In Search of an Enterprise of Accessibility: Communities, Practices, Boundaries and Constellations.

The 2001 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act has charged learning technologists with the responsibility of ensuring that electronic teaching materials can be accessed by disabled students. In an attempt to explore how learning technologists are developing practices to produce accessible electronic materials this paper will present a review of the accessibility literature and identify key issues that may influence the "accessibility" practices of learning technologists. These emerging issues are interpreted using Wenger's theory of Communities of Practice (Wenger 1998). The usefulness of this theory in developing an understanding of "accessibility" practices is discussed and implications for future research are identifie