Making E-Content Accessible

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Making E-Content Accessible

• Lawrie Phipps - TechDis Manager
• helpdesk_at_techdis.ac.uk
• Shirley Evans ICT/ILT Task Force
• se_at_rncb.ac.uk

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Introduction

• Defining e-content
• Legislation
• Accessibility
• Usability
• Content
• Activity
• Bringing it all together
• Taking it forward

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What is E- Content?

• Learning objects eg. small, interoperable chunks
  of learning and interactive scenarios
• Video and audio eg. on-line lectures, digitised
  films
• Text on-line eg. web pages
• Links to external web pages
• Content generated through collaborative tools eg.
  In a discussion board
• Materials that are not electronic but associated
  with the E-learning process eg. printed materials

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Legislation

• Special Educational Needs and Disability Act
• Is relevant to Higher and Further Education
  because it amends the DDA (Disability
  Discrimination Act) 1995
• The DDA now includes all aspects of an
  institutions work, from marketing and enrolment
  to examinations and assessment.

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What does the legislation say

• Two key phrases in the legislation
• ...not to treat disabled students less
  favourably, without justification, for a reason
  which relates to their disability and
• to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that
  people who are disabled are not put at a
  substantial disadvantage compared to people who
  are not disabled in accessing further, higher and
  Local Education Authority-secured education.

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Case Study 1Less favourable treatment

• A young woman who is deaf and also has a mobility
  difficulty attends a specialist residential
  college for deaf people. The college is
  organising an outing for the students one
  evening. The young woman has been told that she
  cannot go on the trip because it would not be
  suitable for her because of her additional
  disability. She has been treated less favourably
  in comparison with the other students because of
  her mobility difficulties. This is likely to be
  unlawful.

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Case Study 2Less favourable treatment

• A student who is a wheelchair user is treated
  rudely by a member of computing service.
• The staff member is rude to everybody that day
  his bad treatment of the disabled student is not
  related to the students disability. The disabled
  student has not been treated less favourably than
  other students.

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Case Study 3Reasonable adjustment

• A partially deaf student who lipreads is
  attending a Business Studies course. One of her
  lecturers continues to lecture while
  simultaneously writing on the whiteboard. The
  student asks him to stop speaking when he turns
  his back to use the whiteboard so that she can
  follow what he is saying. The student is likely
  to be at a substantial disadvantage if this
  adjustment is not made.

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Case Study 4Reasonable adjustment

• A student with restricted growth requests that
  all university student notice boards are lowered
  in height so that he can read the information
  more easily. He is, however, able to read the
  notices without significant difficulty or
  discomfort when the boards are placed at their
  regular height. The students disadvantage
  compared to that of other students is unlikely to
  be found substantial.

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What does this mean for E-content

• It is likely that Institutions will have to
• provide accessible educational services, such as
  Intranets, Virtual and Managed Learning
  Environments and other digital resources
  including student handbooks etc.
• JISC Senior Management Briefing Paper 15

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Usability

• Usability focuses on making software, websites
  and on-line applications or services easy for
  people to use.

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Accessibility

• Accessibility focuses on making them equally
  easy for everyone to use, including people who
  may use assistive technologies such as screen
  readers etc.
• Frontend.com

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Content 1
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Content 2

• Video of student trying to access content
• In a VLE
• (Jaws and Blackboard)

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Content 3 NLN Materials
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Content 4

• Trialling the National Learning Network Materials
  
• Lessons learned so far-
• It is easy to make content physically accessible
  if it just a web page
• It is difficult to make content interactive and
  accessible
• It is difficult to make content cognitively
  accessible
• Universal accessibility means plug and play
• Equivalent access is not necessarily preferable
  to alternative access

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Support

• Scenario
• Imagine the student in the video has enrolled as
  a distance e-learner with your institution. She
  has difficulty accessing and using the VLE and
  the content. A discussion board has been set up
  to co-ordinate support between the content
  developer, the learning technologist, the
  technician and her tutor. Using Post-It notes set
  up a discussion board and highlight the main
  issues and how you are going to address them.
• 15 mins activity
• 10 mins feedback

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Bringing it all together

• The Law
• Accessibility
• Usability
• Inclusivity
• Interoperability
• Support

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What are you going to do?

• E-learning does have the potential to to enable
  students with particular needs to engage in
  independent, individualised and self-directed
  learning on equal terms with other students?
• What do you have to do?
• What are you going to do?