This article talks about how even students who go to higher education institutions can still have problems with accessibility online. There is an organization called Open University Australia (OUA) that the author discusses and they are made up of seven universities and fifteen institutions that teach higher education to students completely online across both undergrad and postgrad. They attempt to help students with disabilities by giving the options upfront of disclosing any disabilities prior to the student’s enrollment. However, a problem comes in because of privacy legislation that prevents OUA from passing this information on to the institution the student has chosen to study at. To acquire data to help solve this problem OUA conducted an online survey for students who had registered as needing support because they were disabled. The survey focused on two things: the accessibility of the online platforms that are used for teaching, and what the motivation was for students who either chose to disclose their disability or not. The results of the study were that a little less than half of OUA students decided to respond to having a mental illness. The author, Mike Kent, then went on to examine the advantages of eLearning for those with a disability. He found that the biggest advantage of online learning was that the information could be formatted a variety of different ways to help a variety of different disabilities. There was visual formatting through images and text, audio formattings such as vocalized words or sounds, or even physical touch through a wearable technology they have. One of the main points the author made was that the design of the online platform was the biggest decider of whether eLearning was accessible to the student.
Mike, Kent. “Disability, Mental Illness, and ELearning: Invisible Behind the Screen?” The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, 17 Dec. 2015, jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/disability-mental-illness-and-elearning-invisible-behind-the-screen/.