LSIS's Excellence Gateway offers practical, online support

The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) yesterday (15 October 2008) launched an online toolkit which provides practical guidelines for teachers and trainers to make learning materials even more accessible. Now available on the Excellence Gateway, the toolkit of resources merges pedagogical and technical advice where previously these have been scattered over several different channels.

Siôn Simon, Minister for Further Education at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), unveiled these new accessibility guidelines, which are designed to ensure that teachers and trainers find the right guidance to widen participation and support all learners, at an event at Lewisham College yesterday.

Produced for LSIS by JISC TechDis, a leading educational advisory service in accessibility and inclusion, the materials are available exclusively on the Excellence Gateway - the national online service for those working in the further education system in England. Grouped into eight categories (learners who have difficulty seeing things; hearing things; understanding things; concentrating; handling and manipulating things; communicating with others; accessing text; and who are dyslexic), the resources will enable staff to create effective, engaging and accessible learning materials for their learners.

The Minister was joined by Roger McClure, chief executive of LSIS, at one of the first events of the new sector-led FE improvement body. Also speaking was Kevin Carey, Director of HumanITy, who advised on the creation of the materials, and a learner and tutor from Lewisham College, who talked about the day-to-day reality of improvements in accessibility. Experts from Excellence Gateway and JISC TechDis were on hand to showcase the suite of resources.

Kevin Carey is uniquely placed to provide guidance because of his long involvement in education, his expertise in accessibility and his standing as a blind author and speaker:

“There is no single solution for accessibility, and often the most time-consuming and expensive adjustments are not always the most effective. These accessibility guidelines available on Excellence Gateway will help teachers to adapt and personalise delivery to all learners.”

Roger McClure said:

“These new accessibility guidelines will really make a difference to teachers and trainers across the learning and skills sector in their work with a diverse range of learners. As the new sector-owned organisation, LSIS, has responded to a clear need to bring all the dispersed guidelines together in one place, easily accessible online. And here, at Lewisham College's Professional Development Centre, we can see first-hand the impact that an embedded approach to equality and diversity can make.”

Siôn Simon MP, said:

“The FE sector has, at its core, the needs of learners and these accessibility guidelines will ensure that all learners can unlock their talent in an amazing and innovative way. As the new minister in this area, I would also like to congratulate LSIS which has supported the production of this toolkit and shown that, as a newly-formed organisation, it regards equality and diversity as a priority.”

In addition to the accessibility guidelines, the Excellence Gateway incorporates some 50 education websites and an impressive resource bank comprising more than 75,000 pages, and 12,000 separate pieces of content. LSIS has joined forces with a number of partners to centralise resources on the portal, including Ofsted's Good Practice Database, the Becta technology exemplars and evidence from the nine JISC Regional Support Centres. Registration and use of the Excellence Gateway is completely free.

Take a look at the accessibility guidelines on the Excellence Gateway now.

Download the delegate pack that was distributed at the launch of the accessibility guidelines on the Excellence Gateway at Lewisham College.