digital media access group

...excellent accessibility research and consultancy

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What do we do?

In addition to our commercial-in-confidence consultancy, we've been involved in a number of activites, some of which we talk about here.


Accessible Design in the Digital World Conference

In August 2005, we held our first conference, focussing on accessible design of technology - Accessible Design in the Digital World. Over 80 people from around the world came to Dundee for a friendly mix of workshops, discussion sessions and paper presentations, plus keynote talks from prominent figures in the accessible technology field: Vicki Hanson (IBM), Helen Petrie (City University) and Alan Newell (University of Dundee), and leading figure in the computer games industry Chris van der Kuyl (Tayforth Consulting).


Find out more on the Accessible Design in the Digital World Conference web site.


Some DMAG Projects

We've also been involved in several interesting projects relating to accessibility, usability and information technology, some of which we discuss here.


University of Dundee Web Accessibility Service

We run the University's Web Accessibility Service - we've been funded to provide advice and support to all staff at Dundee involved in developing or authoring Web content, as well as more generally promoting the importance of Web accessibility at a strategic level throughout the University.


Started: May 2006

More information: University of Dundee Accessibility Service Web site.


Usability of Web Accessibility Statements

We received funding from Techdis to investigate how useful accessibility pages provided on a selection of UK Web sites were to users - in particular older people without significant impairments, but who may soon benefit from accessibility information. We acted because we believe that too many Web accessibility statements are overly technical, and don't give the necessary support to the people who would most benefit from it.


Started: October 2005

Completed: June 2006

More information: Read about the key findings of the research, or download the full project report: Usability of Accessibility Statements work.


Skills for Access (SFA)

With the Learning Development and Media Unit (LDMU), a team of media and e-learning producers at the University of Sheffield, we developed a web site devoted to accessibility, multimedia and e-learning and multimedia developers. The site provides detailed advice on creating optimally accessible video, audio, animated and graphical resources, and also promotes a holistic approach to using multimedia as a way of enhancing the accessiblity of the learning environment.

The site also includes links to other useful on-line resources, plus articles and case studies offering real-world perspectives from disabled students and staff, and from multimedia and e-learning developers. The site has - of course - been designed with accessibility in mind, but also makes use of multimedia itself to show that accessibility need not be 'text-only'.


Funding source: Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) Northern Ireland, as part of an initiative to improve access to learning by disabled students.

Started: February 2003

Completed: The site was launched in May 2005

More information: Skills for Access web site


NHS SDO E-health Scoping Study

In collaboration with colleagues at the Tayside Centre for General Practice and the University of Edinburgh, we were funded by the National Health Service's Service Delivery and Organisation Research Programme (SDO) to carrying out a scoping study of the field of e-health. The aim of the study was to chart current developments in e-health, developing a model of the concept of e-health, in order to identify areas of weakness, and inform future research in the area. Our role was to complement a more traditional systematic literature review with a review of other 'grey' sources of information, mainly online, which would provide the scoping study with up-to-date information on developments and trends. We were particularly interested in the influence of inclusive design of Information and Communication Technology for supporting healthcare delivery.


Funding source: National Health Service (NHS).

Started: October 2003

Completed: January 2005

More information: A draft report (Non-Traditional Review) is available from the NHS SDO web site.

For an initial discussion of our findings, see our paper - Journal of Medical Internet Research: What is E-health?


Teachability - Creating Accessible e-Learning

DMAG was commissioned by the Teachability project at Strathclyde University to write a booklet on accessibility and e-learning development. The booklet has been distributed to all Scottish Higher Edication Institutions, and is also available on-line.

To support the booklet, in Spring 2005 DMAG and Teachability also held a series of workshops around Scotland focussing on accessibility and e-learning.


Funding source: Teachability Project - which is in turn funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.

Started: June 2004

Completed: April 2005

More information: Creating Accessible e-Learning resources - Teachability web site.


Accessibility of Scottish Elections 2003

A study was carried out, by DMAG and Brodies, an Edinburgh law firm, of the web sites of each main political party standing in the Scottish Parliament elections of 2003. We reviewed the web sites against accepted accessibility standards, and found that most sites exhibited some significant accessibility barriers, inhibiting access to campaign and manifesto information, and potentially preventing some disabled voters from being able to make an informed decision when they vote.


Funding source: Self-funded

Started/completed: April 2003

More information: Election 2003: fully accessible?

We note that, two years on, similar studies were carried out in advance of the 2005 UK General Election.

From the findings of these studies, it seems like there's still work to be done by the main political parties on improving their online accessibility...


Scottish Disability Team (SDT)

We don't normally develop web sites, but we did produce, and continue to maintain, a web site for the Scottish Disability Team, who provide advice to the Tertiary Education sector in Scotland on supporting disabled students. We have close links with the team, and often support each other through, for example, provision of evaluations and workshops.

Started: February 2003

Completed: Ongoing