JISC TechDis
JISC TechDis is the leading educational advisory service providing advice and guidance on technology and disability to promote an accessible and inclusive experience for students and staff. JISC TechDis is a JISC Advisory Service.
What we can do for you
JISC TechDis case study JISC TechDis provide advice, guidance and resources for senior managers, front line and specialist staff to aid the creation of organisational policies and strategies, ensuring inclusive practice is encouraged at all levels.
JISC TechDis Online
The JISC TechDis website includes areas of role-specific guidance which will be relevant to all staff from student support, library and resource centre staff and learning and teaching practitioners to assistive technologists. Additionally, case studies outline best practice in a range of key areas including e-learning, web accessibility and learning support. Further guidance and discussion forums can be found on the JISC TechDis Community site. The website is supplemented by an email based helpdesk service to answer queries related to the use of technology to support learners or staff with disabilities or learning difficulties.
Publications
In addition to these web-based services, JISC TechDis offer several publications available in hard copy and to download from our website. As part of the Senior Management briefing series TechDis have begun to providing Senior Managers within all UK post 16 Colleges with a series of briefings on a number of technology, disability and inclusion related issues in order to assist Colleges understanding of issues relating to the newly introduced 'Disability Equality Duty'. Similar guidance will be disseminated to other sectors in due course. The TechDis staff packs are aimed at providing Staff Developers with all the resources required to deliver a short staff development session on a number of technology and disability related topics. These packs can be integrated into institution wide staff development sessions or delivered as individual session.
JISC TechDis also aim to provide effective resources for practitioners, for example our recent JISC TechDis Accessibility Essentials series outlines techniques enabling practitioners to create accessible learning resources. The first publication in this series demonstrates how anyone can amend the look and feel of reading material into a style which suits them. The second publication covers writing accessible electronic documents using Microsoft® Word. Future publications in this series will cover creating accessible presentations, including presenting style and use of Microsoft® Powerpoint, and creating accessible PDF documents.
Work with key intermediaries
JISC TechDis works with key intermediaries across the sector including the JISC Regional Support Centre, the Higher Education Academy Subject Centres and the JISC Advisory and Development team to embed our ethos of technology, accessibility and inclusion within their roles.