Mr Matthew Deeprose
Senior Learning Designer
How can we make digital accessibility understandable and achievable? How can we formalise complex activities into processes that help colleagues achieve outcomes in a more supported and consistent way? How do we build on our use of existing tools to find innovative solutions and practices?
These are some of the questions Matthew tries to answer in his work in the University of Southampton’s Digital Learning team. Building on twenty years of experience working in Educational Technology, Matthew endeavours to remove complexity and barriers in a way that helps the team achieve its aims.
Some of the projects Matthew has contributed to recently in Digital Learning are:
- The introduction of Blackboard Ally, an accessibility tool that helps staff to create more accessible resources and students to create accessible alternative formats that suit their needs and circumstances.
- Creating a process for running pilots of educational tools and applications.
- Addressing how to make teaching staff aware of what to consider when using a tool in their teaching that is not directly supported by the university.
- Demystifying aspects of digital accessibility such as using our brand palette whilst meeting accessibility guidelines and writing alternative text for complex images like charts and graphs.
Matthew shares what he learns about digital accessibility both within the university and
at conferences and events
.
Some recent presentations Matthew has given include:
- Making accessibility simpler in Higher Education and beyond!
- What is alternative text? How do I write it for images, charts, and graphs?
- The impact that high quality mark-up can have on accessibility, performance, and discoverability
Some recent blog posts Matthew has posted include:
- How did we make the University’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) submission more accessible?
- Accessibility does not impede agility! Six ways that Digital Accessibility maps to Agile Practices
- Three ways PowerPoint’s "Design Ideas" excludes your audience, and how to fix it.
Matthew is co-chair of the International Ally User Group, co-chair of the iSolutions Digital Accessibility Community of Practice, a member of the UCISA Diversity Taskforce, and a member of the Anthology Community Leadership Circle.
You can connect with Matthew on LinkedIn and on Twitter .