HE and FE Accessibility Maturity Model

What is the Higher and Further Education (HE/FE) Accessibility Maturity Model

Created by AbilityNet and McNaught Consultancy, the HE and FE maturity model enables you to judge the maturity of your organisation's digital accessibility. All public sector organisations have a legal obligation to meet the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR,2018), but where does your organisation sit on the spectrum between outmoded practice and leading-edge accessibility excellence?

This interactive resource helps you:

  • Determine where you are in the Accessibility Maturity Spectrum
  • Understand risks; build on benefits
  • Identify support needs

Assessing Higher & Further Education institutions

Self-serve option - free

Download a copy of our HE and FE Accessibility Maturity Model and use it within your own institution.

Guided assessment - paid service 

The assessment involves:

  • Identifying key stakeholders 
  • Receiving feedback from each stakeholder via an interactive spreadsheet
  • Using feedback to identify key patterns
  • Probing and verifying responses with a stakeholder group through a 1/2 day online engagement
  • Creating a report identifying strengths, weaknesses, legal vulnerabilities
  • Creating a roadmap for short- and long-term priorities. 

DIY solo assessment - paid service

The assessment involves:

  • The full interactive spreadsheet as used in the Guided assessment
  • Documentation to support your own internal stakeholder sessions
  • Documentation that offers advice on how to identify key signals
  • Documentation on how to plan your roadmap

DIY verified assessment - paid service 

The assessment involves: 

  • 90 minutes of live online support from AbilityNet experts and Alistair McNaught
  • A chance to discuss your findings from the DIY solo assessment, and help you move forward in a rational way
Contact our accessibility experts
We offer tailored accessibility and usability support to clients from the HE and FE, and public sectors, to help you ensure your website, apps and other digital services are usable, accessible and comply with the new UK accessibility regulations.
Talk to us about your project and our experts will advise on a bespoke digital accessibility strategy to meet your requirements. Contact AbilityNet's accessibility experts. 

Services for assessing modules and courses

Guided - paid service

The full service includes a half-day walk-through of your own course using an interactive, self-assessment tool.

We can assist up to 20 module leaders and will assist you to:

  • Understand accessibility and inclusion for a course
  • Show examples of good and bad practices to help measure your own journey
  • Link good inclusive practice to a range of existing frameworks
  • Identify your current strengths, weaknesses, and priorities
  • Develop course level accessibility information

Training - paid service

In AbilityNet's 'How to deliver and sustain accessible learning' training session. You'll learn how to:

  • Discover how digital accessibility principles align with a variety of teaching excellence frameworks and approaches
  • Review the digital accessibility maturity framework at the module level
  • Discuss the framework's ten components
  • Review evidence for samples of modules from your own institution and assign points to each area
  • Determine bronze, silver, and gold-level scoring 
  • Discuss barriers to progress and share best practices

Please contact AbilityNet's accessibility experts to arrange a booking for you and your team. 

Download a copy of the HE and FE Accessibility Maturity Model

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