The Learning Reinvented Podcast - Episode 50 - Making Your Learning Accessible - Cat Appleton

Welcome to another edition of the Learning Reinvented podcast, brought to you by The Learning Effect Team. In this episode host James Poletyllo is joined by Cat Appleton to talk about her journey to understand her disabilities and embrace these differences and how this has started her on a journey to improve how we work as learning professionals to improve accessibility. The episode is packed full of great insights and some very practical tips. Definitely one not to be missed.  The Learning Reinvented Podcast aims to bring a variety of new and different voices to talk about the current and future state of learning at work. We want our conversations to be though provoking, useful and real world. We appreciate your thoughts and feedback to help achieve this. About The Learning Effect The Learning Effect’s vision is to help companies create purposeful, consumer grade learning experiences which help you deliver your business goals and your team realise their potential. If you are looking to change your companies learning or for new learning technologies we should be your first call. About the Guest – Cat Appleton Cat has always been an advocate in overcoming barriers to learning. Starting her career as a family learning tutor working in areas of socio-economic deprivation, she quickly became fascinated with how technology could be used to engage and facilitate learning. Along with her passion for making things better this shaped her career as a learning professional and a technologist. Prior to 2020 Cat would not have described herself as disabled. Despite being hard of hearing from a young age and diagnosed as neurodiverse at 32 it is only since the return to less isolated working that she has come to realise the full impact of her disabilities and embrace those differences. It’s this personal journey that has driven Cat to see how we can make the world a better place with a focus on good design accessibility can become intrinsic to what we do. For too long education and learning and development has talked about people with accessibility needs and barriers to learning like they are groups of other people. It’s time to realise that we are also people who benefit from increased accessibility and as the learning professionals we need to be the role models. CONTACT METHOD LinkedIn: Cat Appleton | LinkedIn Twitter: (19) Cat Appleton (@TechNerdCat) / Twitter Resources: Digital Accessibility for the Modern Workplace https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/accessibility-fundamentals/ https://www.a11yproject.com/ https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/advice/employers/creating-a-dyslexia-friendly-workplace/dyslexia-friendly-style-guide https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/   About the Host - James Poletyllo James is one of the founding director's of The Learning Effect. With over 20 years experience of leading learning functions in a variety of industries he is now focused on helping organisations create consumer grade learning experiences which deliver results and performance.  He is passionate about making a difference and is on a mission to change the future of learning at work for the good of every employee. CONTACT METHOD You can follow and connect with James via: LinkedIn: James Poletyllo - LinkedIn Website: https://www.thelearningeffect.co.uk/ Email: [email protected]