Advice on tackling accessibility challenges in higher education to ensure all students and staff can fully participate in their studies and work. These resources explore topics such as digital accessibility, remote and in-person working, course design, technology use and assessment practices through an accessibility lens, alongside insight on widening access to higher education for more diverse populations.

Accessibility in higher education

Otito Iwuchukwu talks about how to take an equity-first approach to delivering online courses to ensure all students can access the resources they need and have their voices heard

Bridging the digital divide: online courses with equity at their core 

Four academics offer practical advice on different aspects of online teaching and learning based on lessons from the rapid pivot to remote courses triggered by Covid-19 

THE Digital Transformation Forum: Reimagining higher education teaching and learning 

Online learning is tough for everyone, but for students with learning difficulties&nbsp;such as&nbsp;ADHD, it can be an absolute nightmare. As someone with&nbsp;both&nbsp;dyslexia and ADHD, I am only too aware of how difficult it can be. Imagine everything you dislike about online learning as a neurotypical person and&nbsp;then&nbsp;multiply&nbsp;it&nbsp;tenfold.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Do you get frustrated staring at a screen all day, struggle to&nbsp;“read the room”, lose focus, and find yourself in a state of constant anxiety as you try and navigate the highways and byways of multimedia content delivery?&nbsp;&nbsp;

Does the blurring of&nbsp;“at home”&nbsp;and&nbsp;“at work”&nbsp;affect your motivation and&nbsp;leave you flailing in a fog of&nbsp;“what the&nbsp;hell”?&nbsp;&nbsp;


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Then try to imagine doing&nbsp;the same&nbsp;thing&nbsp;with an ADHD&nbsp;brain that is hardwired to wander,&nbsp;easily overloaded, and quite happy to spend entire meetings replaying&nbsp;old episodes of&nbsp;Peep Show&nbsp;instead of&nbsp;paying attention&nbsp;or taking notes.&nbsp;

Challenges of online learning with ADHD&nbsp;

Students with ADHD can work around their weaker&nbsp;areas in the classroom, but almost every learning strategy requires face-to-face support. Students with ADHD typically have trouble focusing.&nbsp;&nbsp;

This is greatly improved by being in the classroom where distractions are reduced, and the lecturer is in front of them.&nbsp;But the potential distractions that come with being at home and&nbsp;online are endless.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Just being around lecturers and other students provides vital structure&nbsp;for us&nbsp;ADHDers&nbsp;in terms of modelling behaviour&nbsp;and providing&nbsp;emotional support.&nbsp;This&nbsp;just&nbsp;isn’t&nbsp;there&nbsp;when content is being delivered online.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Even if you do manage to focus on the screen in front of you,&nbsp;if&nbsp;everyone has their camera on, the wall of blinking faces is horrendously distracting&nbsp;–&nbsp;but&nbsp;then&nbsp;the option to turn your camera off or just use the audio makes it far too easy to stop listening altogether.&nbsp;

Happily,&nbsp;there are things we can do to help our students.&nbsp;As someone who has spent the&nbsp;past eight months adrift in a sea of&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;Teams meetings and&nbsp;“breakout rooms”,&nbsp;here are a few of my top tips&nbsp;to help students with ADHD&nbsp;stay engaged:&nbsp;


	Set the agenda for each session. An ADHD brain craves routine and structure. Be very clear about what you will cover&nbsp;and&nbsp;in what time. Not knowing when an activity or session will end will ramp up the anxiety in a student with ADHD.&nbsp;
	Where possible, provide crucial information&nbsp;about the module&nbsp;in bullet points.&nbsp;Students with ADHD struggle to follow multi-step directions,&nbsp;so&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;important to be short, direct, and to the point.&nbsp;
	Repeat important information. If there is an assessment coming up, relying on the student’s memory or them&nbsp;reading the module handbook&nbsp;is&nbsp;not enough.&nbsp;“Rules”&nbsp;given to students with ADHD must very clear&nbsp;and frequently reinforced.&nbsp;&nbsp;
	Repeat important information.&nbsp;
	Have regular breaks. This will help everyone, but particularly those who are struggling to pay attention. Even if the session is only an hour long, work in a short break and invite students to turn&nbsp;off&nbsp;their cameras for a few minutes, stand up, and stretch.&nbsp;&nbsp;
	Use the&nbsp;“Change Up”&nbsp;technique. Neurotypical students have an attention span of&nbsp;about&nbsp;15 to 20 minutes, so aim to&nbsp;change what&nbsp;you’re&nbsp;doing every 20 minutes. This&nbsp;doesn’t&nbsp;mean a radical change, but break up the lecture with mini lectures, short activities, tasks, discussion, etc. It&nbsp;doesn’t&nbsp;really matter what it is but breaking sustained focus every 20 minutes will help everyone.&nbsp;
	Where possible, record the lecture. Students who struggle to sustain concentration can review the lecture in their own time and&nbsp;don’t&nbsp;have to worry about missing content.&nbsp;
	Try to make the online learning as multisensory as possible.&nbsp;For example,&nbsp;you can&nbsp;colour code information, make use of the Whiteboard in Teams, and include visually compelling imagery and videos.&nbsp;
	Make it legible. It may be loathed by graphic designers around the&nbsp;world,&nbsp;but the Comic Sans font has been shown to be the most legible for people with ADHD and dyslexia, so consider using it in your communication with students.&nbsp;
	Contact the student directly to ask what can be done to help. Be available and check in regularly. Just knowing you can ask for help is half the battle.&nbsp;&nbsp;


And the good news is, while these steps are particularly important to those with ADHD, they will benefit all your other students too.&nbsp;

Kate Lister is a lecturer in the School of Arts and Communication at&nbsp;Leeds Trinity University.&nbsp;

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Online learning can be particularly challenging for students with learning difficulties such as ADHD. Kate Lister offers some simple steps every instructor can take to help students with ADHD stay engaged

Making online classes work for students with ADHD  

Angela Owusu-Ansah of Ashesi University in Ghana explains how her institution has tackled this problem to ensure all students can access teaching online

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The natural tech savviness of Generation Z doesn’t necessarily extend to remote learning tools. Here are three tips from the Open University of Hong Kong to train students to use collaborative working platforms 

 Improving students' digital literacy for remote learning

 Advice on tackling accessibility challenges including digital poverty, remote access, user experience, technology skills and assessment from academics and university staff 

THE Campus Learn, Share, Connect

Accessibility | THE Campus Learn, Share, Connect

Accessibility in higher education

Bridging the digital divide: online courses with equity at their core

THE Digital Transformation Forum: Reimagining higher education teaching and learning

Making online classes work for students with ADHD

How to reach remote students with limited access to technology

Improving students' digital literacy for remote learning

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