Welcome to the ‘Dig Deeper’ section of Making Science Outreach More Accessible. 

If you have the print version of the booklet, this is where you can easily find digital links to the suggested further reading and resources.

Universal Design for Learning

See how UDL can make over a science plan lesson: UDL Makeover: A Science Plan Lesson

https://www.ahead.ie/udl

https://www.learningdesigned.org/

https://www.implementudl.com/index.html

https://www.novakeducation.com/

Accessibility

Grackle: Grackle lets you check accessibility in Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets https://www.grackledocs.com/

WebAIM and Coolers: Let you check contrast in documents online, coolers.co and webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/

Accessibility Checker: Run a website through this tool to check for accessibility compliance, https://www.accessibilitychecker.org/

The Equity Compass

To dive deeper into the Equity Compass and how to use it, sign up for the FutureLearn online course “Equity in Informal STEM Learning: Using the Equity Compass”. The 3-week course is free to access.

Resources are available on yestem.org, with adaptation of the Equity Compass questions and examples for informal STEM learning, STEM Ambassadors (produced as part of a training for a UK-wide network) as well as a resource on how the framework can be applied to thinking about equitable outcomes. The website also includes short videos with practitioners sharing how they used the tool in their own work. 

An academic paper “‘It really has made me think’: Exploring how informal STEM learning practitioners developed critical reflective practice for social justice using the Equity Compass tool”

The “Youth Equity and STEM” project team published examples of how the Equity Compass supported educators’ critical reflective practice, and the project website includes short videos with practitioners sharing how they used the tool in their own work. 

Plain English

The National Adult Literacy (NALA) publications on literacy and language

The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) Writing and design tips

Customer Communications Toolkit for Services to the Public — A Universal Design Approach 2023 https://universaldesign.ie/products-services/customer-communications-toolkit-for-services-to-the-public-a-universal-design-approach/2023

Trudeau R Christopher and Christine Cawthorne, 2017, The Public Speaks, Again: An International Study of Legal Communication, Volume 40 U. Ark. Little Rock L. Rev., Issue 2, Article 3

Guidelines for Communicating Clearly using Plain English (hse.ie)

Writing Science in Plain English (2013) by Anne E. Greene

Tell me a story

https://shorthand.com/the-craft/12-examples-of-stunning-science-comms/index.html

‘These researchers spent a winter trapped in Arctic ice to capture key climate data.’ By Shannon Hall.