either be accessible or alternatives planned for. (e.g. if you are using an audio recording, a transcript may be required for hearing impaired students.  If you are using a video or graphic a full description of the point that is being demonstrated may need to be written for sight impaired students.)  
    2. When scheduling your unit, allow 'contingency time' in the event that a student may need to have materials converted. (e.g. Don't have a compulsory test in Week 2 based on reading materials that are not readily available in alternative formats.)
    3. Anticipate that you may need to be flexible regarding assessment tasks. (e.g. If one of your assessments requires students to do an oral presentation, think of possible alternatives in the event that this is not possible for a student.) N.B Full planning for alternatives does not need to occur until you are aware that students are experiencing access issues.
    4. Implications surrounding field trips, practicum and experiments also need to be considered at the time of curricula development.

  2. Ensure that you are aware of the support services available at MQ and the required procedures for accessing assistance for your students. Equity Support Unit should be the first port of call. They can be contacted on Extension 6494 or equity@mq.edu.au.

  3. Prepare your learning materials prior to the commencement of Semester. (A just in time approach to lesson preparation will not allow sufficient time for adjustments to be made if necessary.)  Ideally all Learning and Teaching materials should be finalised by Lecturers 6 weeks prior to the commencement of the teaching period.

  4. Save a copy of all lecture notes, study guides, learning materials in either an accessible word or Rich Text Format (Information on how to prepare accessible documents can be found at the Creating Accessible Teaching & Support

  5. Write a text description for all graphs, diagrams etc that you intent to include in your unit.

    1. This is not a task that can be done by someone who is not a specialist in your area and it is vital that students with a sight impairment are not disadvantaged. 
    2. In many cases graphs and diagrams are used to provide additional visual reinforcement to concepts that have been covered in the text.  If this is the case, then a brief note stating this fact is sufficient. E.g. Graph 2.1 illustrating figures listed on Page 3)

  6. Use the most recent publications for your teaching, (this may enable access to electronic copies of the texts).  Publishers are increasingly becoming aware of the need to provide for student's with access needs. It is a good question to ask when choosing a text as to whether or not an electronic copy can be made available for students if required.

  7. Make arrangements with Student Services early in Semester for accommodations that will need to be made for all assessment tasks

  8. Ensure that your Head of Department is aware that you have a student with access needs in your Unit and alert them to any concerns, challenges etc that you will need to find solutions for.

Don'ts:

  1. Leave unit preparation to the last minute
  2. Add materials ad-hoc to your lessons without ensuring that an accessible copy is also available.
  3. List unnecessary readings in your reading list.  (If you list 100 readings, all of these will need to be made available in alternative formats.)
  4. Withhold materials from the conversion process because of copyright concerns. (It is a requirement of the University that you make all your materials available for conversion, breach of this may result in you carrying personal liability for one of your students not being able to access the learning and teaching materials.)
  5. Use inaccessible technology unnecessarily. (MQ will have solutions in place for centrally supported applications such as Blackboard and iLecture, use of online environments such as Second Life however may lead to access issues - NB This does not mean that you shouldn't use them in your teaching, it just means that you need to think of contingencies in the event that all of your students will not be able to access them.)

 

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