Online Learning & COVID-19: Exploring Digital Accessibility

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted nearly all aspects of life in 2020, leading to significant social, economic and technological change. Educational institutions were particularly impacted as social distancing and lockdowns precluded student attendance on[1]campus or in-class. Universities around the world found themselves pivoting to fully online delivery of learning content, assessments and collaboration, while striving to minimise disruption or loss to pedagogical fidelity. While universities achieved what many thought impossible, the rush away from bricks and mortar education did surface an underlying issue that while always present, had mostly been in the background. This issue was digital accessibility, a mixture of technology, policy and empathy that allows electronic content and systems to be consumed and interacted with by users of assistive technologies. This paper outlines the core precepts of digital accessibility, the standards by which it is defined, and the technologies used by people with disabilities to interact with the online world. The authors, reflecting on their own experiences of digital accessibility within the university sector propose a four-quadrant model for institutional support of accessible online learning. This model includes the role of the policy environment, accessibility awareness by faculty, accessibility support roles and the critical nature of IT procurement.