Presentation Transcript

1. Accessible Learning: Virtual Barriers, Second Life, and Beyond Andrew Wright Director of Academic Technology Assistant Professor of CIS andrew.wright@louisville.edu cislab1.cbpa.louisville.edu/wright/ Marilyn Greenwell Web Accessibility Coordinator Communications & Marketing Marilyn.Greenwell@louisville.edu www.louisville.edu/web/accessibility/
2. Introduction Andrew Wright Faculty in Computer Information Systems since 1994 Director of Academic Technology since 2004 Marilyn Greenwell Web Accessibility Coordinator, University of Louisville since March 2006 Webmaster for whas11.com (5 years) Webmaster for Clear Channel Louisville’s 8 radio stations and two news networks (5 years)
3. Agenda Demonstration of the latest instructional technology tools Awareness-raising exercise Common accessibility issues Legal responsibilities Discussion with participants on developing best practices Conclusions
4. Demo of Latest Instructional Tech Tools Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) Lecture & Screen Capture Tools Adobe Presenter/Connect Pro (formerly Macromedia Breeze) (REMOVED - requires password access)
5. Awareness Raising Exercise Consider using tools as a student with vision or hearing impairment Review lecture segments with window minimized or audio muted Can you still understand what’s going on? Try exploring a MUVE without vision Consider using tools as a student with motor skill impairment Tablet PC’s and inking can be challenging

6. Types of Disabilities

   Providing Accommodations
7. Blindness or Low Vision Vision Issues include Low Vision Persons with low vision but need scalable fonts and good contrast Blindness Requires screen readers, need alternative text or longdesc to describe images used on site Color Deficiency (color blindness) Requires good contrasts & certain color spectrums
8. Hearing Loss or Deafness Hearing Issues include Deafness Requires captioning or textual transcripts to fully use sites Hard of Hearing Often requires amplification
9. Motor Skill Impairment Motor Skills Issues include many conditions that limit one’s ability to use conventional mouse and/or keyboard Best suggestion is to make sureyour site can be easily navigatedwith keyboard Tab 
10. Cognitive Issues Cognitive Issues include Learning Difficulties Dyslexia Attention Deficit Memory Difficulties Easily the least understood Recommendations are slowly appearing

11. Unintentional Barriers

    DID I DO THAT?
12. Visual Barriers Visual Barriers include, but are NOT limited to: IMAGES Images used to convey information (such as a diagram of the heart) Text in a graphic (i.e. a graphic that says “HOME” or “Artistic font text in an image”) Graphic image of detailed information (i.e. maps, organizational charts, diagrams) Video that has no transcript or captioning with narrative
13. Visual Barriers Photosensitive Epilepsy For some, blinking text or images are annoying in general, but, they can also cause photosensitive epileptic seizures Avoid flashing text and images Novelty of <blink> tag wore off long ago Annoying at best, dangerous at worst If you feel you need these “exciting” graphics to make your site compelling, perhaps you need to re-think your content
14. Visual Barriers Other Visual Barriers include, but are NOT limited to: “Downloadable” files that require specific software or plug-ins Inconsistency in navigation or content placement Lack of adequate Color Contrast Headings that are not designated as headings (BOLD CAPS vs <h1>) Careful selection of fonts, sizes and styles
15. Sound Barriers Sound Barriers include, but are NOT limited to: Background sounds in video or audio Video or Podcast that has no transcript or captioning with narrative “Downloadable” files that require specific software or plugin to hear Auditory stimulus of any kind that does not provide an alternative
16. Physical Barriers Physical barriers include but are NOT limited to: Require excessive mouse-clicks to accomplish task Require joystick or mouse for tracking elements Provide very small amount of “real estate” as the click-target Require text input in a short amount of time (i.e. chatrooms) Unable to navigate with keyboard (tab)
17. Cognitive Barriers Cognitive barriers include but are NOT limited to: Lack of white space or contrast Content that is not clear and concise Animations or elements that distract or require downloads, specific software or plugin Inconsistency in content placement Headings that are not designated as headings Require text input in a short amount of time
18. You May Have Noticed Some barriers overlap and affect different disabilities What can be an advantage for some, may be a disadvantage for others It may be best to provide more than one method of acquiring the information
19. KY Post-Secondary StudentDisability Statistics (Fall 2004)
20. Legal Responsibilities It’s The Law Rehabilitation Act Section 504 Section 508 Americans with Disabilities Act Kentucky Statutes KRS 61.6980 – 61.988 It’s the RIGHT thing to do
21. Discussion Is there a contradiction presented by proponents of MUVEs that claim “unique learning opportunities” afforded by the immersive multimedia environment while also claiming the ability to provide equivalent alternatives to visually-impaired students?
22. Discussion Does restricting access to content (like putting it behind Blackboard) change the responsibility to make it accessible to students with varying abilities?
23. Discussion More broadly, is there an ethical dilemma created when tools that enhance the learning experience for the general student population inadvertently limit the learning opportunities for students with special needs?
24. Discussion Can we develop best practices and guidelines for teaching in this new (virtual) world? Yes!
25. Conclusions These emerging instructional technology tools offer great potential for improved learning BUT also present challenges to users with different abilities It is essential to consider how students with different needs may be accommodated Consider from the start or you may find that you don’t have time to prepare accommodations while you are exploring this new world
26. Conclusions Exploration of these emerging tools can and should occur We can’t ignore the benefits these tools may bring our students BUT we shouldn’t leave anyone out of these benefits, either Think critically about the benefits these tools offer and the support needed to provide accommodations Weigh these out and strike a balance
27. Conclusions If you have multimedia content, be prepared to caption it Options Use student workers to caption Outsource Professional services like Caption Colorado Automated Software Speech recognition systems like DocSoft Assistants can help navigate and provide descriptive audio Is this “equivalent”? Prepare alternate assignments Be flexible as you explore
28. CRS Conference Nov. 15, 2008
29. References and Resources Emerging Instructional Technology Tools MUVEs Second Life: secondlife.com River City: muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject Play2Train: www.play2train.org There: www.there.com Multiverse: www.multiverse.net Screen & Lecture Capture Camtasia Studio: www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp Adobe Presenter: www.adobe.com/products/presenter Tegrity: www.tegrity.com DyKnow: www.dyknow.com Echo360: www.echo360.com
30. References and Resources Resources Captioning Caption Colorado: www.captioncolorado.com DocSoft: www.docsoft.com Articles and Sites 2007 Horizon Report: www.nmc.org/horizon/2007/report MUVE Teaching Tips: campustechnology.com/articles/57065_2 The Why and How of Web Access.: net.educause.edu/LIVE087 Terra Nova Blog: terranova.blogs.com Muve Forward Blog: muveforward.blogspot.com MUVEs for Education: www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=159 Access. Of MOOs: www.utexas.edu/research/accessibility/research/summary/swat/swat_moos.html
31. References and Resources Resources Articles and Sites Access and Democracy in SL: kestrell.livejournal.com/343509.html SL for the Visually Impaired: lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/educators/2007-May/009036.html Accessibility Resource Center in SL: infoisland.org/2007/06/04/libraries-on-the-muve-healthinfo-island-to-provide-accessibility-resource-center-in-second-life WebAIM: www.webaim.org DO-IT: www.washington.edu/doit
32. Accessible Learning: Virtual Barriers, Second Life, and Beyond Andrew Wright Director of Academic Technology Assistant Professor of CIS andrew.wright@louisville.edu cislab1.cbpa.louisville.edu/wright/ Marilyn Greenwell Web Accessibility Coordinator Communications & Marketing Marilyn.Greenwell@louisville.edu www.louisville.edu/web/accessibility/