The impact of COVID-19 on SML College

The following is an extract from the last chapter of ‘Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm’ by Dr Ian Cunningham.

It is 29 March 2020 and we were in the early stages in England of the coronavirus or Covid-19 crisis.

Schools have been closed and many problems are occurring from this. One example is around the well-being of children. Walker, 2020, comments that even at this early stages of the crisis, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and its phone service, Childline, have been inundated with calls from worried children. For instance, she said that ‘last week, Childline delivered over 50 counselling sessions with children who are having suicidal thoughts, exacerbated by coronavirus as they felt trapped and isolated.’ (1)

Many children said that they felt increasingly lonely and vulnerable and mental-mental health issues were being exacerbated by the crisis. However, even amongst the majority that have not previously had mental health problems, it's clear that these problems are growing because of the concerns about isolation and the worries about their future.

A number of commentators have indicated the error of schools attempting to replicate the normal schooling model in the home. Merrow, 2020, comments ‘a lot of school systems seem to be reflexively behaving as if they could simply transplant schools routines to the home.’ In reading advice given by, and for, schools about dealing with the fact that children are not in school it is all oriented to continuing to utilise the schooling model, but in a new environment. It is clearly in most cases failing. Woolcock, 2020, cites a mother of three saying; ‘we’ve been sent a timetable that details each activity and even the amount of minutes it should take. I feel stressed, just looking at how much should be crammed into the day.’

Merrow is particularly good at critiquing the notion that the current crisis demands home-schooling. He cogently points out that is an opportunity for home learning. One that I would obviously support. The attempt merely to translate school systems into a home environment is clearly not working and the problems will undoubtedly get worse.

When the crisis occurred, we closed our building, but our stance with parents and students is that the building is shut, but the college is open. We immediately created a new online environment with three Zoom (video-conferencing) channels that allowed a great deal of interaction between learning advisers and the 38 students on roll. The use of platforms such as Discord has allowed for a lot of chat and interaction between the students away from the video-conferencing environment. Good old-fashioned phones and emails have also played a part.

The important feature of this is that students were able to continue the learning community in this new environment. The feedback from students has been mainly positive. After the morning Zoom sessions there’s a lunchtime open meeting where anyone can enter a designated Zoom channel and raise anything they want. Students are often just wanting to connect with others and continuing the relationships that they’ve developed when the building was open. Most feel that it works really well and indeed one of our autistic students actually feels it’s better in some respects since she is someone who finds noise and closeness of others a problem.

Parents have started to adjust to this new world and the following is a comment at the end of our first week of working:

‘Just have to say how amazing it is - despite tech hitches and Discord/booking in confusion - that the SML College team have turned EVERYTHING around so quickly to create a really broad and accessible online system.

First full week for J [son] done and I just wanted to feed back to you that he is in a really good place. And a big part of this has been the opportunity for consistent face to face contact with college advisors and students. Of course, some teething issues around self managing at home and getting information about session timings etc but considering how huge the task at hand was to provide everyone access to an online alternative I think what you have achieved is really remarkable. Congratulations.

The week has also been a time to suss out what I need to do in order to support J accessing the college’s offer - so I also really appreciate all the communication with staff around how the new system works.

I'll continue to feed back to staff of course as things crop up but just wanted to say a big direct thank you to everybody for their dedication and adaptability!’

At one level, we are just replicating the Self Managed Learning mode in a new environment where we can’t all be physically together. I would reiterate that it only works because we have a learning community where people know each other and are trusting and open and prepared to work together. Clearly for some students the transition is proving a bit more difficult than others. But one of the points that we want to make is that in the world that we are operating in we do need to be able to connect with people without direct physical contact. Video-conferencing has been around for some time and it’s clear that it will become more important, given the impact on the climate of human travel. Also improvements in air quality has already been identified as travel has been reduced. Whatever the future holds, after this crisis, it is clear that the trend that was already there for increased homeworking by adults is going to continue. And indeed it is desperately needed.

However, it only works if there is already that sense of trust and comradeship and connection that is the key part of a community way of working. It seems valuable that students who are not finding it easy do learn to struggle with this environment, because it is going to be part of the future for them. And we are back to the problem that, even if schools used some of this technology, because they are generally not caring communities that empower students there will still be increased mental health problems for their students.

Another development from the closing of schools for the majority of children has been the large growth in parents booking one-to-one tuition via online arrangements. Clearly done well this can respond to individual needs, though, evidence suggests that a lot of it is around preparing young people for exams and therefore sticking to existing curricula. The other problem with this mode is that, of course, it misses the community dimension. As I pointed out earlier in this book it’s crucial for young people in this age group to relate to their peers and the notion that parents can fully provide for their offspring by one-to-one tuition is not likely to be realised.

This new environment is challenging teachers to be open to it to rethink their role. Tn the Guardian newspaper Teachers Network of 29 March, 2020, it quoted a head teacher who was looking after a small number of key worker children who were allowed into the school. Currently schools are expected to stay open just for the small number of children who whose parents are seen as key workers, such as those in the health service. This headteacher commented, ‘it just seems a very calm and lovely - a bit of an oasis. Children have never had this experience before, where they get to just play in their primary school. It’s going to be strange. I’m no longer headteacher, I’m a leader of the playscheme.’ (3)

Perhaps that head teacher might contemplate on what the possibilities are when the school reopens. Somehow I think quite a lot will just revert to what they’ve been doing before, and may even use the fact that many children have struggled while out of school to justify the notion of recreating school as it was before. It would be a great shame as there is an opportunity here for people to rethink. Only time will tell if that happens.

President’s Lecture

Last year saw the first President’s lecture given by Professor Rose Luckin of UCL Institute of Education. As a world-renowned expert on AI in education her lecture was a great success with many complimentary remarks about its value. We had hope to have a lecture again this year, but the virus pandemic beat us. We do, though, plan for one next year.

University of Brighton Collaboration

We have had a longstanding relationship with the University of Brighton. As well as eight evaluation research studies that their students have carried out with us we have recently commissioned research from a Master’s student in Community Psychology. Her research was on the local problem of NEETs (young people not in education employment or training). Her findings support the need for the College to start running programmes for the over 16s.

Education in the future. Submission to UNESCO. 2020

UNESCO issued a consultation on Education in the Future. This is our submission to that consultation.

Education in the future has to make dramatic changes. It is not fit for purpose. A major error is the notion that education means institutional learning – generally in a school, college or university. It also assumes that most useful learning occurs via a process called teaching and that covering a curriculum in an institution somehow automatically produces educated people. If teaching was so effective then every child would pass every test that was imposed on them. The fact that this process is very inefficient is largely ignored within the educational establishment.

I have spent most of my working life supporting learning in organisations. (Only recently have I been involved in the learning of young people in what we call Self Managed Learning (SML) College.) In my role as CEO of a European business school I gathered together a team of experienced researchers to look at learning in organisations. We researched many thousands of managers and professional people across organisations around the world. We wanted to know what makes them effective at work. They all talk about things that they have learned but very little reference is made to education, training, colleges, universities, courses etc. Indeed, not just from our research, but that conducted by a number of universities in the UK and in the USA has shown that the maximum contribution of education and training to the performance of a professional person is about 10 to 20%. (See Burgoyne and Reynolds, 1997; Cunningham et al., 2004; Eraut, 1998; Eraut et al., 1998; McCall et al, 1988; Wenger, 1998.) Most of the useful learning that we gain comes from what tends to be dismissed (by officialdom) as informal learning, such as from peers, family, travel, reading, etc, etc. In our own research we have identified over 80 useful learning modes outside schooling. Some of these are summarised in Cunningham et al, 2004.

This evidence can come as a bit of a shock to people in the educational world. One reason for the shock is that by and large educational institutions do not follow up the people who have attended them to find out what impact that education has had on their lives. We started from the opposite end, which was to find out what made adults effective and particularly what learning had helped them to become effective.

In our research we questioned people about what particular processes had helped them to become effective. The most often mentioned word was ‘experience’. When we pursued in greater depth, through extensive interviews, what people meant by ‘experience’ the answers were many and varied. Reference was made to having had challenging projects, having had a good boss to work to, travelling to other countries, getting help from a coach, and so on. There was no obvious pattern to these answers – people varied enormously in terms of those experiences that had helped them to learn to be effective.

This research has been in the world of work. When I have done sessions with adults outside the world of work asking them about their wider life, including family and community, the value of education and training drops to an even lower figure. For instance, parents often comment on all sorts of ways that they learn to be a parent. These include having role models, reading books, watching TV and films, talking to other parents, and so on. I ask these adults about their role in the wider life of the community, with friends or sports teams. Then things get mentioned such as their own friendships that have helped them to understand how to get on well with other people or how they have learned to take up leadership roles through being mentored by somebody.

Solutions to the problem of institutional education

Notions of the future are problematic. We cannot predict the global situation even a year ahead – witness the pandemic. What is apparent is that the ability to learn to deal with new and unpredictable situations is a sine qua non for homo sapiens. Learning to learn is not, though, about more formal courses, which only trap people into a false complacency about their preparedness for the future.

In SML College our main aim is to equip our students (aged 9-17) with the ability y to manage their own learning. We do this by starting with the person – understanding them and their current needs – and then helping them to learn what they need. This means that there is no formal teaching, no imposed curriculum and no imposed timetable. Students learn to make decisions for themselves. The evidence of independent research on past students shows that they deal with new situations better and that they can take charge of their own lives. This is the most important learning in a world with unknown futures.

 

References

Burgoyne, J. and Reynolds, M. (eds.) (1997) Management Learning. London: Sage.

Cunningham, I., Dawes, G. and Bennett, B. (2004) Handbook of Work Based Learning, Aldershot, Hants.: Gower:

Eraut, M. (1998) ‘Learning in the workplace’, Training Officer, Vol 34, No 6, July/August, pp172-174.

Eraut, M., Alderton, J., Cole, G. and Senker, P. (1998) Development of knowledge and skills in employment, Research Report No. 5, University of Sussex Institute of Education, Brighton.

McCall, M. W., Lombardo, M. M., and Morrison, A. M. (1988) The Lessons of Experience, Lexington: Lexington Books.

Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice. Cambridge: University Press.

 

Ian Cunningham, 2020

A summary of research on Self Managed Learning

Self Managed Learning (SML) has been extensively researched for its impact on young people. This approach allows learners to take control of their education, setting their own goals and determining the best methods to achieve them.

For a comprehensive overview of the research and findings on Self Managed Learning, please download the PDF linked below.

  A summary of research on Self Managed Learning

“Machine learning and human intelligence. The future of education for the 21st-century.”

The title of this review is the title of Rose Luckin’s latest book and Rose delivered our Presidential Lecture on July 8 at SML College on this topic. Her chair at UCL Institute of Education is in Learner Centred Design. It’s in that capacity that we have worked together in the past and in her latest book she does make reference to research that she did with our students in SML College. So I can’t suggest that this review is a totally independent and unbiased piece.

We have both been totally committed to the notion of learner centred design in terms of the use of AI and computers. Too often shiny new technology has been introduced with little understanding of the context in which is being used and its value (or otherwise) to learners. Our approach in SML College is the same as Rose’s in that the first need is to find out what learners need to learn and then think about how to use the technology (if at all). We need to start with the problem and then go to the appropriate solution (which may be AI or may not), whereas, too often, the techie experts have started with the solution, namely a piece of hardware or software that they then want to attach to a problem or in some cases distort the problem to fit what they have available.

In her new book, she is especially careful to locate AI in its full educational and social context. For instance, she emphasises how as humans what we offer is an ability to work together and to bring a social intelligence to decisions about the application of AI (something AI alone cannot do). She shows how the limited view of learning that has dominated education is unhelpful. If education is just about drilling students in facts and data, then the role of the teacher can be replaced by AI . However for proper human learning the collaboration of learners is central and it’s where AI cannot contribute.

She takes a broader view of intelligence than the stance of IQ-driven educators. Social intelligence is central to human development and how we can best utilise AI in the future. The title of her book is apt, because a great deal of it is actually discussing the way we think about intelligence and the importance of, for instance, metacognition. It is like the process we use in SML College right at the start of the student’s life with us, namely having to think about the way that you think. If we are just thinking within boundaries that are imposed on us, as is the case typical schooling, then that’s an impoverished education. We have to be able to step back and understand, for instance, what we know and what we don’t know and how we can develop our knowledge and skills in a broader context. One of the many areas that she points out, is the notion of achieving mastery in a subject. It requires us to develop a way of thinking about what mastery means and to pursue that to the full, not through competing with others, but from having a real sense of what we mean by the learning we want to undertake. This includes the ability to self-assess – again a process mostly omitted in formal education but which is an important part of Self Managed Learning.

This capability is part of what is technically labelled as self-efficacy. To quote from Rose’s book. “An accurate perceived self-efficacy, based on accurate judgements about what we know, is a key ability for learning and will be so to an increased extent. It will be the most important ability for our future lifelong learning. It is also something that is unavailable to AI.” (Page 131). You can see from this view that she does not approach AI in a gung-ho mode as the answer to all our educational problems. Her balanced and sophisticated analysis is a breath of fresh air in the simplistic debates about AI. Paradoxically this is both a strength and a weakness of the book. Its strength is in the thoroughness of a world leader in her field. Its weakness is that it demands an open minded and in-depth take on a complex subject – and too many people are looking for the simple and easy answers they won’t get from the book.

Ian Cunningham July 2019

ian@smlcollege.org.uk

The book is “Machine Learning and Human Intelligence. The future of education for the 21^st century’ published by UCL Institute of Education Press, 2018.

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• In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
• If the company or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use (available on this website under the Legal section) or terms and conditions of supply and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the company, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Where we store your personal data

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us using the contact email address on this website.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Access to information

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request may be subject to a fee of £10 to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you.

Changes to our privacy policy

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to the contact email address on this website.

Cookie Policy

Information about our use of cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
• Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
• Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
• Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

You block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire after 30 days.

Accessibility Information

The owners of this website care that their website is accessible to all and welcomes visitors of all races, religions and abilities.

This page is to give you information on what aids this website offers for people with a disability. It also explains how the WC3 Accessibility Guidelines I.O and 2.O have been implemented on this site.

Using this website

• For those screen reader and non-mouse users, please use the ‘jump’ menus provided to skip straight to the content, navigation and/or site map
• Please use the text variations provided;
  • ‘Standard text’ will provide a 12px equivalent version on most browsers and hide accessibility elements
  • ‘Large text’ will provide a 24px equivalent version on most browsers and hide accessibility elements
  • ‘Easy Read’ will provide a low simple contrast version, using standard text size on a pale yellow background to aid legibility which is often helpful for users with dyslexia
  • ‘No Style’ will strip off all our styles and provide a plain text, linear version
  • To resize the text without our help:
    • In Internet Explorer: View > Text size > Largest
    • In Firefox: View > Text size > Increase
    • In Opera: File > Preferences > Fonts > Minimum font size (pixels)
    • Alternatively, scroll with the wheel of your mouse whilst holding down the control key.
    • To use the keyboard instead of the mouse;
      • Use the Tab key to move and browse amongst the menus and links.
      • Pressing ‘Enter’ is the same as clicking a mouse
      • Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move up or down the page or from left to right.
• All images contain an ALT tag unless decorative, where they are marked as empty.
• Links make sense out of context. Wherever possible, title tags have also been used to expand on their meaning.
• Drop down menu bars are sometimes used. Please select a category and click (or press ‘Enter’) on the option you wish to view. If your system does not support drop-down menus, please use the site map link for quick and easy browsing
• Most of our sites have ‘breadcrumbs’ on the top of each page which allow you to retrace your steps and go back to where you started. However, older sites may not have this facility so you may need to use the ‘Back’ button on your browser. Back buttons are usually on the top left hand corner of your browser. By simply clicking on this button you can retrace your steps through the pages you have already viewed on our website. Some keyboards also have a Back Button as part of their options.

General Accessibility.

• This website conforms to the WCAG 2.0 four principles of accessibility and so is: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust
• The original designers, Access by Design, have considered the full range of techniques, including the advisory techniques, as well as to seeking relevant advice about current best practice to ensure that this web content is accessible, as far as possible, to all communities.
• This website has been thoroughly tested on multiple browsers, platforms and devices
• This website has been tested using multiple automated accessibility testing software
• This website has been tested by a REAL person with a disability who tested the website and submitted a report to the original designers who then used it to improve accessibility further.

Web Standards

• All CSS and XHTML created by this website validate to the document type.
  Validation does not equal accessibility.
• If a page on this website does not validate it is almost always because a third-party ‘plug-in’ has needed to be employed.
• Although we try to use only accessible third-parties and we alert designers to accessibility issues, rectifying them is beyond our control
• We reserve the right to use the web standards CSS and XHML buttons on this website as all elements within our control validate correctly.

Please Note: although this website was designed and built by a company specialising in accessible websites, it is run by us. We are not experts on web accessibility ourselves and sometimes mistakes can happen. If you find an accessibility error, please alert us as soon as possible, using the contact email address on this website, telling us the nature of the problem so that we can fix it.

Further Help

You may wish to download “Browsealoud”. This is a FREE speech reader that enables you to listen rather than read our website. Browsealoud may be helpful to people with dyslexia, those who find reading difficult, those who have a mild visual impairment or those who just like to do more than one thing at a time!

• Please follow this link to download Browsealoud onto your computer or select the image above.

WC3 WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and W.A.G 2.0

To be considered to be Priority 1 (A) standard a website should meet all of the following points.

• This website provides a text equivalent for every non-text element (e.g., via “alt”, “longdesc”, or in element content). This includes: images, graphical representations of text (including symbols), image map regions, animations (e.g., animated GIFs), applets and programmatic objects, ascii art, frames, scripts, images used as list bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, sounds (played with or without user interaction), stand-alone audio files, audio tracks of video, and video. (1.0)
• This website provides text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.
• This website ensures that all information conveyed with colour is also available without colour, for example from context or markup. (1.0)
• This website clearly identifies changes in the natural language of a document’s text and any text equivalents (e.g., captions). (1.0)
• This website may be read without style sheets; when an HTML document is rendered without associated style sheets, it is still be possible to read the document. (1.0)
• This website ensures that equivalents for dynamic content are updated when the dynamic content changes. (1.0)
• This website avoids causing the screen to flicker. (1.0)
• This website uses the clearest and simplest language appropriate for its content.
• This website does not use image maps(1.0)
• This website does not use tables(1.0)
• This website does not use frames(1.0)
• This websitedoes not use multimedia(1.0)
  • This website has 1 area that is sadly, still inaccessible to some users. (1.0)
    • After our best efforts, we have not been able to create an accessible page for the Social Networking buttons. Please see the bottom of this page for alternatives.
    • Pages on this website are still usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not possible, this website provides equivalent information on an alternative accessible page. (1.0)
    • Programmatic elements such as scripts are directly accessible and compatible with assistive technologies (1.0)

This website passes Priority 1 (A) Accessibility.

Priority 2 checkpoints

To be considered to be Priority 2 (AA) standard, a website should meet all of the following points;

• This website ensures that the foreground and background colour combinations in images provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having colour deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen. (1.0)
• When an appropriate markup language exists, this website uses usesmarkup rather than images to convey information. (1.0)
• This website documents validate to published formal grammars. (1.0)
• This website uses style sheets to control layout and presentation. (1.0)
• This website uses relative rather than absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values. (1.0)
• This website uses header elements to convey document structure and uses them according to specification. (1.0)
• This website marks up lists and list items properly. (1.0)
• This website marks up quotations and does not use quotation markup for formatting effects such as indentation. (1.0)
  This website ensures that dynamic content is accessible (or provides an alternative presentation or page only when no other option is possible). (1.0)
• Until user agents allow users to control blinking, this website avoids causing content to blink (i.e., change presentation at a regular rate, such as turning on and off). (1.0)
• Until user agents provide the ability to stop the refresh, this website does not use periodically auto-refreshing pages. (1.0)
• Until user agents provide the ability to stop auto-redirect, this website does not use markup to redirect pages automatically. (If redirects are needed they are configures via the server) (1.0)
• Until user agents allow users to turn off spawned windows, this website does not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and does not change the current window without informing the user. (1.0)

Please note: this website uses ‘highslide’, a JavaScript technique to give the appearance of a pop-up window to preview links or content. However, highslide is NOT a pop-up, the JavaScript can be disabled (and the link will still work) and is for graphic purposes only.

• The website uses W3C technologies when they are available and appropriate for a task and uses the latest versions when supported. (1.0)
• This website avoids deprecated features of W3C technologies. (1.0)
• This website divides large blocks of information into more manageable groups where natural and appropriate. (1.0)
• This website does not identify the target of each link because it is written in XHTML 1.0 Strict
• This website provides metadata to add semantic information to pages and sites. (1.0)
• This website provides information about the general layout of a site (e.g., a site map). (1.0)
• This website uses navigation mechanisms in a consistent manner. (1.0)
• Tables are not used for layout. (1.0)
• Until user agents support explicit associations between labels and form controls, all form controls are combined with implicitly associated labels and the label is properly positioned. (1.0)
• Form labels are explicitly associated with their controls. (1.0)
• Event handlers used in scripts are input device-independent. (1.0)
• Until user agents allow users to freeze moving content, this website avoids movement in pages. If movement is present it can be instantly and easily stopped or blocked. (1.0)
• Programmatic elements such as scripts are directly accessible and compatible with assistive technologies (1.0)
• Any element that has its own interface can be operated in a device-independent manner. (1.0)
• When using scripts, this website specifies logical event handlers rather than device-dependent event handlers. (1.0)

This website passes Priority 2 (AA) Accessibility.

Priority 3 checkpoints

• This website ensures that the foreground and background colour combinations in text provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having colour deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen. (1.0)
• This website specifies the expansion of each abbreviation or acronym in a document where it first occurs. (1.0)
• This website identifies the primary natural language of a document. (1.0)
• This website provides keyboard shortcuts (such as jump menus) to important links (including those in client-side image maps), form controls, and groups of form controls. (1.0)
• Until user agents (including assistive technologies) render adjacent links distinctly, this website includes non-link, printable characters (surrounded by spaces) between adjacent links. (1.0)
• This website provides information so that users may receive documents according to their preferences (e.g., language, content type, etc.) (1.0)
• This website provides navigation bars to highlight and give access to the navigation mechanism
• This website groups related links, identifies the group (for user agents), and, until user agents do so, provides a way to bypass the group. (1.0)
• This site enables different types of searches for different skill levels and preferences. These might include a search box, site maps and content ‘tagging’(1.0)
• This website places distinguishing information at the beginning of headings, paragraphs, lists, etc. (1.0)
• This website does not use ASCII ART
• This website supplements text with graphic or auditory presentations where they will facilitate comprehension of the page. (1.0)
• This website uses a style of presentation that is consistent across pages. (1.0)
• This website now refers to the new WC WCAG 2.0 guidelines and does NOT include default, place-holding characters in edit boxes and text areas in forms as user agents ARE now able to handle empty controls correctly. (1.0)

This website passes Priority 3 (AAA) Accessibility.

Accessibility Problems?

This website may have the following minor access problems/issues. These are explained here and alternatives given.

• This site does not use meta access keys (sometimes called ‘hot keys’). Our research suggest that these are actually detrimental to most keyboard-users as they already have their own keys set up which are then overwritten or confused by websites (who do not use a consistent approach). We will review this decision periodically and if research proves otherwise (or technology improves) we will resume these techniques.
• This site may fail validation on third-party technologies. This is because we have little or no ability to recode these to meet our high accessibly standards. However, we always aim to use plug-ins that are either accessible, increase the accessibility or have simple accessible alternatives. If forced to choose between accessibility features and validation, we have taken the difficult decision to always choose accessibility.