3. The wider context

Notes

Legal

Understanding and engaging with legislation, policies and standards

Statements here should show how relevant legislation, policies, strategies, technical standards, professional/research codes of practice and so on have influenced your work. You are not expected to have expert knowledge of all of these areas, but are expected to be aware of how they relate to your current practice. Relevant legislation is likely to include special educational needs/accessibility, discrimination, copyright and intellectual property, data protection and privacy issues.

In the UK you would be expected to demonstrate how you work within the context of

i) Accessibility legislation

ii) Intellectual property requirements (IPR)

iii) Freedom of Information legislation (if you work for a public body)

iv) Data protection

v) Other

In your country there may be different requirements, and you should indicate this in your application. It is suggested that you pick two to discuss.

Policy

You might also be expected to engage with institutional policies and, where appropriate, national policies and evidence of some of this should be provided.

The kinds of evidence that would support this would include minutes of meetings with legal advisers, documentation showing how legal issues have influenced work (such as reports or data protection forms), justifications for modifications to a course to reflect new policies or a record of how technical standards have been taken into account during system development.

You should demonstrate an understanding in at least two areas, at least one of which should be a legal area (subject to national legislation). The other may be a policy area or a standards area.