Foreword A foreward by Sal Cooke, Head of TechDis, introducing the TechDis Staff Packs forward, introduction, Sal Cooke A foreword by Sal Cooke, Head of TechDis, introducing the TechDis Staff Packs Sue Harrison 2004-04-21

Sal,Cooke,TechDisSal Cooke's pictureSalCropSmall.jpg As the Head of TechDis, I am delighted to introduce the TechDis Staff Packs to you. I hope that these materials, and the ethos contained within them, will enable colleagues across all our communities to ensure that within their own spheres of work and influence, inclusion becomes a fundamental guiding principle in all aspects of the education sectors. As a service, our primary focus has to be on supporting staff and addressing their needs, in order to enable them to fully carry out their varied organisational roles. To this end the Staff Pack Initiative was created, and was funded by the JISC Organisational Support Committee. The aim was to provide top quality free-standing staff development materials, in order to assist colleagues in the sectors to embed the basic principles and understanding of accessibility in particular contexts through their own staff development processes. This was felt particularly necessary as TechDis works closely with many intermediaries who in turn work within organisations and at regional and national levels to support both staff and learners in our learning organisations, and it was these key intermediaries who continually had expressed the need for materials and activities that would then aid them in the process of embedding the TechDis ethos into their own work. As a team we owe a large debt of thanks, in particular to the JISC Regional Support Centres and the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre Network and individual members of the Staff and Educational Development Association for trialling these materials, both during the consultation phase and through the iterations of the packs over the last few months. Now we are able to publish the finished versions, we hope that they will do the job that we intended, and do it well. At TechDis we are always keen to talk to as many different audiences as possible and so would welcome any comments and feedback on the packs to helpdesk@techdis.ac.uk. Once again I want to express my thanks to all who have contributed to the development of the Staff Packs. I hope their hard work, innovative ideas and imaginative use of technologies will inspire many of us to think, 'Yes, I too can do that and I can move my own understanding of Accessibility and Inclusion to a new level' Sal Cooke Head of TechDis