Hear my voice: disabled elearners narratives of exclusion and inclusion

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Hear my voice disabled e-learners narratives of
exclusion and inclusion

• Jane Seale, Mike Wald, E.A Draffan

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Overview

• Provide an overview of the results of the LEXDIS
  project with a particular focus on inclusion and
  exclusion
• Reflect on the implications of the results for
  how we work with disabled students and develop
  e-learning opportunities

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Data and analysis

• Interviews (31)
• Coded using NVivo
• Augmented with
• Participant provided personal accounts case
  studies (30),
• Focus groups (15)
• Email and other correspondence

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Narratives of exclusion

• The usual stories of externally imposed exclusion
  due to accessibility problems
• Cant use technology, even if wanted to
• Some stories of self-imposed exclusion
• Can use technology, but choose not to
• Tensions when technology use marks student out as
  different stigmatisation

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Cant use technology, even if wanted to

• Participants identified six main accessibility
  issues
• E-learning applications do not interact well with
  assistive technologies
• Navigability of library website
• Navigability and usability of Blackboard
• Problems opening and manipulating pdf files
• Learning environments influence whether or not
  student can assess preferred assistive
  technologies
• Difficulties scanning non-standard symbols or
  text.

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An example Stacey

• I really like Blackboard, but I think that there
  is an awful lot on there, and it could be made a
  lot easier to use. The navigation is difficult.
  My lecturer might say Weve put up this, on
  this subject, and then I wont know which
  section its in. Id have to go into each
  section and open each document section to find
  it.
• .. There was an Inter-professional Learning
  forum, but that was really difficult to use. It
  didnt tell you whether or not you had read the
  Postings (the ones previously), so you had to
  just keep looking through to see if theres
  anything new. It got really tedious.
• .. If I was using forums, like on Blackboard, I
  really struggle, because Id have to go back and
  check all the time and not know when someone
  was sending me messages. But with FaceBook its
  mostly social, so I dont mind just leaving it
  there. Whenever we were doing group work this
  year, I had to tell them to send me a text to let
  me know when theyve put it up. That way I would
  be able to go straight to it and look, instead of
  wasting time.

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Accessibility is a pedagogic resource issue as
much as it a design issue.

• Nikki On being required to post comments on
  discussion list in order to pass unit
• The website gets jammed up and crashes. On MSN
  you can see whos logged on. On there you cant.
  If you put a message on, you can sit there for 2
  hours waiting for a reply. I had to continue to
  go back to the library. Those who have internet
  at home can check it all day. But, I went to the
  library in my pyjamas because it got so late!
• This is unfair.
• If you dont communicate on there, you dont
  pass.
• The student residence are the ones who dont
  have the internet?
• Ours are 40 years old and condemned. The new
  ones are supposed to have the internet.
  Eventually I managed to do my project.

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Can use technology, but choose not to

• Four participants talked about making decisions
  not to use assistive technologies (Andrew, Paul
  K, Jo and Ben C).
• For Andrew and Paul K the decisions were made on
  the basis of not needing to use them
• For Jo, her decision was influenced by the fact
  that she didnt get on with some assistive
  technologies
• For Ben C, it was because he was doing OK without
  them

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Can use technology, but choose not to

• Reena
• OK, I use FaceBook (but not for learning).
• I think you mentioned to me that you find it
  quite distracting.
• Its really distracting, so it doesnt help my
  learning at all, but then I do find contacts on
  it, so its like networking But although
  this is time saving, it doesnt really help with
  getting the old PhD.

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Stigmatisation

• Jim and Paul K describe how using assistive
  technologies in lecture theatres can draw
  attention to themselves, which makes them feel
  uncomfortable
• Nick and Reena outline circumstances under which
  they would not use assistive technologies in
  public for fear of standing out as different

Nick I wouldn't use voice dictation software in
public. I'd feel to self-conscious. Reena I have
to say that if Id got that technology, I would
use it at home. I wouldnt use it in the
lab. But with technology, I still think
theres a stigma to it. If I did have assistive
technology I would use it on my home computer.
Theres no way I would use a lot of it in the lab
because I wouldnt want that stigma on me like
that thing which is bad, but its how people
are.
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Stigmatisation Focus group discussion

• Steph I find this that you get stigmatised, as
  such (I call myself special, because I am
  special!), but people are almost jealous of the
  facilities you have access to and they dont.
  They are not sneering at you because you are
  dyslexic , they are almost jealous that you can
  sit at a PC there, there is specially for you-
  you have got all this software available to you..
• Andy L In my department everyones got
  technology. Theyve all got laptops etc. Some of
  them might record their lectures, not because
  they are dyslexic or anything like that, it is
  just because they do the recording so that they
  can revise from them and its quite often that
  they track these people down e.g. disabled
  students not to give them dirty looks or
  anything, but to say can I borrow your
  recorder?.
• SarahD You are given the technology, to make it
  all even, but sometimes it is making you
  separate again.

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Narratives of inclusion

• Digital agility
• Digital decisions

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Digital agility

• Customising computers to suit preferences
• Swapping and changing from a range of
  technologies
• Being well-informed about the strengths and
  weaknesses of particular technologies in relation
  to design, usability, accessibility and impact on
  learning
• Developing a range of sophisticated and tailored
  strategies for using technology to support their
  learning
• Using technology with confidence
• Feeling comfortable with technology so that it
  holds no fears
• Being extremely familiar with technology
• Being aware of what help and support is available.

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Familiarity levels

• Nine participants shared how they were extremely
  familiar with technology prior to coming to
  university.

Michael Have you done anything else to your
computer? I have re-built it! All Ive got of
the original computer is the 3 ½ inch floppy disk
which doesnt work any more. When did you get
this computer? I bought this computer in
2001. Was that with your DSA? No it was before
I started at university. I bought it and I
looked at it, and I thought I could do a lot more
with this. So, I changed the mother board, I
changed the CPU, I increased the RAM, didnt like
that so I put a new case onto it then as well.
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Support requirements

• Preference for learning how to use technologies
• By trial and error
• Through support from peers, friends and family
• These findings regarding digital agility are
  significant in terms of encouraging us not to
  view disabled students as helpless, continually
  requiring support in order to avoid exclusion
  from successful learning experiences

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Digital decisions cost-benefit analysis

• The wide range of factors that appear to
  influence participants decisions suggest that
  these decisions can be complex and may require
  students to adopt a cost-benefit analysis when
  making decisions.
• Time seemed to be an incredibly important factor
  particularly in relation to decisions made
  regarding use of assistive technologies and
  social networking applications.
• Participants are aware of the benefits or
  pleasures that use of these technologies might
  bring them, but are having to making a decision
  about whether the benefits (learning or social)
  outweigh the costs in terms of time, where time
  is predominantly mentioned in relation to taking
  time away from study.

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Cost-benefit analysis an example

• Can I afford to invest time, in order to save
  time?
• e.g Stephanie
• You said very early on, that Ive never
  forgotten I feel as if Im doing 2 courses. Im
  doing a physio course and a skills technology
  course because you were struggling. Do you
  still feel that?
• when I got all my software in autumn last year,
  and they said You need to have your training on
  this as you quite rightly have said I did
  feel like I was doing 2 courses and that was,
  frankly, too much. I had to stay with my old bad
  habits because I just didnt feel I had the time
  to take out to learn something new to help me.
  It was a viscous circle, really.

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Digital decisions and inclusion

• Neil Selwyn (Selwyn, 2006273) talks about
  digital decisions in the context of users making
  empowered decisions not to use technology, where
  use or non-use of technology involves genuine
  choice.
• We need to explore further whether or not the
  decisions made are actually empowered ones or
  not.
• A good example of this would be the decision not
  to access support to learn how to use assistive
  technologies for fear that it will take time away
  from learning.
• A greater exploration of this dilemma or catch-22
  for disabled learners would enable practitioners
  to evaluate potential implications such as the
  possible need for support services to acknowledge
  the fears regarding time, but also provide
  meaningful and relevant information about how
  much time might be saved in the long run in
  terms of efficiency and improved learning
  outcomes.

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Discussion and Questions

• Copies of project reports and presentations can
  be found on our website
• http//www.lexdis.ecs.soton.ac.uk/