Lesson video

Hi, I'm Rebecca, your computing teacher for the IT and the world of work unit.

For this lesson, you are going to need a pen and paper so that you can answer the questions that I give you in this lesson.

You're also going to need to make sure that you remove as many distractions as you can so that you can really focus in this lesson.

Once you're ready, we can begin.

In this lesson, you will examine modern technology tools that assist inclusivity and accessibility.

You'll explore communication tools and you'll evaluate collaborative working, When designing products, it is important to consider how accessible those products are.

One thing to consider is users with a colour impairment, the images above show examples of how colorblind users may view images.

What I'd like you to do is take a look at this webpage, make a list of all the issues with this webpage that make it inaccessible for users.

So not just colorblind users, think about other users with other needs as well.

Pause the video while you do that.

Let's take a look at the answers then.

So the colour choice, first of all, green and red should be avoided where possible, the navigation is not clear which could confuse people.

There's a lot of small texts that would be difficult for people with vision impairments to read.

There are also too many hyperlinks on one page, which could cause confusion and would take time to navigate.

And the overall layout choice is poor and confusing to read and navigate.

Here's what that web page would look like for people with colour impairments.

So the left one is green blind and the right one is red blind.

So you can see that it makes it even more confusing to look at.

So we can think about having accessibility tools to support people.

Technology is transforming the way individuals with a disability access the world around them.

This increases the opportunity for these individuals to successfully develop a career of their choice.

Here are some examples.

So for voice recognition that converts spoken word to digital text, screen readers that read screen text out loud, closed captioning or subtitles, motion or eye tracking and switch devices, which take the place of mice or keyboards.

So pause the video and you're going to have a go at this who needs what exercise.

Using the worksheet, match the disability to the tools available, pause while you have a go at that.

Excellent, let's take a look at the answers.

So here are the answers.

You can pause the video now while you mark your work Brilliant.

So collaboration and communication, the world of work now relies on communication and collaboration to enable remote working which is especially important to those with a disability.

But how does the workplace communicate and collaborate? So a wide variety of communication and collaboration tools are available for the workplace.

It is important that any organisation considers the purpose of these tools so that they can select the platform that works best for them.

And listed on the right-hand side are just some examples of popular ones that are used in industry now.

Online collaboration and communication tools allow colleagues to share documents, video calls, instant messages, calendars, and software.

Here's a case study.

Sean works for a growing gaming company.

He's highly skilled at debugging software and is often asked to debug new software within a given timeframe.

Sean suffers with muscular dystrophy and also has slight macular degeneration.

This means his site is failing, but he's helped by the glasses he wears.

As a result, he has been allowed to work remotely and the company has supplied him with appropriate tools that support his ability to continue to work for them.

The company uses G Suite as their collaboration and communication platform.

So what I want you to do is think about some questions.

So why is being allowed to work from home a benefit for Sean? The company is providing Sean with relevant equipment, why is this important? And why is it important that Sean logs into his G Suite account daily? Pause the video while you have a think about those questions.

Let's take a look at the solutions there.

So why is being allowed to work from home a benefit for Sean? So as Sean has been allowed to work from home, he is able to work on the tasks given to him when he feels able to, this might mean he does not work traditional hours.

He is able to take breaks from the screen in the comfort of his own home and knowing he has a deadline he can manage his time to suit his needs.

So question two is the company has provided Sean with relevant equipment, why is it important? So you might have put something like there, so providing equipment means Sean can use a screen reader, this should be provided by the organisation, complete all tasks assigned to him ` and no additional costs for Sean, which makes inclusive as well and no need to travel to a work place.

And number three, why is it important that Sean logs into his G Suite account daily? So by logging into his work Gmail account, Sean can check his calendar to plan for future events, communicate with his colleagues, update them on the progress of tasks, identify deadlines and check and plan his own progress and ask questions relating to his work.

So what I want you to do now is look at the pros and cons of collaborative working.

Use the worksheet to create a Venn diagram for the pros and cons of collaborative working.

Pause the video while you have a go at that.

Fantastic.

So here are the solutions then, pause the video while you check your work.

Great.

So that's the end of this lesson and hopefully you've gained more insight into how these technology tools can support people with disabilities.

I'll see you again soon for lesson three.