Academics from the Web and Internet Science (WAIS) research group within Electronics and Computer Science are lead educators on a new, free online course that aims to help learners understand how accessible digital technologies can overcome barriers encountered by people with sensory, physical or cognitive impairments.

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in Digital Accessibility: Enabling Participation in the Information Society has recently been launched on the FutureLearn platform and already thousands of students from more than 50 countries have signed up.

The course has been designed by members of the University of Southampton’s Electronics and Computer Science Accessibility Team in collaboration with seven other European universities as part of the Erasmus+ MOOC Accessibility Partnership – a European project running until September 2017 that aims to provide education on accessible design in ICT.

The course highlights how inclusive design and a better understanding of users’ needs can enable technologies to be more accessible and provide a more inclusive environment. It also aims to make people aware of the wide variety of assistive technologies.

Course Lead Educator Professor Mike Wald, from WAIS, said: “Technology is fantastic but it is important to be aware of the barriers they might cause if digital accessibility is not considered.

“By overcoming these barriers you can involve everyone in the exciting world of technology, so they can enjoy their everyday lives and work.â€?

The five-week MOOC is open to everyone and, if required, can be completed over a longer period to suit individual needs.

Mike said: “We are delighted to launch this course that we have designed for everyone, including web developers, business managers, elderly or disabled people, and parents of disabled children.

“People have very diverse needs, skills and abilities and, while some products and services are designed to take this into account, others sometimes create barriers for people who have physical, sensory or cognitive impairments.â€?

The MOOC covers the wide spectrum of accessibility in digital media, and explores how the digital world can be made more open to everyone. It includes the accessibility of the web, as well as a wide variety of different technologies both inside and outside of the home, including computers, mobile phones, washing machines and ATM machines.

Mike added: “The course gives students the unique opportunity to benefit from the extensive knowledge and experience of accessibility experts from eight universities across Europe, as well as the personal experiences of disabled or elderly people.â€?

To register for the course or to find out more visit www.futurelearn.com/courses/digital-accessibility

The University of Southampton’s Web Science Institute (WSI) was praised for its “energy and communityâ€? at the official launch of a new partnership that will help the adoption and implementation of Web standards in the UK.

The WSI is the new host of the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) UK & Ireland Office, supporting an international community of member organisations that is leading the Web to its full potential. The Office was formally launched at the University on Friday 14 October at a packed event that included talks from W3C experts on current W3C activities. The day concluded with a Distinguished Lecture by political scientist Professor Jeanette Hofmann from the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB).

Professor Dame Wendy Hall, Executive Director of the WSI, said: “The University of Southampton has played an active role in the Web community since 1994. The WSI feels like a natural fit to host the UK & Ireland Office.â€?

The W3C UK & Ireland Office will foster relationships with UK technology and policy leaders and help to promote the adoption and implementation of W3C standards in the UK. It will also recruit and engage with members in the region, and develop education and outreach programs to raise awareness of W3C’s role and standards activities by sponsoring and supporting local events where there is a focus on W3C topics.

Bernard Gidon, W3C’s Europe, Middle-East and Africa Business Development Leader, commented: “We have found a strong match with the WSI as we continue toward the W3C’s mission. It is fantastic to see the energy and community at the WSI, and I look forward to moving on together as we develop the web community in the UK.â€?

The University of Southampton has been a member of the W3C since 1998, promoting new futures of the Web through W3C community groups including the Web Observatory, Annotations and Web of Things.

The W3C UK & Ireland Office is staffed by Office Manager Susan Davies and Senior Advisor Professor Leslie Carr, of Electronics and Computer Science.

The growing cyber security threat posed by the increasing interconnectivity of smart devices is to be examined by a new Roke Manor Research (Roke)/ Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Research Chair based at the University of Southampton.

Professor Vladimiro Sassone, Director of the University’s Cyber Security Academy, will use the prestigious title to build upon effective collaboration with Roke as a key industrial partner around a research agenda that focuses on the evolving Internet of Things.

The Internet of Things is made of the growing network of devices that are connected through the internet, developing innovative applications which may expose society to new cyber threats. Professor Sassone, part of the department of Electronics and Computer Science, has set out to analyse this changing field in both cyber-physical systems and cyber-controlled infrastructures through the Research Chair.

“It is a great honour to be selected to advance this cutting-edge research with the support of Roke Manor Research,â€? he said. “It is my ambition to develop an enduring partnership between academia and industry. This award also represents a reward for the work I led towards the foundation of the Cyber Security Academy, a pioneering partnership between the University and key industry stakeholders, which we plan to develop as a technopole for cyber security in the south of England.â€?

Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, said: “It is gratifying that Vladimiro has been recognised through this prestigious Research Chair and this reflects the world-leading research activities that exist within our department of Electronics and Computer Science. The research undertaken by Vladimiro is extremely important to create new knowledge that drives positive impact on both society and the economy.â€?

The world’s first conference for Research Software Engineers (RSEs) has been hailed a ‘phenomenal success’ by a Web and Internet Science (WAIS) researcher, who helped to organise the event.

Dr Simon Hettrick, from the WAIS research group in Electronics and Computer Science, was part of a Software Sustainability Institute team that hosted the event focusing exclusively on issues affecting people who write and use software in research.

Simon, a founding member and Deputy Director of the Institute, said: “RSEs are absolutely fundamental to research. They work with researchers to gain an understanding of the problems they face; and then develop, maintain and extend software to provide the answers.

“We wanted to give them the opportunity to share their methods and best practice on a much wider scale than they can at the moment.â€?

More than 200 RSEs from 14 different countries attended the innovative conference at the Museum of Science and Industry, in Manchester.

Simon added: “Seventy per cent of researchers report that their work has a fundamental reliance on software, so if we want the UK to continue to be a major research leader, then effort and resources must be invested into nurturing our community of RSEs.

“The RSE conference was a phenomenal success. It created a huge number of new collaborations and brought further attention to the fundamental importance of the RSE role in academia. I feel very positive about the future.â€?

Conference delegates learnt about the cutting-edge techniques being used in research and listened to a broad range of speakers including a keynote talk by Matthew Johnson, Leader of the Agile Projects Team, from Microsoft Research, in Cambridge, and Professor Susan Halford, a Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton.

The Software Sustainability Institute was set up six years ago by a team of experts from the universities of Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford and Southampton, to support the UK’s research software community with cultivating better, more sustainable research software to enable world-class research. The Institute committed itself to promoting RSEs and the vital role they play in global research.

To find out more about the Software Sustainability Institute visit www.software.ac.uk