A
report on my workplace research at RNIB.
(Royal National Institute of the Blind).
Summary
These are the main areas I intend to cover in the report.
- Identifying
the knowledge and skills needed to do my job
- Main strengths and weaknesses in my learning
methodology
- Areas
identified for further research
- My individual
learning plan, the learning journal and learning activities. How did they
help with my research?
- Conclusions and
new objectives
- Appendix
RNIB and its
organisational structure
Top
The seven UK Divisions are:3
Community Services Division (CSD)
Working with blind and partially sighted people to help them
achieve independence, working towards preventing blindness and promoting equal
opportunities.
Directorate
Providing leadership, support, guidance and advice to RNIB.
Supporting the UK Divisions, devolved Countries, Director General’s office,
Chairman’s office and RNIB’s international activities.
Education & Employment Division (E&E)
Support blind and partially sighted children and adults and
the professionals who work with them through a range of education and
employment services.
External Relations Division (ERD)
External relations acts as RNIB’s face to the outside
world. Activities include
fundraising, awareness raising and support.
Finance & Resources Division (DFR)
Providing internal support services in financial and
resource management. Also Personnel and IT support.
Policy Division (POL)
Challenge discrimination, promote equality, extend rights
and increase and improve services for visually impaired people.
Technical & Consumer Services Division (TCS)
Challenge barriers restricting people's inclusion and independence in the information and everyday living environment. This Division is where most of the alternative format production takes place. (Braille, large print and audio cassettes).
I work for the External Relations Division in the Corporate Information
and Publishing department.
I’m based at our Judd Street Headquarters in London and work two days a week in
Peterborough. Our role is to provide expert publishing services for External
Relations, Policy, Community Services, Finance and the Directorates.
We also provide these services to RNIB, Scotland, Northern
Ireland and Cymru.
The Technical and
Consumer Services and Education and Employment Divisions have their own
publishing teams.
Top
RNIB Judd Street and the Resource Centre
This is a
photograph of RNIB Judd Street,
our Headquarters building. It’s situated just
around the corner from Kings Cross Station
and is very near the British Library.
This is
our Resource Centre, also based
at Judd Street. People can come here to
find out more about our products and services.
They can also purchase items of equipment
in the shop, or they can use the Library facilities.
Identifying the knowledge and skills
needed to do my job
- An interest and a passion for graphic design.
- A traditional background in graphic design
including an understanding. of manual art working as well as computer
aided design.
- An understanding of the principles of design for
people with sight problems and more importantly, involving these people in
the work that we do.
- A good working knowledge of computers,
(Preferably Apple), is essential for today’s workflows.
- Excellent, in depth knowledge of current graphic
design software. (QuarkXpress, PhotoShop, Freehand).
- Research interests to help to improve the way we
design for different sight problems.
- Good managerial skills.
- Good mentoring and coaching skills.
- Patience.
- A sense of humour is essential.
From this list I
then looked at the main activities of my work and what I thought I needed to
do. This list was based on my own personal experience as a graphic designer in
a specialist role at RNIB. As such it contains some generic activities that any
graphic designer would be expected to know, for example, an understanding of
good typography, plus more specialised areas like an understanding of sight
problems and how people with sight problems read.
- I need to be able to create lively, interesting
and accessible publications for people with sight problems.
- To do this I need to work with a number of
colleagues including clients, account handlers and people with specialist
skills such as braille and audio transcribers.
- I have to have empathy and understanding about
the way people with sight problems access publications and always design
with this in mind. I work with people with sight problems on a regular
basis and many of them are keen to be involved in research and also test
new ideas and layouts for me.
- An interest and understanding of good typography
is very important. I often advise other organisations and commercial
companies on good typographic practice.
- I need to lead on the development of the concept
and practice of clear and large print issues. This is so that RNIB always
leads the field in this area and so that any new developments are fed into
our own practice.
- For my particular role, I need in-depth
knowledge of Apple Macintosh computer systems and software. There are only
a small number of Mac users at RNIB and we support each other. This
includes hardware and software support.
- I need to have excellent working knowledge of
all current design and desktop publishing software.
- A keen interest in research in a number of
areas. These include:
- Graphic design
- New developments in hardware and software
- Clear and large print issues
- Modified and accessible print issues
- Typographic research
- Colour – theory and practice plus new
developments
- Good people management and mentoring skills are
essential. I like to work with people and share my knowledge with them and
learn from them as well. I prefer a hands-off management style, while
always being available to help with any problems or issues. I have always
preferred to work this way. It seems to suit my colleagues too. I also
prefer to be managed this way myself.
- I need to have good presentation skills and
teaching skills. I often work with other organisations as a consultant, or
represent the organisation at exhibitions or conferences.
- I need good all round people skills as I work with
a large number of colleagues across divisions. I try to be as helpful to
people as possible when they work with me and I find that I get a lot of
help in return. Especially in my research projects.
- Patience and a sense of humour are essential. I
find it helps me stop being frustrated about the things I can’t change
about my job and helps me enjoy the things that I do.
Self-assessment
I carried out a
self-assessment of the ten most important aspects of my role. I decided to use
my experience to work this out based on the list of requirements and activities
described before. I then listed them in order of importance based on my own
perception of each aspect and finally graded them from 1 (confident) to 4
(knowing little).
|
|
Construct a list of 10 things that
are important in my job
|
|
1 |
Graphic
design skills |
|
2 |
Apple
Macintosh computer skills |
|
3 |
Desktop
Publishing skills |
|
4 |
Research and
enquiry skills |
|
5 |
Know how to
prepare artwork for print and how lithographic print is produced |
|
6 |
Time
management |
|
7 |
People
management and mentoring |
|
8 |
Presentation
skills |
|
9 |
Project
management |
|
10 |
Networking
skills |
|
|
Listed in order of importance
|
Original Number
|
1
|
Graphic design
skills
|
1
|
2
|
Apple Macintosh
computer skills
|
2
|
3
|
Desktop
Publishing skills
|
3
|
4
|
Know how to
prepare artwork for print and how
|
5
|
5
|
People management
and mentoring
|
7
|
6
|
Research and
enquiry skills
|
4
|
7
|
Time management
|
6
|
8
|
Project
management
|
9
|
9
|
Networking skills
|
10
|
10
|
Presentation
skills
|
8
|
Marks out of 4 for each aspect of my role
- Confident
- Competent but with room
for more learning
- Can get by but need more
training or coaching
- Know little
|
1 |
Graphic
design skills |
1 |
|
2 |
Apple
Macintosh computer skills |
1 |
|
3 |
Desktop
Publishing skills |
1 |
|
4 |
Know how to
prepare artwork for print and how |
1 |
|
5 |
People
management and mentoring |
2 |
|
6 |
Research and
enquiry skills |
2 |
|
7 |
Time
management |
3 |
|
8 |
Project
management |
2 |
|
9 |
Networking
skills |
2 |
|
10 |
Presentation
skills |
3 |
Talking through self-assessment with
colleague at work
Once I had this
self-assessed research available, I approached a colleague (S) who also works
as a graphic designer for RNIB. We looked through the final list and discussed
each item. S broadly agreed with the list I had in place and the running order.
He also added another point to the list –
Workflow Management. This is an important aspect of our work. It covers the
wider issues of preparing a job for print and following it through the
different stages. It also includes the contact we need with other colleagues to
ensure the job is printed and delivered on time. On another level it includes
looking back up the chain of events to the customers and colleagues that we are
working for, especially our involvement at the concept stage of any project.
The
full text of our discussion is available here.
Discussing any major
issues in the online community with other researchers
I identified two areas in the self-assessment exercise where
I felt I could improve my knowledge and skills. These were time management and presentation skills. I find the time management aspect of my work particularly
difficult as I work split sites and spend quite a lot of time travelling. I try
and make the most of the travelling time, working if I have a job that is
suitable for the environment. I also manage another colleague, and that can be
quite difficult remotely. I wondered if other researchers have a similar
working arrangement? I decided to start a discussion group on time management
and people management and see if any other researchers have had similar experiences.
Presentation
skills are becoming a more prominent part of my job at the moment. I’m often
asked to present workshops to colleagues and other organisations about
accessible design and typography. I’m quite comfortable doing this and am
confident in my knowledge of the subject, but I feel I need to make the
presentations more lively and interesting. I’ve
noted a recent presentation in my learning journal, setting out a plan,
delivering the plan and then commenting on how I thought it went. I tried out
some new ideas that seemed to work and learned that there were some areas that
I needed to think through more thoroughly. I have also set up a discussion
group to invite other researchers to share their experiences.
Example page from time
management discussion group
Example page from
presentation skills discussion group
The full discussions are available on
my page in JellyOS
Meeting with line manager
I had a meeting
with R, my line manager to discuss my current objectives and how we both
thought my role would develop. I decided to try to use the meeting to structure
my objectives more realistically and to move some of my Ultraversity research
into my current objectives. (Objectives as of 13th November 2003).-
We did this on an informal
basis using my existing objectives as a starting point and looking in more
detail at my current role and where we wanted to be by January 2004. R is also
aware of the Ultraversity course and could see the benefits of me engaging in
structured research that would benefit RNIB.
One area we both agreed on
was that I had far too many objectives listed separately in my plan. Some of
these had been achieved or were ongoing. Others were dormant or waiting on a
third party to input.
The first thing we did was
re-organise the objectives and reprioritise so that important issues are
flagged. (Bold in attached objectives document).
We also agreed that I needed
to have some time to work on the priority objectives. R suggested I work at
home on agreed days to accomplish this. This has addressed one of my concerns
in the ‘less positive’ aspects of my role – having a more flexible approach to working.
I’m also very pleased to
have four areas in my objectives that all lead directly to the research that I
want to pursue in the next term. This includes consultancy, (objectives 2, 11 and 12) and colour
research (objective 4). I can use other objectives to structure further
research in the coming terms.
We also highlighted some
training issues such as Web Design training. This gives the department another
skill set to offer and is an important personal development opportunity for me.
Main
strengths and weaknesses in my learning methodology
Strengths
· I feel I know enough about my role to be able to make
a relatively accurate attempt to assess the work I do and identify the skills
needed to do the job.
· I found that involving other people in the
self-assessment process very helpful. It made me think more deeply about my
role and how I integrate with colleagues at RNIB. It was also useful to talk to
another designer and see if they agreed with the list of skills I identified.
The feedback from S was useful and highlighted an area that I had passed over.
The meeting with R helped us both to plan a sensible workload and agree to
incorporate some research elements into my objectives.
· Setting up the two discussion groups was a good way
of sharing ideas and experiences and interacting with other researchers. Here
is an example of an exchange from the Time Management Discussion.
Hi I also find
time a difficult issue as although I am often home by 5 I should be home at
3-30 and then I usually bring loads of extra work home and very often wonder
why I put myself through this. I managed through my Cert Ed so I hope we will
all manage this and to some degree I do agree with S sometimes not everything gets done to
a 100%. The dust in my house is writeable. J
J it's really hard to say 'no' sometimes isn't it? I
had a similar problem when I started at RNIB and often found myself at work at
7-8pm at night. Eventually it got too much and I ended up off ill as a direct
consequence of the long hours I was putting in. By doing the extra hours, I
just ended up masking the problem and no one did anything to help. Is there
someone you can share some of the extra work with? That's what happened in my
case. It had two benefits. I cut down my workload and someone who was
interested in design got a chance to learn. Initially you feel like you are working even harder until after a
month or so when the other person really starts to take over some of the work.
In the long term, I felt it was worth it. I'm not sure if this is helpful, but
it worked for me. Ian
Thanks for the
support, I have been doing 3 peoples jobs plus my own for the last 3 years, SMT
are aware and put in another member of staff but this person also leaves on
time. As is their right although she is very helpful during the day unlike the
others. I have applied for a senior post which will mean I will be able to
delegate stuff which will be good as I did make myself ill and my brain is
still in slow motion. Thanks again J
Weaknesses
· I would have liked to talk to more colleagues about
the self-assessment process. It would have been interesting to get the
perspective of people outside of the design process to find out how they saw my
role and what they expected someone in my role should be able to do. I may be
able to turn this around as I am putting together a presentation on how to
brief a designer – aimed at non design colleagues and people who commission
work. The feedback I get from them will give me a better idea of how they see a
designer’s role at RNIB and also help me to develop the presentation for future
audiences.
· I need to become more involved with the work other
researchers are doing. I realised early on in the degree that I would be unable
to join in many of the discussions in the online community due to the
specialist nature of the subject matter. I believe I can address this,
certainly with some of the research I intend to do which will cross over in to
the special educational needs area. I also have ideas to extend my JellyOS page
and discussion groups. I’ll explore this in more detail in the next section –
areas identified for further research.
· I need to make better use of technology in my
learning activities and reports. I have made start with this report,
incorporating digital photographs and a graphic flow chart in to the early
stages of the report. I also included some sound clips although I am unsure if
they will play in all certain versions of Word. I initially used .wav files.
These didn’t work in Word 97 or Word 2000. I converted them to .mpeg files and
these seem to work in all versions except for Word 97. I need to talk to our
training department at work to find out some more information about audio file
conversion. I have also used screen grabs from my discussion groups to
illustrate points in the text.
Areas identified for further research
· Accessible design and typography – Design for partially sighted readers
· Tactile imagery – Illustrations – What are the most accessible methods and
are illustrations always appropriate?
· Colour Vision Deficiency (Colour blindness) – Congenital and Acquired – How
to include people with CVD in accessible design
Once I started
the course and developed an individual learning plan (ILP), I was able to focus
in on one particular area – the colour vision issue – as it is directly linked
to work I’m doing at the moment. The ILP helped me to identify other areas that
hadn’t immediately presented themselves when I first thought about research.
The learning activities in the ILP concentrating on self-assessment of my role
helped my to isolate other areas that I felt I could develop into research
projects. These new areas are Consultancy and Training. Again these are areas
that I am concentrating on at work and are part of the development of my role.
Overview of research carried out in each area so far
Colour and colour vision issues – There is a lot of scope for research
in this area, involving other organisations and individuals. I have already
made contact with my opposite number at “Sense”. We are planning to meet in the
near future to discuss issues that are common to both our jobs. He also has
colour issues in his job and I think we can profitably work together and share
research in this area. I’d also like to involve as many of my partially sighted
colleagues as possible in the research. Some of them have already expressed an
interest in working with me.
I have carried out some preliminary research into colour
vision deficiency and colour issues in general. This was in response to
requests from RNIB’s helpdesk for more detailed information about problem
colour combinations. I produced a short
paper for emailing on request.
Useful websites visited include:
This site has extremely detailed information about the types
of colour vision deficiencies and gives clear definitions of acquired and
congenital conditions. I made use of a lot of the information in this site for
my short paper.
Another useful site is:
This site has a lot of information on colour issues, how the
eye sees colour and an interesting case study on the problems that colour blind
shoppers experience with packaging.
I am also reading two books at the moment that look at
colour vision deficiency in more detail.
Colour
Blindness Causes and Effects
This book is extremely interesting and contains many examples of how people with colour blindness see the world around them. It also looks at the practical implications of living with colour blindness and has an interesting chapter on careers and possible exclusions. I found this particularly useful as I dealt with an enquiry from an art college who had received an application from a colour-blind student wishing to study animation. One of the conclusions we came to was, if the student specialised in a 3D style of animation, (clay or plasticine), it would be possible to colour code the material. It would be more difficult to do this if the student wanted to specialise in computer or drawn animation. I will write this up in more detail in the learning journal.
This book is quite technical and I am concentrating on two chapters at
the moment. One deals with breakthroughs in colour vision theory in the
twentieth century, and the other looks at the anatomy and physiology of the
visual system between C1600 and C1900.
I also have two learning opportunities at work in addition to my own research. These are:
1. The work we are doing with our advertising agency on a new core series of leaflets. As part of this work, we are asking them to come up with a new set of colours we can use over a range of titles. They have presented a set based on aesthetic considerations and now I have the opportunity to look at these and decide if they are also accessible to people with sight problems. Some of them work, but others need to be replaced with more appropriate colours. The criteria the colours need to meet are:
· The colour must be of high contrast so that it is clear against a white background
· Text can be set in the colour and still provide enough contrast against a white background
· Text set in the colour must be able to be used against a pale coloured background or a 10% tint of a suitable colour.
· The colour must be strong enough to allow reversed text (White out) of the colour
In addition to this we are looking for a range of colours that harmonise with each other while providing enough difference to be used over a series of similar publications.
2. Work with Professor R from the Royal College of Ophthalmology. Professor R is currently doing some research in to accessible fonts for RNIB. We have asked him to look at colour issues as well. I will be meeting with him in the near future to discuss our current colour issues and areas that we need to cover.
Consultancy – There is a lot of
potential for an accessible print consultancy service. I have been involved in
this on an ad hoc basis for a few years, but there now seems to be real
interest in developing a professional service. I’ve put together a proposal
that is being looked at the moment and I’m working with colleagues across all
RNIB Divisions on its implementation. Ideally I’d like to see a consistent and
unified approach to the way we carry out consultancy across RNIB in the next
12-18 months.
A recent learning opportunity was our publishing day where all the publishers across RNIB get together to discuss publishing issues across the organisation.
I facilitated a group discussing consultancy issues. The notes are recorded in my learning journal.
Another learning opportunity is using the design group meetings to
discuss our approach to consultancy. All the designers are involved in
consultancy work for their Divisions and this is a good opportunity to make
sure we are all consistent in our pricing and delivery structure.
Useful websites visited include:
http://www.boag.co.uk/index.html
Boag Associates are a design and communications agency specialising in
streamlining publishing processes for their clients. Their work crosses over
into areas that RNIB is also exploring. A particularly interesting area is what
Boag terms ‘Parallel Publishing’ http://www.boag.co.uk/down/index.html.
This is the concept of using a single electronic file to generate a number of
different outputs. RNIB is testing
XML mark up language as a method of creating a single source file that can be
used to output braille, large print, audio and synthesised speech.
Another useful site is:
http://www.synergy-communications.co.uk/index.html
synergy is an agency that works with a number of training and charity
organisations. One of their clients is Guide Dogs for the Blind. Synergy
designed their website which is accessible to people with sight problems.
Training and presentation – This sits nicely with consultancy and
is something that I’m being asked to do more of in my present role. It would
seem sensible to research training and teaching issues as it is something that
many of my fellow researchers are also engaged in. Many are teaching and
presenting to classes on a regular basis and I think I could learn a lot,
sharing their experiences in the online community. I feel slightly the ‘odd one
out’ in the community as many people are working in schools or learning
environments. I think concentrating on areas like training and presentation
would enable me to join in with more discussions and contribute more to the
online community.
This area is becoming increasingly important and I am doing more presentations as part of my job. These include:
· Presentations about the work the publishing area covers to new starters
· Presentations about accessible information to audiences across RNIB and external audiences
· Designing a new workshop to help publishing colleagues brief designers properly
I have delivered a presentation to new starters recently that covered accessible information and clear print issues. This is recorded in my learning journal and in the weblog.
Useful websites:
The Advanced Public Speaking Website: http://www.public-speaking.org/
This site has a number of free articles and some checklists to help you prepare a presentation.
Other sites
of interest:
“Educating
the reflective Practitioner” - Donald Schon
http://educ.queensu.ca/~russellt/howteach/schon87.htm
I found this
article really interesting and it really made me stop in my tracks and think. I
wonder how many potentially bright learners have been written off by their
education establishments simply because they had a different style of learning?
I like Schon’s idea that the expected answer to a question isn’t always the
right one. He gives several examples of this in his presentation.
I particularly enjoyed Schon relating the tale of the Cognitive Psychologist
Vygotsky.
Vygotsky, who
worked just after the Russian Revolution, worked with peasants, some of whom
had been to the collective schools and some of whom had not. And he gave them
little tests. And the basic pattern of the test was "Put together the
things that go together." So he showed this peasant a hammer, a saw, a
hatchet and a log of wood, and he said, "Put together the things that go
together." And the peasant said, "Well, clearly, what goes together
is the log of wood and the hatchet and the saw because you use the hatchet and
the saw to cut the wood for firewood." And Vygotsky said – and this was
his regular stratagem – "I have a friend who says that the saw, the hammer
and the hatchet go together because they are tools." And the peasant
answered, "Then your friend must have a lot of firewood!"
The key to
tapping into someone’s learning potential is more about finding out how they
learn and take in information, rather than forcing them down a pre-determined
and inflexible route that is considered to be ‘correct’.
Additional area for future research
I set up a discussion group
on my JellyOS home page, for researchers that support pupils with sight
problems. I have had quite a few people visit this discussion group to ask
questions and tell me about their pupils and support methods. I’ve also visited
other discussions where support for pupils with sight problems has been
mentioned.
As part of my ongoing
research, I’ve decided that this could be a useful area to look at.
The reasons are as follows:
· A lot of pupils with sight problems are integrated in
to mainstream schools. The support of these pupils often falls to the classroom
teacher or learning support assistant.
· Through my work at RNIB, I have access to a lot of
departmental contacts and resources that I could make available to researchers
supporting pupils with sight problems.
· My role is quite different to many of the researchers
on the degree course and I find a lot of the discussion groups cover areas that
are outside my area of understanding. By setting up some research in to support
issues, I could integrate more closely with other researchers and learn more
about their roles and the work they do.
· I could act as a facilitator for researchers who need
help supporting pupils with sight problems, pointing them towards appropriate
services and answering questions directly wherever possible.
· By concentrating some of my research activities into
this area, I could start to create a support network for people working with
pupils with sight problems. Ultimately, this will help to improve the learning
experience of these pupils in the classroom. This is the most important benefit
of all!
How will I do this?
So far I have set up the
discussion group and left messages in other discussions telling researchers
about the group. I’ve had a steady flow of contacts into the group as a result
of this. I’ve also posted to individual researchers within the group asking if
they would like more help and resource page. I’ll record responses in the learning journal.
The next stage will be to
look at the discussion group and assess the type of support people are asking
for. This would form the starting point of a resource page on JellyOS.
I’ll think about other forms
of disseminating the support information, possibly via a weblog or setting up a
website.
Gaps in my learning and
knowledge
I need to research how to
build and administer a website.
Top
My individual learning plan, the learning activities and
the learning journal. How did they help with my research?
I mentioned in my further research methodology that I found the Individual Learning Plan very helpful in structuring my research and learning. I had very fixed ideas about what I needed to research before I started the degree course and the ILP helped me to focus in areas that were important to my work situation and suggested others that I hadn’t considered.
I used the example ILP as a starting point and on the advice of my learning facilitator, Stephen Powell, I stuck to the broad outline and changed some areas to reflect my work and research interests.
The outline provided by the ILP informed the research I carried out for the Learning activities. The learning activities were structured so that the information needed for this report was covered and I was able to draw out the material I needed to answer the learning outcomes. I also found the learning activities helped me to look at my role more closely and think about how I wanted to see it develop over the next three years. Talking to my line manager about the work I am doing for the course helped us to structure my work objectives so that my research interests are included in relevant work areas. The structure of the Ultraversity degree is such that much of the work I need to do for the course should be covered by my regular work and project based work. I see a sort of symbiotic relationship between the two. My role at RNIB provides the raw materials for learning. The degree provides the structure and discipline to research thoroughly and create outcomes. These research outcomes can then be applied back to the work situation.
Running in parallel with the ILP and the Learning activities is the Learning journal. I have never kept a record of activities and thoughts in this way before, being a very poor diary keeper! I have found the learning journal to be a useful tool for recording ideas for projects and research. Beyond this, I found it useful for noting an action plan for a presentation and recording the actual event. I was then able to use this information to reflect on the planning and execution of the presentation and how I could improve the presentation next time. I think the cycle of ‘plan, do and review’ suits my style of working and I’ll use this method when I prepare other projects and work-related materials.
Conclusions and new objectives
In this section of the report, I’ll summarise my learning so far, look at my role, how my role could develop and where I see my research leading in the coming months.
My learning so far
In summary:
· I have found out more about RNIB’s organisational structure and presented this as a flowchart
· Analysed my role at RNIB and looked at the positive and less-positive aspects of my role
· Identified the key skills needed for my role at RNIB, and shared these with colleagues
· Identified strengths and weaknesses in my role and shared these with other Ultraversity researchers
· Presented my research so far and outlined the areas that I want to research in more detail
· Looked at my ILP, the learning activities and the learning journal and how they have helped with my learning
My role at RNIB
The learning activities I’ve carried out this term have helped me to see my role at RNIB more clearly. I have learned that there are aspects of my role that I can change and develop using the Ultraversity degree course. I have identified a number of areas in my role such as the colour research and consultancy project that I want to take forward
There are also aspects of my work such as the design-based work that I considered to be outside of the cycle of ‘plan, do and review’. This is mainly because of the fixed outcome nature of this type of work. I now think that this approach could also be tried on a specific design project to help improve the ‘end product’ and inform and improve future projects.
How my role could
develop
Based on the work I have
done do far I can see my role developing in a number of areas.
- Use my monthly review and appraisal with my line
manager to prioritise my objectives and include more research based
objectives
- A more flexible approach to work allowing more
time for research activities (working more days in Peterborough and
building in time to carry out research)
- Carry out more accessible information
presentations using the ‘plan, do and review’ cycle that seems to work for
me.
- Involve more colleagues with sight problems in
the research work that I’m doing and to obtain professional input from
external researchers. (Professor R at the Royal College of Ophthalmology).
My
research in the coming months
I have identified three main
research activities that I want to take forward, these are:
- Colour and colour vision issues
- Consultancy
- Training and presentation
Plus the new research area –
Set up a resource centre for Ultraversity researchers supporting students with
sight problems.
Colour and vision
Carry on with my own
research. This is essentially desk research at the moment using the Internet
and RNIB’s library.
Talk to other players in
visual impairment charities. This includes The Lighthouse Organisation, Sense,
Guide Dogs for the Blind and Deafblind UK. I’ll find out what (if any) research
they have on colour vision issues and set up a working group to share ideas and
research.
Work with colleagues and
professionals to devise a simple test and questionnaire that will determine
what colour combinations people with sight problems find most accessible.
Consultancy
Work with the design teams
across RNIB to establish a unified approach to print consultancy work.
Approach other publishers
and consultants across RNIB Divisions to find out what they are currently
doing.
Re-submit my consultancy
plan after consultation with other players.
Create a feedback form to be
sent to our consultancy customers, to help improve the service.
Training and presentation
Carry out more accessible
information presentations.
Work with colleagues and
attendees to improve the quality of the presentations, using feedback forms and
better demonstration materials.
Attend a presentation skills
course to update my knowledge.
Use the ‘plan, do and
review’ method to update and improve presentations.
Set up a resource centre for Ultraversity researchers supporting students with sight problems
Create a page in JellyOS
with links to useful websites and add my own information.
Set up a website for
people supporting students with sight problems. I’ll need to learn a web design
package to do this.
Top
Appendix
1. RNIB’s
Website – http://www.rnib.org.uk
2. Transcription
– this is a generic term to describe the production of alternative formats to
print – braille, audio, large print and synthetic speech
3.
This
information is taken from RNIB’s Website
Websites
Colour vision issues
Consultancy
http://www.boag.co.uk/index.html
http://www.synergy-communications.co.uk/index.html
Training and Presentation
http://www.public-speaking.org/
Other sites
of interest:
“Educating
the reflective Practitioner” - Donald Schon
http://educ.queensu.ca/~russellt/howteach/schon87.htm
Publications
McIntyre Donald
Colour Blindness Causes and Effects
Dalton Publishing; ISBN:
0954188608