Empowering Learners with Digital Freedom
In today’s world, learning happens in the browser. From online courses to digital collaboration spaces, the web is where education unfolds. However, learners need more than just access, they need agency. They need the skills and confidence to shape their own digital journeys.
That’s where MoodleMoot Global 2025 comes in. Held over three inspiring days in Edinburgh, Scotland, this year’s Moot brought together educators, technologists, and innovators from around the world to explore the evolving landscape of digital learning. Gavin Henrick, Co-Founder of Brickfield Education Labs, led a session exploring how educators and learners can move beyond simply accessing content to actively shaping their own digital environments. His presentation highlighted how Brickfield’s Accessibility Toolkit unlocks independence, confidence, and choice – giving learners the freedom to learn on their own terms. For an overview of the full event highlights, check out our MoodleMoot Global 2025 recap post.
Table of Contents
Inside the Session: Singing About Accessibility
Gavin’s session opened on a light-hearted, musical note with a playful nod to The Proclaimers’ iconic song, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”. This wasn’t just a singalong – the lyrics were rewritten to celebrate the importance of creating inclusive, accessible Moodle courses for all learners.
What began as a bit of fun quickly turned into a powerful reminder: accessibility doesn’t have to be dry or technical. It can be joyful, creative, and community driven. By the time the chorus rolled around, the entire room was singing along – a moment that perfectly captured the spirit of collaboration and empowerment at the heart of MoodleMoot.
From Song to Skills: Practical Tools for Digital Empowerment
After the musical warm-up, attendees explored a range of Brickfield accessibility guides and hands-on tools designed to help learners and educators take control of their online learning environment.
These guides are part of Brickfield’s Accessibility Toolkit, which transforms accessibility from a compliance checklist into a confidence-building practice. The Toolkit focuses on everyday actions that make a real difference to how people learn and teach online.
The Brickfield Guides help users improve their learning experience with simple, step-by-step guidance on how to:
- Enable reader mode.
- Read the page to me.
- Change text size.
- Change text styling.
- Change font family.
- Change text colour.
- Change background colour.
- Change text spacing.
- Enable dark mode.
Beyond supporting learners, the Toolkit also empowers both learners and educators to design and share more inclusive materials. The guides provide practical tips on how to create accessible:
- Documents.
- Presentations.
- Alternate document formats.
Each feature and guide reinforces the same principles: small changes create big impact. When learners and teachers understand how to personalise and design for accessibility, they unlock a new level of digital freedom – the ability to make the web for them, rather than being limited by one-size-fits-all materials.
Why it Matters
Empowering learners with these digital skills ensures they can engage with content in ways that match their individual needs and preferences.
It’s not just about accessibility, it’s about independence.
- Learners become active participants, shaping their own environments.
- Educators foster digital confidence that extends beyond the classroom.
- Students gain life-long digital literacy, with the ability to adapt and thrive across platforms and technologies.
- For learners with disabilites, these skills can remove barriers that too often stand in the way of access and equity.
Final Reflection
By the end of the session, attendees left with a renewed understanding that:
- Learners need agency, not just access.
- Personalisation boosts focus and comprehension for everyone – not just those with specific accessibility needs.
- Browser guides empower users to overcome barriers and learn on their own terms.
- Digital literacy is essential for success in an increasingly digital world.
When learners are empowered to control their digital environment, education becomes inclusive, engaging, and effective. By guiding students to use simple browser features with confidence, we help them unlock the full potential of online learning, not just for now, but for the future.
