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Project : News Archive
19 March 2003
New article published :
How to assess disabled students without breaking the law.
This article assesses ways in which teaching staff in higher education can implement strategies to overcome barriers to assessment procedures for disabled students. It discusses new legislation (the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act) and suggests that solutions to the problems of traditional assessment lie in innovative approaches that have inclusive teaching (including universal design) as an underlying principle.
8 March 2003
Case study at UKOLN :
Iris Manhold had a case study titled "Standards and Accessibility Compliance for the DEMOS Project Web Site" published at the UKOLN site as part of their QA Focus Case Studies series, which provides examples of quality assurance procedures and illustrate how projects and services implement standards and best practices in order to achieve interoperability, maximise accessibility, etc.
21 February 2003
New site location :
This site has moved to a different server and will probably move again at the end of March to the place where it will stay in the future: the Access Summit site (which is still under construction). Please don't be confused by this, the site itself has not changed and we will do our best to ensure that you will always be able to find the DEMOS site in the future. We will keep you updated.
19 February 2003
New module online :
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act: Guidance for Teaching Staff has been written by Jenni Knox, Policy Officer at Skill, the National Bureau for Students with Disabilities, and is intended as an introduction to SENDA and how teaching staff can comply with the legislation.
9 January 2003
New resource : Dyslexic students FAQ :
These questions and answers provide practical help to academics and a starting point from which to build their own knowledge and understanding of dyslexia.
6 December 2002
New articles available in the resources section:
- The Royal National College for the Blind have provided the Demos project with a frequently asked questions section regarding blind and visually impaired students.
- Naomi Sharples, Nurse Tutor at the University of Salford discusses an innovative and exciting Project to support deaf students into Nursing.
28 November 2002
Website improvements :
This website has been switched to a tableless CSS layout to improve accessibility and standard compliance. Should you experience any problems using this site, please email the webmaster immediately: <iris at manhold.net> . Your feedback is appreciated.
22 October 2002
Student Interviews :
A series of real life accounts of the experiences of disabled students in the Demos Universites is now available. The accounts are transcripts of semi-structured interviews carried out with a number of students. We highly recommend that you read at least one account if you are using any of the learning modules contained in these pages since they help to situate the concepts and principles that are described.
Article published in Interactions:
Mike Wray, DEMOS Project Co-ordinator, has published an article in the Staff Development Experiences Issue of Interactions, the electronic journal of the Educational Technology Service at the University of Warwick. The article is titled 'Online learning to deliver staff development materials about disabled students'.
8 October 2002
New report published :
Disability officers as educational developers - models and approaches.
Mike Wray discusses some of the issues around staff development models used by disability offices. It is proposed that an understanding of the communities of practice that academic staff work in is important if inclusive approaches to the support of disabled students in the learning environment are to be developed.
28 September 2002
Accessible Web Design :
The Guide to Accessible Web Design has been updated with a new chapter on User Control, which explains how font and colour preferences can be controlled by the user in a variety of browsers.
24 July 2002
New report published :
Analysis of the questionnaire to assess the staff development needs of the DEMOS universities in relation to disability: online and paper-based responses.
10 June 2002
Access to modules :
We have removed the password protection of the course modules. They are now freely available and searchable using the site search engine at the top of each page.
12 May 2002
Statistics on disabled people :
Staff in Disability offices are often asked where statistics can be found on the number of disabled people in universities and the general population. We have compiled a list of weblinks in the resources section.
10 May 2002
Assessment Module now available :
Another module of the Staff Disability Awareness Course, 'Modification of examination and assessment arrangements for disabled students: additional support or added advantage?', is now online. If you are one of our testers contact us for a password to the course area. [» Read more]
1 May 2002
New article published :
Using online learning to disseminate disability-related staff development materials.
This article appeared in a special edition of PLANET, the newsletter of the Learning and Teaching Support Network Subject Centre for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences.
14 March 2002
Further £5000 available for resources from external institutions.
[» Find out more]
5 March 2002
£5000 available for Subject Matter Experts :
Money available for academic staff to join writing team for Demos project. (N.B. For DEMOS universities only.) [» Find out more]
5 March 2002
New report published :
Interviews with Heads of Staff Development Units in the DEMOS universities.
3 March 2002
Guide to Accessible Web Design Updated :
This guide is for web designers who are interested in making their sites accessible to people with disabilities. It is still a work in progress but already enjoying popularity. In February web design students at Birkbeck College where directed to the DEMOS site to learn how to achieve inclusive design. [» Accessible Web Design]
14 December 2001
DEMOS Newsletter January 2002 :
Including Disabled Students : focus on teaching and learning
12 September 2001
Dyslexia Module finished
Another module of the Staff Disability Awareness Course, 'Students with Dyslexia in Higher Education', is now online. If you are one of our testers contact us for a password to the course area. [» Read more]
22 August 2001
Analysis of questionnaire now online
The analysis of an online questionnaire to assess the staff development needs in relation to disability of the DEMOS universities can now be viewed and downloaded. [» Find out more]
30 July 2001
Disability Awareness Training : An Online Approach.
The DEMOS Project.
The project co-ordinator's presentation to the Fourth International Conference on Higher Education and Disability, Innsbruck, 14th July 2001. [» Read more]
1 June 2001
Admissions Module online
Another module of the Staff Disability Awareness Course, 'Admissions policy', is now online and ready for testing. If you are one of our testers contact us for a password to the course area. [» Read more]
18 May 2001
New report published
The latest report by Project Coordinator Mike Wray on the Current Disability Training Programme in the 4 DEMOS Universities is now available online.
22 March 2001
First test runs are under way
Testing of the first course modules has started. We are currently testing WebCT, an online learning environment used by many academic institutions around the world, as a tool for delivering the DEMOS course. If you are one of our testers, the course can be found here.
18 Jan 2001
Training Needs Analysis Questionnaire
Do you teach or work at a university in Manchester? Are you aware of the problems that students with disabilities face at university? Have you had awareness training? Please take a couple of minutes to fill in the questionnaire we have put together to assess the training needs of academic staff. [» Go to Questionnaire]
16 Jan 2001
DEMOS Newsletter, Feb 2001
The first newsletter of the DEMOS Project is now online including a 'Welcome from the Project Directors' and an answer to the question 'Why Online learning?'. [» Read more]
23 Nov 2000
Aims and Objectives
The aims and objectives have been re-identified and are now available online. [» Read more]
Pilot Studies
Two pilot studies will take place in the Department of Drama, University of Manchester and the Department of Computation, UMIST. An analysis of training need is being undertaken within the departments through focus group meetings and individual interview. A questionnaire will be available online to be filled out by members of academic staff within the 4 universities. As far as we know, this will be the most extensive training needs analysis of disability issues carried out in Higher Education Institutions in the UK.
Research
The project coordinator has interviewed the Disability Advisers in the 4 universities and surveyed the staff development material currently available in the 4 universities. A report will be issued shortly.
29th June 2000
Universities Win Funding for Disability Initiative:
Support for disabled students will be improved by a unique initiative which gives academic staff the opportunity to develop their awareness by using an on-line learning package. [» Read more]