Aspects of Diversity to Consider
I would like to focus on supporting dyslexic and neurodiverse students by making our workshop resources and learning materials more accessible. While we already have documents of materials available, these do not currently meet accessibility guidelines, and this can be a significant barrier to learning. By revisiting and reformatting our existing materials, and creating some new ones, I hope that it can only enhance accessibility for those with specific learning needs, but also improve clarity and usability for all students. The goal is to create inclusive, clear, and concise materials that benefit every learner, regardless of their needs.
In Unit 1, I began exploring this area and proposed developing a set of accessibility guidelines based on the UK Government’s Accessible Communication Formats (2021), the West Yorkshire Health & Care Partnership (2021), and the Dyslexia Association (2025). The refined resources will adhere to the following:
- Left-align text, use wide margins, and set line spacing to 1.5 for readability.
- Use short sentences (10–15 words max) for clarity.
- Include relevant images and software screenshots, positioned to the left of the text.
- Set font size to a minimum of 14pt, using Helvetica or another sans-serif font.
- Avoid italics, underlining, and decorative fonts; use bold, clear headings.
- Print on cream/off-white paper; for digital versions, offer a pastel background option.
Additional to this, I would like to create some recorded content whilst using workshop specific softwares (Adobe Photoshop and Wilcom) with audio. To adhere to UAL’s showcase student guidance, I will:
- Provide accurate captions
- Use high-contrast colour combinations to ensure readability
- Avoid any flashing content
- Ensure that recordings are clear with minimal background noise
Link to My Practice
This proposal links directly into my daily practice within the workshop. Over the past couple of years, we’ve worked to develop guidelines to help students prepare files for printing and embroidery. While these guidelines are useful, they often heavily rely on 1:1 instruction during workshop inductions. Time constraints and increasing student numbers have made it challenging to provide consistent, comprehensive support, especially for students who may require additional time or alternative learning formats. By creating accessible and well-structured guidance, both in print and online formats, I hope to provide a more inclusive and equitable learning experience.
Feasibility of Implementation
Implementation is highly feasible, as I intend on building on existing resources or use this as a basis for new material. The core content already exists; it simply needs to be refined to align with accessibility standards. We also have digital platforms in place, such as Padlet and Moodle, which already host video and audio content. I have found recently, that students increasingly record workshop sessions for later review, which suggests there is a strong demand for these kinds of resources.
“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”— Alexander den Heijer
References:
- Dyslexic.com (2017). Quick Guide to Making Your Content Accessible – Dyslexic.com. [online] dyslexic.com. Available at: https://www.dyslexic.com/quick-guide-making-content-accessible/ [Accessed 22 May. 2025].
- GOV.UK (2021). Accessible Communication Formats. [online] GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-communication/accessible-communication-formats [Accessed 22 May. 2025].
- Leeds Autism AIM (2021). Making information accessible for neurodivergent people. [online] Available at: https://www.wypartnership.co.uk/application/files/3716/4735/6437/making-information-accessible-for-neurodivergent-people-final-v2-20.04.21.pdf [Accessed 22 May. 2025].
Thank you Sophie for sharing your proposed intervention, which involves developing and refining workshop and learning materials to make them more accessible.
This is a great idea, which will benefit many students on a day-to-day basis, as well as being practicable and feasible to implement. As well as the sources you’ve referred to, the rationale for your intervention is well-supported by guidance produced by UAL’s Disability Service*.
The main bit of feedback for now is that you’ll need to articulate in your reflective report how the development of these materials will support students with different marginalisations in addition to neurodiversity. This should hopefully be straightforward, and we can talk about this in our upcoming tutorial. This will support you to meet LO4: Design a sustainable transformation that applies intersectional social justice within your practice and test it.
It may also be helpful to use dashboards.arts.ac.uk to look at relevant data for the courses you support, such as awarding gaps, retention/continuation gaps, and NSS data. Where are the awarding gaps situated, and how does your intervention respond to these gaps?
When you get to your reflective report, you will also need to articulate about your own positionality in relation to your intervention, so do keep this in mind throughout the intervention’s development. How does your positionality influence the choices you make, and what potential biases may you need to mitigate against? This relates to LO1: Articulate the development of your positionality and identity through the
lens of inclusive practices.
*Disability Inclusion Toolkit (see Guidance for Inclusive Teaching and Learning and Recording Taught Sessions): https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/sites/explore/SitePage/45680/disability-inclusion-toolkit