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Inclusive New Media Design launched at UEL – offering free training for web designers

Monday 22 October 2007

Researchers at The Rix Centre for Innovation and Learning Disability at the University of East London (UEL) this week launch an exciting new research and training project that aims to encourage web designers, developers and editors to build websites and multimedia content accessible to people with cognitive disabilities.

Inclusive New Media Design is led by Dr Helen Kennedy, a leading researcher and practitioner in the field of new media, and funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC) ‘Designing for the 21st Century’ initiative.

As part of the project, Dr Kennedy and her team are running a series of free training workshops for web designers, to provide them with the skills and knowledge to ensure their sites meet the legal requirement of addressing the needs of disabled users.

The workshops will show how to build accessible websites, showcase inspiring new design and offer a space to discuss creative solutions to making websites that are usable by people with cognitive disabilities. They will also offer participants a unique opportunity to test their websites with cognitively disabled users and listen to what this user group has to say about what works for them.

Inclusive New Media Design focuses on web users with cognitive disabilities, concentrates on the different accessibility requirements of this group compared to physically disabled web users, and looks at whether new WCAG guidelines address these requirements.

In return for the free training and consultancy, the project team will ask participants to spare some time to talk about their design and development practice. We want to find out about whether it is possible to design accessibly for cognitively disabled users, and any obstacles to doing this that exist.

Workshops will take place early in 2008 at the University of East London’s Docklands campus. The deadline for recruitment is 31st October 2007. Find out more and register your interest at www.inclusivenewmedia.org.

The Rix Centre for Innovation and Learning Disability, where the project is based, is the UK research leader on education technologies for people with cognitive disabilities. For further information about Inclusive New Media Design, visit www.thebigtree.org/roots/inmd

Dr Kennedy, Principal Lecturer in UEL's School of Social Sciences, Media & Cultural Studies, will examine the current state and potential development of inclusive new media and accessible web design in a public lecture at UEL Docklands campus on Wednesday 24 October.

The lecture, Inclusive New Media: designing accessible websites, will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 24 October at the UEL Docklands campus. Admission is free. For further details, visit www.uel.ac.uk/lectureseries.

Ends/.

For details and pictures contact Patrick Wilson: 020 8223 2061 or 07951 797 975

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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