The Swedish Network for IT in Higher Education (ITHU), established in 2009, is a professional development network that aims to promote and enhance the pedagogical application of IT in teaching and learning. The network is a forum for the exchange of experience and knowledge in the field in terms of practice, research and development. Most of the members work as pedagogical developers, educational technologists, teachers, librarians and staff involved in course design. The network organises monthly online network meetings and webinars about current topics and almost all Swedish higher education institutions are represented in the network. Several subnetworks for special interests as e.g. digital examinations and digital pedagogical tools have been established.
Another example is the ITHU Subnetwork for Accessibility, formed in 2019, when the members inITHU defined accessibility as an area of great interest during several of the network meetings. One of the reasons for this interest was the EU Web Accessibility Initiative. Sweden, along with other countries, legislated the initiative, and the law created a lot of questions from the HEIs on how to interpret the law, especially regarding LMS platforms.
The discussions of the interpretation of the law within the ITHU Subnetwork for Accessibility resulted in a submission of a request to The Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions(SUHF) for guidance in the matter. A special group was appointed by SUHF including two representatives from the ITHU Subnetwork for Accessibility. After several months of work, the group presented national recommendations for interpretation of the law in relation to LMS platforms.
A culture of sharing is strongly present to optimize the use of resources in a national context. During the monthly online network meetings, the members of the subnetwork, discuss, share experiences, and collaborate to create increased digital accessibility at the Swedish HEIs. Topics of discussion are e.g. subtitling, visual interpretation, how to create accessible documents, e.g. in Word, PowerPoint, and in PDF format. Guests with special competencies are invited to the network meetings to contribute with their different perspectives. For example, guests from Microsoft Swedendemonstrated the newly developed tools for subtitling, translation and accessibility adjustments inM365. Another example is Sunet,1 talking about the new educational service Speech2Text that provides tools for subtitling in three levels; automated subtitling, corrected automated subtitling and manual subtitling. The service will be available for Swedish HEIs from Q4 2021.
The members also share experiences regarding how their HEIs have developed strategies and services for conducting the accessibility work and how to disseminate information to staff and students. Furthermore, several HEIs have developed resources for supporting teachers in their accessibility work. These resources are often published as OER and have been shared within the network and contributed to the coordination of HEIs’ work with facilitating accessibility. In addition, the network is planning to invite other networks and organisations to work together to create a joint resource for teachers, accessible for all Swedish HEIs.
1Swedish University Computer Network, part of the Swedish Research Council.
2021. p. 9-10
TINEL Conference on Universal Design for Blended and eLearning in Higher Education online December 8-9 2021