iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by UoY Digital Accessibility Unit

Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Hyperlink text should make sense when read out of context. Screen reader users can navigate from link to link, and can listen to links in a list. When navigating this way, only the link is read. So "click here" or "read more" won't make sense.

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Reposted by UoY Digital Accessibility Unit

DisabledInSTEM @disabledinstem.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

💜Applications are OPEN for the 2027 #DisabledInSTEM Mentorship Program! Join our 7th year of connecting disabled people in STEM with mentors & community. Mentors can be disabled or nondisabled allies! 📅 Apply by Dec. 11 Mentees: forms.gle/121MAZgCWBHW...  Mentors: forms.gle/LU1NFBxCz43M...

forms.gle

DisabledInSTEM Mentee Application 2027

Thank you for your interest in becoming a mentee. This marks the seventh year of the program, and we are deeply grateful for the continued support from our community. The program features mentoring po...

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Thomas Pocklington Trust @pocklington.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The new academic term is under way. If you’re a parent or carer of a blind or partially sighted student, our Education Advice Service has resources to help you understand support in education. Questions? Contact educationadvice@pocklington.org.uk Guides: tinyurl.com/rjw69xvf

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Reposted by UoY Digital Accessibility Unit

Thomas Pocklington Trust @pocklington.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Today is World Sight Day. This year’s theme, ‘Love Your Eyes’, is also about being able to access the healthcare you need. Accessible information helps blind and partially sighted people understand their care and make informed choices. Find out more: tinyurl.com/3edm85wk

Graphic for World Sight Day 2026 featuring Thomas Pocklington Trust and Sight Loss Councils logos. The text reads: "Celebrating World Sight Day 2026" and "Love Your Eyes". Below the text is a photograph of a person having an eye examination using a slit lamp microscope at an eye clinic. The design uses a white background with teal accents.

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

UoY staff - want to be more inclusive in your workplace communications? Join us on Thursday 15th for an online bitesize session focused on Accessible workplace communication - book your place: york-ac.csod.com/ui/lms-learn...

Photo of a woman's hands as she sits at a desk with a laptop and smartphone.

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Open Research at York @uoyopenres.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Next week we're running an in-person workshop as part of PGR Induction, introducing Open Research at York 🔓 👐 It will be an informal session with opportunities for discussion and questions! Register your place via SkillsForge below 👇 📆 Thu 8 October, 10:00-11:00, LFA/144 @uoylibrary.bsky.social

skillsforge.york.ac.uk

SkillsForge

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Build in accessibility from the start! Whether digital, physical or policy, if you include accessibility considerations from the start, you not only have a more considered and accessible approach, you avoid last minute panicked retrofits and redesigns. If it's not accessible, it's not finished.

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Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Cognitive load refers to how much working memory or short-term memory someone is using at a time. Minimizing the cognitive load it takes to use your site makes it more accessible for people with cognitive disabilities. Limit what you're asking users to remember to use your site.

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Alt text should be included on any image you post, but if you are posting about wellbeing, disability, accessibility or inclusivity, you need to remember to use alt text on your images - it really undermines your message if you don't.

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MySight York @mysightyork.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Our new accessible website is now live as part of a soft launch! We're carrying out final checks and gathering feedback before our official launch on 14th October. Read more about the soft launch of our new website and view the website: mysightyork.org/our-new-acce...

mysightyork.org

Our New Accessible Website Is Now Live – Ahead of Official Launch – MySight York

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Reposted by UoY Digital Accessibility Unit

Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

In charts and data visualizations, avoid overwhelming people with information. Keep the design simple and clear. Avoid animations as they can be distracting and disorienting. If you must include some type of movement or animation, provide a way for people to turn it off.

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

It's welcome week - so welcome new students! (Are there students on Bluesky? Maybe mature students...) We'll be in the library, in LFA 144 in the Fairhurst building today, helping promote The Distractibles peer support group, so do pop by to say hi, find out more or chat about accessibility!

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Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Consistent layout makes websites easier to navigate and understand as it helps users learn what elements to expect and in what order. This is especially helpful to low vision users or blind users using a screen reader. It also helps those with cognitive and learning disabilities.

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The logos were designed by York St John graphic design students, who worked with the Creativity lab to 3D design of the clip prototype, which was printed in Yorcreate, for a social project initiated by academics from the School for Business and Society: it's a wonderfully collaborative project!

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

This is a great project - and we're especially pleased to see the prototype pump clip in the cover photo! (It's the purple plastic logo item Kaan is holding!). The prototype clip was designed by our Creativity Lab colleague and 3D printed in Yorcreate, in @uoylibrary.bsky.social.

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Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

When considering rainbow text, don't forget to consider readability and legibility. Text filled with rainbows can be difficult to read. Same with complex rainbow backgrounds. Putting each word or letter in a different color of the rainbow could force readers to work harder.

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

If you as trainer struggle to follow it, it's not going to work for your audience either! Word clouds can be difficult to parse at the best of times and are typically inaccessible to anyone using a screen reader.

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Richard A Carter @richardacarter.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Please do share and complete Mariana's survey of sounds you have found culturally / personally important, wherever you have lived in the world! As noted, if you, or know others, who have lived in Latin America, Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Ukraine, their responses would be especially welcome 🙂

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

If you leave all physical accessibility considerations like ramps and lifts until a building is finished, the retrofit can be difficult (and costly). With both physical and digital infrastructure, it's much easier to build in accessibility from the start. If it isn't accessible, it isn't finished.

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

University of York teaching staff - still places left - this is TOMORROW! (Wednesday 16th)

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Also a prompt to share the accessibility reminder that if you do use the "beautify my slides" option, it will output as image, even if the original slide was fully formatted. This loss of formatting will make the slide inaccessible to those who rely on screen reader software.

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

If you go to Tools, then Preferences, you can uncheck the smart features from the list, which removes a lot of the gen AI suggestions

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Uni of York staff - you can still join us this Wednesday (16th) for Preparing to Teach Visually Impaired Students, an in-person session running 2-4pm, in the Fairhurst @uoylibrary.bsky.social to help staff prepare to teach students with low or no vision: book your place: forms.gle/8rVPsCZK4iVP...

forms.gle

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It also has the all important link to the magic* reading lists submission form - if you are creating a new list or have major change to make, you can submit your list as a structured document and the reading lists team will build it in the system for you. *not actually magic, powered by staff

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A reminder that the new all-singing, all-dancing* streamlined @uoylibrary.bsky.social reading lists guide is out! It covers everything staff need to do to create or edit a reading list and discusses accessible text provision: * neither sings nor dances subjectguides.york.ac.uk/reading-lists

subjectguides.york.ac.uk

Subject Guides: Reading Lists: a guide for staff: Reading Lists

Includes how-to guides on using reading lists for teaching, plus best practice and policy

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Tade "Will Eat Your Heart in the Marketplace" Thompson @tadethompson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Listening to an audiobook is reading*. Why is this even a question? [*I don't want to engage the source of this consternation.]

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Just reminding University of York teaching staff that we have two training events next week - an online reading lists training session and an in person workshop to support teaching visually impaired students - see the thread for details!

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Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Accessibility awareness and training are good first steps, but they aren't the end. Teams need to create accessibility policies and strategies based on that training and newfound knowledge. Managers must empower people to enforce policies to make sure everyone does their part.

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Still more work in the next couple of weeks, but the library lounge area is open again!

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Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Vestibular disorders affect people's balance as well as their visual perception of their world around them. Don't make animations, sliders, videos, or rapid movement start automatically, as autoplaying elements could trigger a bad reaction in people who have vestibular disorders.

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Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Color contrast is the difference in brightness between foreground and background colors. You can check your color contrasts with the WebAIM Color Contrast Checker to determine if people with low vision can tell the colors apart and see your content. webaim.org/resources/co...

webaim.org

WebAIM: Contrast Checker

Search:

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Uni of York teaching staff, please check out this thread of upcoming training, run with @uoylibrary.bsky.social, to help you get set for an accessible start to the academic year!

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

University of York teaching staff - let us help you get prepped for the start of the academic year!

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

If you will be teaching students with visual impairments at University of York but are unable to attend this session, please do get in touch with us at digacc-support@york.ac.uk with any questions or concerns. 7/7

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

University of York teaching staff can book a place on the workshop via this google form 6/ forms.gle/8rVPsCZK4iVP...

forms.gle

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

And for staff teaching students with visual impairments this academic year, we have an in person workshop running on Wednesday 16th September in the Harry Fairhurst building, designed to help you prepare, to ensure your digital teaching practices and materials are accessible. 5/

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Staying with reading lists: the Reading Lists practical guide has been refreshed! We've revamped the guide to make it clearer, to simply walk you through reading list creation, editing and accessible provision 4/: subjectguides.york.ac.uk/reading-lists

subjectguides.york.ac.uk

Subject Guides: Reading Lists: a guide for staff: Reading Lists

Includes how-to guides on using reading lists for teaching, plus best practice and policy

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

If you want to attend but can't make that time, if you sign up to the session anyway, we'll send you the recording and materials after the session has run. 3/

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

We've got a bitesize online reading lists training session running at 2pm on Tuesday 15th September, running through how to build and edit your lists, and how to ensure accessible text provision. UoY staff can sign up via this form: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... 2/

docs.google.com

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Teaching staff! It's September and the start of the new academic year is looming... but we're here to help you get off to an accessible start! First up: help getting your reading lists sorted. This will save you time, effort and copyright reporting, as well as improving accessibility for students 1/

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Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The same photo could appear on three different pages and require different alt text for each instance. The alt text for an image can vary, depending on the context of the image, its role on the page, and the intended message.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

One month until abstracts are due for this special issue "Accessibility in Digital Publishing", which I am co-editing with John Maxwell. "Publishing" is broadly defined, and we're open to a range of submissions. See link in quoted post for more details. Short wishlist in the next post.

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UoY Digital Accessibility Unit @uoydigacc.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

This is always hard to balance. The principle of "nothing about us without us" is so important but in turn that shouldn't mean that individuals from marginalised groups become solely responsible for addressing that marginalisation. Co-creation is important but inclusion is everyone's responsibility.

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Mariana J López @marianajlopez.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

As part of my work on sound heritage, I'm running a short survey on sounds (not music) that are important personally/culturally to people from different parts of the world. It's available in different languages. If you can contribute and share the survey with others please do ❤️ tinyurl.com/2twuzpfd

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