News - The Digital Media Access Group

The Digital Media Access Group (DMAG) is winding down as a separate entity on 31st August 2013.

From the 1st September 2013, our consultancy services will be conducted directly through the School of Computing .

The DMAG ethos continues to thrive in the School of Computing, where there remains a group of dedicated researchers keen to continue their involvement in commercial consultancy. We continue to offer interested parties the opportunity to tap directly into the research, knowledge and expertise that we have built up over many years of academic research and working with real people to understand how technology can best be designed to help improve their everyday lives.

In particular, we are extending the services we offer to cover access to expertise within the Dundee Augmentative and Alternative Communication research group .

Our email address remains the same so, if you'd like to find out more about our research in accessibility and inclusive design, if you would like to talk about partnership opportunities, or even if you would just like to know a little more about what we do, then please do get in touch with us at dmag@computing.dundee.ac.uk.

History of the Digital Media Access Group

The Digital Media Access Group (DMAG) was formed as a digital accessibility and inclusive design consultancy service in 1999 by a group of researchers from the School of Computing at the University of Dundee . The group began as a spin-off from DISinHE, a project which was funded to advise the UK Higher Education community on issues relating to disability, technology and learning. DISinHE evolved into what is now the JISC Techdis Service . Since then, the group has helped clients from industry, education, healthcare, and government (both local and national). DMAG offered clients the opportunity to tap directly into the research, knowledge and experience built up over many years of academic research and working with real people to understand how technology can best be designed to help improve their lives.

DMAG started out by providing a web site accessibility auditing service and, while the Web remained has remained its core focus throughout the past fourteen years, over the years the group diversified to work with software applications, smartphone apps, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), public kiosks, and interactive digital television.

As researchers by trade, DMAG staff were active on a number of short - and long - term projects in accessibility research, regularly publishing papers, and attending conferences and other events to talk about accessibility in general. DMAG has been a key player in promoting good practice within industry, and much of the web accessibility work undertaken by DMAG is now offered by commercial companies or by in-house staff. We are proud our impact on driving the accessibility agenda forward and believe that DMAG has achieved its original aims - a job well done!