
Last year, we conducted important research on how students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) best learn Relationships, Sex, and Health Education (RSHE). This research involved discussions with our partner schools, focus groups with students and staff, and data from surveys. Based on our findings, we committed to updating our materials to better support classroom learning for students with SEND and, importantly, to improve learning outcomes for all students. Check out a summary of our findings here.
Our Dedication to Accessibility
One of the key areas we focused on was improving the design of our lesson slides. We recognised that making adjustments to these slides would not only help students with SEND but would also enhance the overall learning experience for all students in the classroom. To ensure we were meeting international accessibility standards, we worked with an expert in accessible design, to create lesson slides that work towards the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 (WCAG). These guidelines help ensure digital content is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities, by making it easier for all students to engage with online content, whether through Google or Teams classrooms.
Along with the new slide design, we revisited our SEND research to ensure our updates included as many accessibility features as possible, both to make learning easier for students and to support teachers in adapting their resources. We’ve started using this new design in this year’s ‘In the News’ lessons and plan to update all of our materials to reflect these improvements over the next year.
Key Updates
Some of the key updates to our materials include:
- Dyslexia-friendly fonts and improved font sizes for better readability
- Accessible line spacing to make text easier to read
- AA color compliance to improve accessibility for individuals with low vision or color vision deficiencies
- Dual coding, combining both words and icons to support understanding
- Video summary slides to reinforce learning
- A new portrait format for worksheets, making them easier to follow and suitable for printing on larger paper
- Additional vocabulary worksheets to support vocabulary acquisition alongside lesson materials
We’re really pleased with the positive response to our new materials and are excited about continuing to update our resources to make learning more accessible for all students in the future.