Speakers
Presentation
This session explores how embedded adjustments are developing at The Open University, as a distance-learning higher education provider and what that means in practice, at scale.
With a growing proportion of students sharing that they have a disability, we've been reflecting on how support is designed, accessed, and experienced in a predominantly online environment. It's involved assessing what we're currently doing, challenging what's considered ‘the norm’, and reconsidering where effort sits for both students and staff.
Rather than focusing on a single approach, this session will share an evolving thinking approach to adjustments, including how support can become easier to access over time. It'll highlight some of the questions we've asked, the decisions we've made, and how this continues to develop. The session will insight reflection and discussion, particularly for those working in contexts where flexibility, scale, and consistency are key considerations.
Holly is Senior Manager of Accessibility at The Open University and a PhD researcher specialising in accessibility in higher education. Her work focuses on how accessibility operates in practice, bringing together strategy, research, and delivery across large and complex organisations.
She has extensive experience supporting people with disabilities across education, not-for-profits, community organisations, and corporate settings, in senior leadership and chief executive positions. This has shaped a strong understanding of how organisational decisions affect access, and where barriers are created or removed in practice.
Holly regularly contributes to conferences, sector events, and publications, sharing evidence-informed perspectives on accessibility, organisational practice, and the challenges of delivering support at scale. She is particularly interested in questioning assumptions about what works, including the idea that meeting formal standards alone will lead to meaningful access.
Her doctoral research focuses on accessibility strategy in higher education, with particular attention to British Sign Language interpreting. A consistent theme in her work is connecting research with real-world delivery, supporting organisations to develop approaches that are both workable and effective for people with disabilities.
:
https://profiles.open.ac.uk/holly-parrott
:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hlparrott/