I'm in Dunedin, New Zealand and will be doing a webinar for the Distance Education Office. The topic, of course, is online accessibility. It's interesting doing this in New Zealand because I've recently seen a posting that said New Zealand and Australia were doing a better job with accessibility than the US was. There is a very nice piece of legislation (see slide 3)
The Human Rights Act of 1993 covers disabilities, which people have presently, have had in the past, or which they are believed to have.
The Human Rights Act of 1993 makes discrimination unlawful when it occurs in:
- •public education and health services
- •and access to education.
And there's the Kia Ōrite - Code Of Practice: New Zealand Code of Practice for an Inclusive Tertiary Education Environment for Students with Impairments. That provides very nice guidance for higher education. But the Code was last updated in 2007 and doesn't mention online,websites, or distance learning. It does recommend captioning for video though. And it recommends staff development on the issues, so the webinar fits in very nicely.
