Service Center for Accessible Media and Assistive Technologies
As a response to the growing use of digitalization in higher education, DoBuS establishes a new service center for accessible media and assistive technologies.
Digitalization provides great opportunities to make learning and research more accessible for everyone while also taking into account different needs of users. If digital learning materials and learning environments are not accessible, however, new obstacles to study can emerge for students with disabilities.
The new service center assesses the opportunities that digital media and assistive technologies offer for accessibility in higher education. Both students and members of the university are given advice and support to ensure digital accessibility.
Students can test out assistive technologies and tools and are advised and trained on how to use them as needed for their current situation in their studies.
To university staff, the Service Center provides advice, training, and support in the preparation of accessible digital teaching and learning materials. These formats include everything from text-based digital documents to various audiovisual formats.
In particular, DoBuS helps with the design and acquisition of e-learning applications and software to fulfill accessibility requirements. Together with teachers and students, one focus of its work will be to develop solutions for making complex e-learning applications (e.g. real-time chat, shared documents, virtual labs, etc.) more accessible and usable. Therefore, an usability lab will be established, in which skilled students with disabilities are testing the usability and accessibility of new services.
The current workspace and assistive technology pool and the accessible design of teaching and examination materials will be incorporated in the new service center together with the services they already offer.
In 2020, priority will initially be given to setting up the service center described above. In the interest of a development that has been tested in practice, however, the first consulting and support activities will already be initiated in the set-up phase.
More Information:
Project Term: 2021
Funding: TU Dortmund (Budget)
Contact:
Search & People Search
Location & approach
The campus of TU Dortmund University is located close to interstate junction Dortmund West, where the Sauerlandlinie A 45 (Frankfurt-Dortmund) crosses the Ruhrschnellweg B 1 / A 40. The best interstate exit to take from A 45 is “Dortmund-Eichlinghofen” (closer to South Campus), and from B 1 / A 40 “Dortmund-Dorstfeld” (closer to North Campus). Signs for the university are located at both exits. Also, there is a new exit before you pass over the B 1-bridge leading into Dortmund.
To get from North Campus to South Campus by car, there is the connection via Vogelpothsweg/Baroper Straße. We recommend you leave your car on one of the parking lots at North Campus and use the H-Bahn (suspended monorail system), which conveniently connects the two campuses.
TU Dortmund University has its own train station (“Dortmund Universität”). From there, suburban trains (S-Bahn) leave for Dortmund main station (“Dortmund Hauptbahnhof”) and Düsseldorf main station via the “Düsseldorf Airport Train Station” (take S-Bahn number 1, which leaves every 15 or 30 minutes). The university is easily reached from Bochum, Essen, Mülheim an der Ruhr and Duisburg.
You can also take the bus or subway train from Dortmund city to the university: From Dortmund main station, you can take any train bound for the Station “Stadtgarten”, usually lines U41, U45, U 47 and U49. At “Stadtgarten” you switch trains and get on line U42 towards “Hombruch”. Look out for the Station “An der Palmweide”. From the bus stop just across the road, busses bound for TU Dortmund University leave every ten minutes (445, 447 and 462). Another option is to take the subway routes U41, U45, U47 and U49 from Dortmund main station to the stop “Dortmund Kampstraße”. From there, take U43 or U44 to the stop “Dortmund Wittener Straße”. Switch to bus line 447 and get off at “Dortmund Universität S”.
The H-Bahn is one of the hallmarks of TU Dortmund University. There are two stations on North Campus. One (“Dortmund Universität S”) is directly located at the suburban train stop, which connects the university directly with the city of Dortmund and the rest of the Ruhr Area. Also from this station, there are connections to the “Technologiepark” and (via South Campus) Eichlinghofen. The other station is located at the dining hall at North Campus and offers a direct connection to South Campus every five minutes.
The AirportExpress is a fast and convenient means of transport from Dortmund Airport (DTM) to Dortmund Central Station, taking you there in little more than 20 minutes. From Dortmund Central Station, you can continue to the university campus by interurban railway (S-Bahn). A larger range of international flight connections is offered at Düsseldorf Airport (DUS), which is about 60 kilometres away and can be directly reached by S-Bahn from the university station.
The facilities of TU Dortmund University are spread over two campuses, the larger Campus North and the smaller Campus South. Additionally, some areas of the university are located in the adjacent “Technologiepark”.
Site Map of TU Dortmund University (Second Page in English).