Transcript BEST PRACTICES - Center for Assistive Technology and

BEST PRACTICES:
CURRENT THINKING,
NEW DIRECTIONS
Norman Coombs
[email protected]
CEO EASI
E-LEARNING HISTORY
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Centralized mainframe and modem
NJIT and Educational Information Exchange System
DEC and VAXnotes
Command prompt interface
FTP and telnet
No pictures; text only
PC like a dumb terminal
Lonely pioneers
Users with Disabilities
GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
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GUI and the PC
Development of multimedia
Impact for users with disabilities:
Blind
Low vision
Motor impaired
Visual and cognitive processing disabilities
Deaf and hard of hearing
WORLD WIDE WEB
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Decentralized computing
Hypertext interface
Graphics, video, audio and text
Information super highway
Rules of the road
WAI and 508
DISABILITY LEGISLATION
– A decade ago, courseware vendors said that
disability legislation did not relate to them and
that colleges were not asking for accessibility.
– Colleges were not sure whether such legislation
related either to IT or to e-learning.
DISABILITY LEGISLATION
• Department of Education OCR routinely
cites
• Rehabilitation act 504
• Rehabilitation Act 508
• Americans with Disabilities Act
COMPONENTS OF E-LEARNING
• Courseware system or infrastructure created
by professional Web programmers with the
skill to enable them to create an accessible
product
• Course content created by faculty with
minimal technical know-how and posted to
the courseware
COURSEWARE ACCESSIBILITY
• All the major courseware vendors have made
significant progress towards accessibility.
• More work still needs to be done especially in
areas like chat, discussion and whiteboard
• Now it is time to go beyond the infrastructure and
focus on improving course content accessibility
MEDIUM OR THE MESSAGE
• Special features of classroom learning
• Special features of online learning
• Using the medium to maximize the
communication and the learning
• Make the technology as transparent as
possible
• Best practice with limited tech skill
UNIVERSAL PAGE DESIGN
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Good color contrast
Maintain some white space
Simple, clear design
Avoid eye candy
Avoid glitz for its own sake
Every item on a page should contribute to the
central message
• Use simple, clear and consistent navigation
UNIVERSAL CONTENT DESIGN
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Modularize the content
Use redundant communication modes
Use simple, clear language
Strive for short sentences and short paragraphs
Use the active verb when possible
Provide content previews and content summaries
Provide frequent opportunities for interaction
BE LEARNER CENTERED
• Make the student an active participant in his
or her learning
• Avoid one-way information monologues
• Focus on the information technology tools
that promote interaction
• When using communication modes that
promote a monologue, divide that content
into small modules
TWO LEVELS OF TRAINING
• Some content designers will have advanced
Web design skill and will be able to
understand the WAI and 508 standards to
create advanced Web content
• Most faculty will not have the skill and will
need training to create simpler content that
is still accessible
CORE STANDARDS???
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(a) images
(b) multimedia
© color
(g & h) tables
(k) Keep text pages updated
(o) Ability to skip repetitive navigation
COURSEWARE WIZARD
• When faculty upload content to the
courseware system, it should prompt for
relevant accessibility features
• After content is posted to courseware, its
design should permit modification/repair for
accessibility features
AUTHOR TOOL WIZARD
• Microsoft Office Word, Excel and
Powerpoint are the most common authoring
tools
• Microsoft Office Accessibility Wizard
• cita.disability.uiuc.edu/software/office/
• Subtitle Workshop caption tool
• urusoft.cjb.net/
TIPS AND TRICKS
• Until authoring and courseware systems
have accessibility wizards prompting
designer to integrate accessibility into
content, there is a need to develop tips and
tricks to help faculty who lack the skill to
fully implement correct accessibility
LEARNING PARADIGMS
• Traditional education follows a linear, stepby-step progression predetermined by the
teacher
• The Web has multiple connections in all
directions and is more holistic
• Does the Web foster a lack of focus and
hinder learning, or is it a new learning
paradigm?
CONCLUSION
• Courseware systems (infrastructure) is becoming
accessible but needs continuing work
• Course content now needs to be the focus of elearning accessibility
• Skilled designers need training on WAI and 508
• Most faculty need tools and tips to enable them to
create accessible content without becoming Web
experts