Accessibility @ UWC: Project outline, aims and ideas

The Project:
Accessibility @ UWC is a writing project to promote accessibility for disabled students at the United World College schools and all other live-study communities.

The idea is to create a collection of articles on the issue. These articles should come from as many perspectives and have as many formats as possible. In this way, Accessibility @ UWC can be used as a database of stories and experiences from people with different lives, different roles and different opinions regarding how to create live-study communities that are accessible to disabled students.

Work Done So Far:
A simple blog has been set up at www.accessibility-uwc.blogspot.com. The articles on the blog are all labeled by theme, and can browsed in that way or from a list of all articles. The website is very basic but does encompass the necessary functions for the project at this stage.

Some articles have started to come in from various sources. They are all being translated or proof-read and uploaded to the blog in order of submission date.

Much work has gone into creating a network around the project. Some important steps have been:

• Promoting the project within UWC Red Cross Nordic and attracting support and attention.
• Establishing a connection with UWC International in London.
• Incorporating the project into the GC Conference. See www.gc-discrimination.blogspot.com.
• Contacting FAAE boarding school for disabled and non-disabled students in Denmark and establishing a permanent cooperation about the project.
• Networking with the UWC Germany group to attract attention to disability accessibility.

Current Aims:
The first aim is to collect articles. The project has received great support from many angles. There is, however, a lot of work in translating and proof-reading articles. Several current and former UWC students are currently writing about their experience. Keep requesting and working on articles.

The network must be expanded and formalized more. Possibly through Facebook or LinkedIn.

A possible scope of the project is to apply for funding to make it a full time commitment in the sum-mer. “Possible Ideas” outlines some early speculations on what could be done with these resources.

Possible Ideas:
It would be possible to broaden the scope of the project to move the focus form the UWC schools specifically to all kinds of live-study communities like boarding schools, orphanages and colleges. This would require funding for full time work as well as servers, software, domains and SEO.

These are some ideas on what would be needed to do this:

• The website must be completely restructured to increase its flexibility and functionality.
• Research must be done on how to make the website accessible to visually impaired people.
• A platform must be build to formalize the network and provide mutual contact and support.
• The system for browsing articles must be expanded for easy access to relevant information.
• The site must be promoted and search engine optimized to best reach its audience.
• Networking must be expanded, this includes promotional material and presentations.
• Lastly, the collection of articles must be greatly increased to include an even broader range of quality articles with different perspectives, backgrounds, environments and opinions.