How can we make education more digitally accessible?
Within the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 the European Union made a key commitment to ‘Ensure accessibility to goods and services, including public services and assistive devices for people with disabilities’, and making progress on this topic at the European level is seen as a ‘precondition for participation in society and in the economy’. More particularly, in its effort to share Europe’s digital future, the European Union has taken several regulatory initiatives to promote digital accessibility, thereby aiming to build a more social and inclusive European “union of equality”, where all Europeans can take a full and active part in the digital economy and society.
Strong accessibility requirements make a real difference for disabled people but they affect many others too, including professions, businesses and public organizations, among which in particular educational institutions. While a major cause for concern with regard to the accessibility of legal education, new digital technologies, paradoxically, have a lot to offer education in terms of accessibility, for example in the field of enriching course material, increasing the accessibility of education, reducing disadvantages, enabling new forms of education and reaching new target groups.
In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I explored the existing and upcoming requirements towards making education more digitally accessible with Raffi Lion, former business developer at the tech-startup Amberscript.
Amberscript is a young tech-startup which aims to make all audio accessible. Ever since its establishment, Amberscript has worked closely with people who have a hearing impairment. Continuous feedback allows Amberscript to build better services, which – in turn – helps organizations comply with Digital accessibility regulations. By making the power of language accessible to everyone, Amberscript aims to bring the world closer together. Check out their website here: https://www.amberscript.com/en/.
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