Before the why’s, what...?
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What is Digital Accessibility?
Hopefully if you are reading this blog, you may have already had a quick look at our
Unlocking Inclusivity Webpage,
and so you’ll already know!
In a nutshell, digital accessibility ensures that digital content can be consumed by everyone, both through the overall design of it and the ability to adapt it for our own personal needs.
What makes content accessible?
There are tons of advice and guidance on different frameworks or tips to make content accessible online (e.g. SCULPT framework (Helen Wilson et al. 2019), on the Unlocking Inclusivity website).
These have been created following the legislation and guidelines provided both by the government Equality Act, 2010 (Government Equalities Office, Equality and Human Rights Commission) and other organisations such as WCAG 2 (Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) 2025).
I have been working as an eLearning Support Assistant (eLSA) since 2021, and during this time, I have worked to improve digital accessibility in teaching materials, as well as raising awareness throughout the university and wider higher education community. There have been many projects I have enjoyed, but initially I struggled to connect how digital accessibility skills would be relevant to my career as a pharmacology student.
What makes STEM content different?
Even though nowadays STEM academic journals have accessibility statements and have improved the way in which an online article can be navigated, when it comes to the figures, there rarely is a suitable option for someone who e.g. uses a screen reader. Whilst there has been a lot of progress since I started working as an eLSA, the development of guidelines for digital accessibility has been slower for STEM, because the frameworks used for humanities cannot be applied to e.g. math content.
Or that's how I felt until I got to work on an Access Math Course, where I got to learn and help develop a framework on how to remediate accessibility issues in math content. Since this was closer to my field of study, it really got me thinking about how to put what I was learning into my CV, and most importantly, why I should care about the work I have been doing. Today I am sharing some reflections on why I think you should too.
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Why? We want equity in education and in our future fields
Ever since the pandemic, higher education has increasingly shifted online. In a way, this has made education more accessible; so long as someone has a computer and internet, they can be a part of higher education.
However, we must consider the quality of this education, and how it must adapt to a student population that, being part of the “woke generation”, have greater awareness about mental health and neurodivergence, and therefore are more educated on what sort of adjustments we might need.
But as a neurodivergent student, how do we know what tools might help us if we are not taught about them? Well, the university has lots of resources for this in toolkit:
Once you understand what you need, you will be able to think of what other people might need.
Both at university and in our future jobs, what we create is of no relevance if others cannot understand it or access it. Since we will be working with multidisciplinary teams regardless of the field we are at, we must consider how we communicate and with whom and learn how to adapt that communication to different audiences. Thinking about accessibility is key for better communication which in turn is key to achieving equity in any field.
Why? We don’t want to fall for the “Gen Z vs AI in the job market” rhetoric
The closer we get to our graduation year, the more we need to think about our future and our career. As we enter the workforce at the same time as AI enters it, we need to understand what makes our input as humans the most valuable.
No matter what the field is, AI is bound to enter it one way or another. As future professionals it is easy to buy into the argument that AI is taking over our entry level jobs. And yet we forget that AI cannot be held accountable for the consequences of its work. Following my point about equity, our critical thinking as students and future professionals makes our work unique, and this is literally what digital accessibility is about.
Accessibility is not an absolute, by definition, it varies depending on people’s needs, and since AI cannot be held accountable if and when content is not accessible, we need to make sure that we use our critical thinking and have the final say on what is accessible and what isn’t. It is our moral responsibility to ensure equal access to the content we put online.
Why should you “Unlock Inclusivity”?
In conclusion, you should care about unlocking inclusivity because accessibility is about how you interact with yourself or with the content you consume. The continued development of technology is making it easier for us to get to know ourselves, to understand our needs, and to use our critical thinking to adapt things accordingly.
You should care about unlocking inclusivity because at its very core accessibility is about how we communicate. It affects the work you are currently producing as a student. It will affect the work you will go on to produce during your career. It is a part of ALL your interactions and will continue to be both personally and professionally. The more self-aware you are, the better you will become at communicating with others, and this will allow you to develop your empathy.
Finaly, it is also a legal requirement and something the university has committed to in the Aberdeen 2040 Strategy for Inclusive Education (Aberdeen 2040). Regardless of your field, if you cannot communicate and make the information you are sharing accessible, you are excluding people from your audience. Ultimately, you should care because accessibility is not only important from a legal perspective, but also ethical, it matters because digital content = communication; if information isn't accessible, it cannot be communicated!
