Accessibility in Technology-Enhanced Curricula: A Comparative Study in Portugal, Turkey, and Lithuania

Abstract

No learners should be excluded when using technology to enhance teaching and learning. Consequently, curricula should be designed in a way that does not impose on students to adapt. This chapter focuses on the legal prerequi-sites officially applied in each researched country. According to the EU law on accessibility, the constitutions of Lithuania and Portugal foresee the avail-ability of education for all citizens. The constitution in Turkey also recogniz-es accessibility to education. Recently, the European Accessibility Act ad-dressed the accessibility of products and services requiring legal adaptation in all member countries, laying a sound background for accessibility imple-mentation in education. The current study analyses the curricula of the trans-lation courses of the Translation and Interpreting Department of Samsun University in Turkey, the Language Sciences Department of Lisbon Universi-ty in Portugal, and the Institute of Humanities of Mykolas Romeris Universi-ty in Lithuania by checking how the main principles of digital accessibility are observed. The findings identify the need for practical recommendations in the curricula addressing how teaching and assessment methods could be applied to ensure fair and equal possibilities. These points should serve as a key factor for improving and creating curricula for technology-enhanced teaching and learning in translation studies.