Understanding User Needs

An organisation's ethos and culture are constantly developing. The requirement to take account of the needs of disabled users is paramount, not just to ensure compliance with disability legislation, but also by doing so ensures that accessible practices benefit everyone.

In education, training and skills settings, tutors and trainers are often best equipped to creatively support learners’ needs if they have a good understanding of the difficulties they face. However, staff work in a broad context, influenced by a range of policies and with an ever-changing set of priorities. It is as important that managers, irrespective of their functional role (in any organisation), understand the importance of creating seamless support for disabled users, as it is in the education context for teaching practitioners to be open to as many new tools, technologies and concepts as are needed to effectively deliver an inclusive learning experience.

There is sometimes a perception that learners fully understand the range of ways of meeting their own needs. Although learners should always be consulted on their views on how to progress, it is not always the case that they are fully aware of all of the possibilities available to them. Equally, research has shown that disabled learners may use tools and strategies in what appear to be random but beneficial ways, enabling them to continue with these strategies is an important aspect of being an inclusive organisation.

The JISC Techdis service has a range of resources to help:

  • Users to better understand and meet their own needs;
  • Tutors to better appreciate learner needs;
  • Tutors and organisations understand the range of adjustments that could make a difference for the learner and the benefits and barriers associated with those adjustments;
  • Importance of joined up policies and procedures which support individual user need.

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