Great oaks from little acorns grow
The famous proverb great oaks from little acorns grow puts forward the idea that if you persist with small efforts they may build to grander ones in time.
The acorn and the oak tree
Currently, the topic of digital accessibility awareness is rarely taught or referred to in schools or colleges, yet our everyday lives are heavily influenced and often underpinned by digital content.
Young people are not just consumers of digital information, they often create content just as regularly too. It makes sense to make them aware of digital accessibility and how to put some basic principles in place to make their content more accessible.
Setting the seeds of underpinning awareness into the mindset of every young person as part of their school education or childhood knowledge (the acorn) could lay the roots and foundations for a more digitally accessible future society.
It is during this ideal time that young people are beginning to learn and establish their lifelong skills and habits.
The basic principles of digital accessibility are simple to learn, and if everyone knew from a young age how to put these basics into everyday practice as the 'norm', or at least be aware, we could start to grow a mighty next generation of advocates for a digitally inclusive future (the oak tree).
The acorns in practice
The site was created to support a research project but you can use Learn to Enable as a free starting point to:
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consider the power of posters and prompts to make the topic visible and to remind, reinforce and prompt awareness
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become aware of the basic models of disability to understand why digital accessibility is important but also how it can benefit everyone
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make it part of everyday practice by adopting simple digital skills for basic accessibility
At scale, raising the profile and awareness in education could make such a significant difference to many in our society, but more importantly it could benefit everyone.
Let’s sow the seeds and watch the next generation of digitally accessible acorns grow!
Take a read of the AbilityNet blog: Time to sow new seeds for digital accessibility
#AccessibleAcorns #LearnToEnable