The practicalities

Improving accessibility through reading lists

The TemplemanLibrary offers you

OPERA ProjectCollection Engagement

Project

Readinglists@kent

The University of Kent context: Projects

ILPsInclusive Learning Plans (ILPs) are flexible documents developed by the advisers within the Student Support and Wellbeing team (SSW) using evidence of disability, to set out reasonable adjustments to enable students to access programmes of study, and ensure appropriate assessment and examination arrangements are put in place. Reasonable adjustments for all ILPs include prioritised reading lists, extended loan periods and access to accessibility software.

• OPERA is a university-wide accessibility project supported by advice and guidance from Jisc.

• The aim of the project: To make recommendations that will help to develop an inclusive information environment and encourage the wider adoption of assistive technology (productivity tools) for all at the University of Kent.

OPERA (Opportunity, Productivity, Engagement, Reducing barriers, Achievement)

• Restricted pilot to schools already involved in a Collection Engagement project

• Lists in all formats

• E-First policy - for all items on the list

• Library managed the whole process

• Student Support and Wellbeing (SSW) was informed when the review was complete

What were we doing? – Our Load2Learn Pilot

• Tools

• Communication

• Workload and scalability

• Cost

What were the challenges?

One list to rule them all - No proformas, no scraps of paper

• New guidelines were shared with academics in a handbook

• List owners tell us when they publish an ILP list

• The list is prioritised per University ILP policy

Our Solutions

• E-First for Core and Recommended only

• The library only reviews the list

• We make notes

• Student Wellbeing and Support source non-ebooks – cross team communication and clear team remits

• Link to EBooks-one click!

Reviewing – What's new?

Example of email.

• 62 ILP flagged lists reviewed since September 2016

• Legacy - We are contributing to RNIB Bookshare and the books we request are there for future students and modules

• Much improved cross team working

• This is scalable and has been rolled out university wide

• Accessibility for all students is improved

• Student satisfaction – do they even realise theirs is an ‘ILP’ list?

IMPACT

During the autumn term, the project team made over 400 requests (to publishers/RNIB Bookshare or in-house

scanning via a team of Educational Support Assistants (ESAs)) for materials in alternative formats for students

with significant print disabilities. These figures put Kent in the top 10% of universities undertaking

alternative formats work (the median number of requests for 49 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) surveyed

in 2013 was 5-15) (McNaught, 2013[1]). This level of support was only possible due to the excellent work of

library teams in embedding an inclusive approach to reading list management, filtering reading lists, reporting on

holdings and prioritising the procurement of accessible electronic resources by default.

[1] A. McNaught (2013) Libraries and alternative format research [Online]. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267266966_Libraries_and_alternative_format_research.

[Accessed: 30/11/2016].

IMPACT 2.

The Dynamic Bridge

Any questions?