Disability and Access to Moving Image and Sound

The BUFVC Learning on Screen Conference this year will take place on 7th and 8th April 2009 at the Wellcome Trust.

Peter White MBE, the BBC's Disability Correspondent, will open the Conference, the key theme of which is Disability and Access to Moving Image and Sound. He will also be presenting the Learning On Screen Awards being given out on the evening of 7th April.

Confirmed presentations and speakers include:

Audio Description for the Blind and Partially Sighted

Joan Greening, Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB)

Technologies to Assist the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Guido Gybels, Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID)

Better use of technology gives benefits to all learners

Sal Cooke, Head of JISC TechDis Service

e-Inclusion Project - Us5

Owen Smith and Martin Wright, BBC and London Metropolitan University - Gamelab London

Peter and Josephine: we just want to be together

Professor Wendy Couchman, Faculty of Health and Social Care - London South Bank University

3-D Interactive Screen Experiments

Robert J. Lucas, PiCETL - The Open University

Synote

Dr Mike Wald, University of Southampton

What do we learn watching breaking news stories? An analysis of 24 hour news in the UK

Dr. Stephen Cushion, Cardiff University

Legal Responsibilities - SENDA and other legislation

Martin Sloan, Technology Information & Outsourcing Group - Brodies LLP

Inclusive use of Technology

Simon Ball, Senior Advisor, JISC TechDis Service

Dyslexia Matters

Speaker TBC

In higher and further education, institutions are required to make reasonable adjustments in the delivery of course content and learning materials to avoid placing a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage. Techniques including signing, sub-titling, audio description, voice to text translation, Braille translators, online accessibility standards and auditing are a commonplace and have had beneficial effect. However, there is vagueness in the legislation which can cause justifiable concern for educational service-providers and there is more to be done to make reasonable adjustments.

This conference will offer an opportunity to learn more and to discuss solutions. The Learning on Screen Conference will offer an opportunity for academic service providers, web developers, broadcasters, educationists, advisors, publishers and representatives of disability groups to meet to see examples of best practise, to learn about new techniques and to discuss the challenge of reaching the standards of delivery required by legislation to meet the expectations of users.

Please visit the Learning on Screen 2009 site for contact details and booking information.