the alt text specialists
The ASPIRE project was born out of a crowd-sourced effort to audit the accessibility statements of the key players in the publishing industry. Librarians, publishers and platforms contributed their time and help to the project and ensured its success. We want to ensure that ASPIRE continues to be a collaborative effort, so we have created the ASPIREcommunity page to showcase our developers, affiliates and the partners who make ASPIRE possible.
ASPIREcommunity
LIBRARIANS
Do you have an experience with a publisher or platform that you would like to share with the ASPIRE team? We will share positive feedback on the ASPIREreview of the publisher or platform and share that good news with the wider community.
Negative feedback? We will discuss any constructive feedback with the publisher or platform directly and help them with correcting any issues.
ASPIRE is about making a difference within the publishing + education communities and improving the experience of readers + users. Any information you can provide helps us make that difference. Get in touch today by clicking your link below.
PUBLISHERS + PLATFORMS + EDUCATION
Do you have a question about ASPIRE? About your ASPIREscore? About improving your ASPIREscore? About the meaning of life? Click the link below and share your question with us and we'll be happy to help. We'll even tell you the meaning of life. It's 42.
ASPIREstories
ASPIRE is about telling your story.
Are you a publisher, platform vendor or institution with a story to tell about your accessibility journey? Let us know and we would be happy to publish your article on our ASPIREstories pages. An ASPIREstory is your opportunity to talk directly to your customers about the work you are doing. If you're an ASPIREverified customer, then get in touch with your story and we'll happily promote the work you are doing.
ASPIREsurvey + webinars
Join us on Friday 11 September for a free webinar: Accessibility Statements: Clearing the Final Hurdles.
The ASPIREeducation survey collated responses from over 30 organisations, identifying areas where anxieties remain.
Join Alistair McNaught + Huw Alexander as they highlight the key priorities identified in the survey and offer practical advice on:
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Senior management buy-in
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Third party content
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Alternative auditing approaches
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Tips on disproportionate burden assessment and justification
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Making accessibility statements genuinely useful to users.
With free templates, tools, advice/guidance + links to recommended organisations, we’ll help you over the final hurdles to meet the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations on 23 September 2020.
The ASPIREeducation survey identified a range of issues that institutions + organisations are facing as they race to meet the Public Sector Bodies accessibility regulations on 23 September.
We're delighted to follow up our webinar with a deeper dive into the tools + services available to the sector. To help us we've invited our friends from AbilityNet, All Able, Brickfields + codemantra, to join us to discuss their services and solutions and how they view the current state of accessibility across education.
Join us on Friday 18 September at 12.00 GMT for a series of presentations and questions and answers, followed by a panel discussion where you choose the questions.
Hosted by Alistair McNaught + Huw Alexander on behalf of ASPIREeducation.
Sessions:
12.00. PDF bulk auditing and bulk conversion with Mark McCallum + Ian Smith from codemantra.
12.20. Exploring the Accessibility Maturity model + the Digital Inclusion bundle with Amy Low + Helen Wickes from AbilityNet.
12.40. Moodle accessibility plugin – Find, Fix and Futureproof with Gavin Henrick from Brickfield.
13.00. Accessibility statement audits and support with Ben Watson + George Rhodes from All Able.
13.20. Writing your statements with Alistair McNaught + Huw Alexander from ASPIREeducation.
13.40. Panel Discussion.
14.00. Close.
ASPIREresources
We've collected together a range of industry articles to help you write your accessibility statement.
ASPIRE developers
textBOX are delighted to work with our friends at McNaught Consulting + AllAble to bring you the ASPIREeducation + ASPIRE Public Sector services for the creation + accreditation of accessibility statements in the higher + further education markets + the public sector. McNaught Consulting + AllAble possess a wealth of experience and expertise in shaping accessibility policies at a national level + developing accessibility statements + content that is truly empowering. Learn more about how they can help you below.
McNaught Consulting
Alistair McNaught spent 20 years as a mainstream teacher committed to developing student skills and independent learning. This led to early adoption of e-learning which in turn paved the way for an abiding interest in making teaching and learning content more accessible to more students. Alistair spent 10 years as a senior advisor for TechDis – a national advisory service for technology and disability – followed by 4 years as an accessibility specialist for Jisc before setting up McNaught Consultancy.
He was one of the earliest members of the Publishers Association Accessibility Action Group and a founder member of the Digital Accessibility Working Group liaising with Government Digital Services. He has been a key advocate for accessibility in the publishing world, contributing to accessibility sessions at 8 or more London Bookfairs and steering the crowd sourced Ebook accessibility audit (2016) and ASPIRE project (2018).
Alistair has contributed to a long list of training resources for national organisations. He was one of the UK partners in the Erasmus funded FutureTeacher project, co-creating a wealth of resources on inclusive teaching and learning. Recent publications include the National Lottery Heritage Fund Digital Accessibility guide and a chapter in the Association of Colleges “Creating a post-Covid-19 EdTech strategy”.
Alistair has worked for over ten years to help suppliers, librarians, disabled students, e-learning teams, managers, teachers and assistive technologists understand one another’s languages. He is delighted to work in partnership with some highly respected players such as textBox Digital, AbilityNet and AllAble and equally delighted to have the skills of his company enhanced by the technical, coding and interface expertise loaned by Kirsty McNaught consulting.
All Able
All Able believe that everyone should have equal opportunity to utilise public service, get an education, and engage with their communities to live an enjoyable and independent life. For people to have these opportunities, we believe that public services must change to offer equality and equal access through their services.
We are All Able, a consulting company committed to using our expertise to help public sector organisations fix these problems, removing the blockers to their user and delivering accessible and inclusive services that work for everyone.
ASPIREawards
The inaugural ASPIRE awards were held in March 2019 in association with our friends at BookMachine. Learn more about the awards + the winners by clicking the ASPIREawards link below.
ASPIREcharity
The accessibility community is a tight-knit and generous group of people.
At ASPIRE we want to reflect this good-natured approach by supporting charities focused on improving the reading experience for everyone. To this end we will be donating 10% of all ASPIREverified accreditation fees to selected charities each year. We will tell the story of these charities as ASPIREstories so that everyone can read about the impact of the ASPIRE project.
