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Accessibility And E-Learning:
Conclusions
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath, BA2 7AY
Email
[email protected]
URL
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
UKOLN is supported by:
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W3C WAI
W3C WAI:
• Have raised awareness of how digital resources can be
made widely accessible
• Have helped ensure that W3C standards support
accessibility
But:
• What does WAI A, AA, AAA mean:
•
•
•
•
•
Covers more disabilities
Covers more people
Addresses more technologies
Addresses increasing areas of difficulties
Goes from today's Web technologies to future technologies
• W3C WAI are promoters of W3C technologies; what about:
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• Increased accessibility of proprietary formats
• Accessibility support in operating systems
A centre of expertise
• … in digital information management
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Universal Design
W3C WAI philosophy:
• Based on universal design principle:
"A kerb cutaway will help people with prams, and
not just people in wheelchairs"
But:
• This sounds nice, but to what extent is it
universally true
• Doesn't life tell us that 'no-brainers' are the
exception; normally we need to make
compromises
• Even the dreaded "click here" may be needed in
certain circumstances e.g. people with learning
disabilities
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Resource Issues
Remember:
• Implementing accessibility is likely to have
resource implications
• This need not be an insurmountable barrier
(installing fire precautions has a cost, but we are
prepared to accept this)
• The costs may be higher if deferred
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Learning Or E-Learning?
E-learning accessibility may be more difficult than
information accessibility:
• Hiding information to facilitate thinking
• E-learning and 3D visualisation, simulation, …
• E-Learning and drag-and-drop interfaces
Some questions:
• Should we be seeking to provide accessible elearning or accessible learning?
• If accessible e-learning is difficult / costly can we
provide an accessible learning experience?
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Accessibility Policies
It is probably sensible to develop an accessibility
policy:
• What you provide (aim to provide) to your users
• What your authors will do
• Description of accessibility support:
shortcut keys; specialist devices; support
infrastructure
• Description of procedures
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Quality Assurance
You should probably implement quality assurance (QA)
procedures which will ensure that your policies are
implemented
The QA Focus project provides useful resources:
• Briefing documents
• Case studies
• Examples of policies
• Self assessment tools
• …
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QA Focus Documents:
The QA Focus briefing
documents address:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/
documents/briefings/
• Standards such as XHTML,
CSS, …
• Approaches to accessibility
testing
• Deployment of proprietary
formats
Case studies include:
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• Standards And Accessibility Compliance In The FAILTE Project
Web Site (no. 2)
• Standards and Accessibility Compliance for the DEMOS
Project Web Site (no. 10)
• Approaches to Accessibility at MIMAS (no. 15)
• Exploiting ACRONYM And ABBR HTML Elements (no. 29)
A•centre
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… of expertise in digital information management
Self Assessment Toolkit
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/toolkit/
Further Deliverables
We are developing a
self-assessment toolkit which
consists of:
• Examples of
QA procedures
• Documented examples
of use of testing tools
• Self-assessment
questionnaires
• Case studies, FAQs, ..
TechDis have developed something
similar
which
covers
accessibility:
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of expertise
in digital
information
management
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http://www.techdis.ac.uk/seven/
statistics_and_evaluation.html
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Useful Approach To Tools
As an example of approach
which provides easier access
to testing tools, see the
,tools approach deployed
on UKOLN Web site.
This approach:
• Applies to all resources on
Web site
• Covers HTML and CSS
validation and various
other tests
• Some recursive apps
(,rvalidate)
• Easily implemented with
single line redirect
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Policies
How do you know what you should do if you don't
have documented polices?
Policy example
Policy: Web Standards
Standard: XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0
Architecture: Use of SSIs and text editor
Exceptions: Automatically-derived files
Checking: Use ,validate after update
Audit Trail: Use ,rvalidate monthly and
document findings
You may find it useful to develop similar policies
yourself – for example, a policy of the accessibility of
your Web site
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Nobody Said It Would Be Easy
"Nobody said it would be easy" – Judy Brewer,
head of W3C WAI
Some thoughts:
• There is a danger that seeking to achieve
the best will drive out the good
• If 100% accessibility is theoretically
impossible and 90% accessibility is too
expensive, why not go for 80%
accessibility?
• We've done this before in many areas (e.g.
wheelchair accessibility for listed Victorian
buildings)
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Let's Build A Policy (in 3 mins)
Foo University Web Accessibility Policy:
The University has a commitment to accessibility and wellestablished policies, procedures and support (see Disability
Office for details).
This commitment also applies to University Web sites.
The University Web site must comply with W3C AA
guidelines.
The Web Accessibility Officer is responsible for providing
support, monitoring compliance, …
Web sites which do not comply are liable to be removed or
access denied through blocking by the University firewall
A simple, clear policy which is linked to related policies,
has a support infrastructure and the policy has teeth
But
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Another Web Policy
Bar University Web Accessibility Policy:
The University has a commitment to accessibility …
In addition the University seeks to ensure that its publications
are authoritative understandable, usable, accurate & up-todate.
This commitment also applies to University Web sites.
University Web sites (*.bar.ac.uk) must seek to comply with
W3C A guidelines, with university visual identity guidelines
and with usability guidelines.
Departmental Web contacts are responsible for producing
appropriate QA guidelines and for establishing monitoring
procedures. Annual reports on compliance must be submitted
as part of department's annual reports.
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A Third Web Policy
FUBAR Department's Web Accessibility Policy:
The FUBAR Dept has a commitment to Web accessibility and
open standards. The Dept.'s browser policy if Netsoft v6
The Dept will ensure that its templates, training, etc. adhere to
best W3C practices.
Significant new Web services will go through systematic
usability testing, which will include usability for people with
disabilities.
We will ensure that teaching resources to be used by
registered disabled students will be tested. If they are not
accessible we will seek to ensure that we can provide an
equivalent real-world learning experience.
We will take a risk and make our DHTML learning resources
freely-available. If external disabled users complain, we will
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move
them
to our Intranet.
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Conclusions
To conclude:
• Accessibility of e-learning resources is important
• However a simple checklist approach to
accessibility is insufficient in itself
• There will be a subjectivity aspect to accessibility
• Tools can help – but aren't sufficient in
themselves
• User feedback can help – but won't cover
everything
• There are best practices which you should seek
to deploy
• But compromises may be necessary
• But you are not alone!
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