Barrierfree dEsign foR Teaching and Learning (BERTL)

Call Nummer: 32-05 | Call Name: Qualitätssicherung der Lehre an den Wiener Fachhochschulen

The project “Barrierfree dEsign foR Teaching and Learning” (BERTL) aims to raise awareness of barriers in teaching, to make them visible, and to reduce or completely avoid them in the new and further development of courses and the teaching environment beyond the legal minimum. In this way, new standards can be set in university teaching at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien (UASTW) with regard to Universal Design or Design for All.

The initial phase of the project BERTL includes an analysis of the own situation at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien, especially in courses in the field of Life Science Engineering as well as in the field of Computer Science and the requirements of the different user groups (people with impairments, disabilities and chronic diseases or in different life situations). Together with stakeholders and industry partners, they form the BERTL Advisory Board, which will support the project.

Based on the requirements analysis, a BERTL Simulation Lab and a BERTL Toolbox will be developed. These will enable FHTW staff, and especially faculty, to experience access to courses and their content themselves from a peer group perspective. Examples of this would be visual impairments, hearing impairments or motor impairments. Furthermore, the own courses can be checked for possible barriers and immediately redesigned or modified to be barrier-free with the help of the tools and guidelines. The teachers are supported by an additional best practice collection and sample courses.

At the same time, the results of the project, such as the simulation environment, will be used in teaching. On the one hand, the students themselves will understand the requirements of barrier-free design and, with the help of the toolbox, develop and implement solution approaches.

In addition, a continuing education program is being designed that will be offered internally at the FH Technikum Wien with an optional certificate or externally via the Austrian Conference of Universities of Applied Sciences (FHK) to teachers at Austrian universities of applied sciences. In addition, individual components of the project, such as the BERTL Simulation Lab, will be made publicly available.

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