Module 2 Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning

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Module 2 |

Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning

Web accessibility refers to how easily people with disabilities can navigate and interact with websites. Disabilities may be physical (such as blindness, low vision, deafness, or fine motor skills difficulty), or cognitive (such as dyslexia or attention deficit disorder).

Because online learning has the potential to reach all students, including those who would struggle with a traditional classroom context, it's important to realize this opportunity to help students who will benefit tremendously from good, accessible online course design. By doing so you will also improve the quality of your course for students who have no specific disability but will benefit from the clarity, usability, and alternative learning options provided by accessible course design.

Please keep in mind that accessibility is not optional -- it's required by law. The Justice Department recently announced that it is considering revising ADA regulations to clarify that they apply to web sites; the Department may "establish specific requirements for state and local governments and public accommodations to make their Web sites accessible to individuals with disabilities." Please follow the link to read this short article. There has been little oversight at Portland State to date because of the gradual development of online courses but, as the largest university in the state, we will be under increasing scrutiny as our online offerings grow. As is the case with copyright, lawsuits by students regarding course accessibility carry the risk of individual instructor liability.

The basic principles of accessibility are often referred to as Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a term adapted from the movement in architectural design to create accessible spaces. UDL addresses questions of accessibility in all learning contexts, but is particularly useful for making sure online learning takes place in ways that are available to all students. An excellent introduction to this topic can be found on the Center for Teaching and Faculty Development site at San Francisco State University. The key principles of UDL are:

Representation of essential course concepts

how you design and deliver information to your class. For example, providing examples and/or illustrations of course assignments and activities.

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Engagement

offering various forms of instruction to reach students with different learning styles. For example, providing lesson content in sequential pages with illustrations or in an audiovisual format as well as a written "lecture."

Expression

providing various formats to help students understand what they should be learning, such as rubrics and guidelines for assignments and activities.

The principles of UDL are also the basics of effective teaching, so you are probably using them in the classroom already. When teaching online, however, there is an increased need for cognitive "road mapping" so that students know they are proceeding thought the course correctly and feel comfortable finding materials, communicating, and demonstrating their work.

By structuring and your course clearly and presenting learning activities in a variety of ways, you will enrich the learning experience for all your students and reduce the need for individual accommodations.

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Source: SFSU UDL online training module

This work is licensed by Portland State University | Online Learning Services under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

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Types of Disability and Assistive Technology

The main categories of disability types are:

Visual

Blindness, low vision, color-blindness

Hearing

Deafness or a degree of hearing impairment

Motor

Inability to use a mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor control

Cognitive

Learning disabilities, distractibility, inability to remember or focus on large amounts of information

Some organizations include cultural diversity and bilingual/ELL competence into their approach to accessibility, and UDL helps address some of the issues encountered by students who are non-native or first generation college students. People with disabilities often use assistive technologies to help them navigate the web. An assistive technology is any device that helps a person with a disability. Common web assistive technologies include modified mice and keyboards, screen readers and screen magnifiers.

When encountering images, a screen reader will use the HTML "alt" attribute (or "alt" tag) to present the content to a visually impaired user. For example, the image below contains an "alt" tag with the text, "Two dogs enjoying the water at the beach".

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The HTML code for this image, including the "alt" tag is shown here:

Below is a short demonstration of how a screen reader verbalizes the "alt" tags that describe each image used on a web page. A similar process identifies each navigation link and content heading for more complex pages. Users can then navigate through links and page content areas using the tab key.

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Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK97XMibEws&feature=related

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Organizing Your Course Accessibly

All people learn differently. Organizing your course in a way that supports the learning needs and styles of all users can take time up front, but in the end it will save countless hours spent helping individual students understand your course structure.

Define learning objectives

Clearly defining specific learning objectives for your course allows students with physical or cognitive disabilities to

determine whether or not they can complete that work. In some instances a particular learning objective, such as playing an instrument, will not be possible for students with certain types of impairment. In most cases, though, it is the student who will determine whether or not they are up to the challenge of meeting your learning outcomes with the resources they have available to them.

The Americans with Disabilities Act makes it clear that every student has the right to access to any course they would be eligible for without a disability as long as they can meet the learning objectives. This means, for example, that vision impaired students need full access to courses about visual culture and hearing impaired students to courses about music. Online instruction opens up a wide range of possibilities for describing course materials so that students who can't see or hear them can still understand their significance.

Create rich text descriptions and/or captions for audio/visual media

Image, multimedia and sound files in online courses are excellent for engaging students and addressing different student learning styles. But in order for the information to still be useful to someone who cannot see or hear, it is necessary to provide alternative text descriptions. In the case of videos, animations, or slide shows, the ideal format is screen captions, but a transcript is also acceptable for short presentations.

For other image or sound files, students with vision or hearing impairment can appreciate the significance of these learning objects when a meaningful written description is provided. This can be done using the alternate text tag (seen by screen readers but not other users), captions, or a description of the sound or image file.

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Gretchen am Spinnrade Meine Ruh ist hin,

Mein Herz ist schwer, Ich finde sie nimmer Und nimmermehr. Wo ich ihn nicht hab, Ist mir das Grab, Die ganze Welt Ist mir vergällt. Mein armer Kopf Ist mir verrückt, Mein aremer Sinn Ist mir zerstückt. Meine Ruh ist hin, Mein Herz ist schwer, Ich finde sie nimmer Und nimmermehr. Nach ihm nur schau ich Zum Fenster hinaus, Nach ihm nur geh ich Aus dem Haus. Sein hoher Gang,

Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel My peace is gone,

My heart is heavy, I will find it never and never more.

Where I do not have him, That is the grave,

The whole world Is bitter to me. My poor head Is crazy to me, My poor mind Is torn apart. My peace is gone, My heart is heavy, I will find it never and never more. For him only, I look Out the window Only for him do I go Out of the house. His tall walk,

Below is an example of a music history class where musical selections are described in detail. This means that, in addition to allowing hearing impaired students to appreciate music history and culture, non-impaired students gain additional insight because of the rich description provided by the instructor.

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Sein' edle Gestalt, Seines Mundes Lächeln, Seiner Augen Gewalt, Und seiner Rede Zauberfluss, Sein Händedruck,

Und ach, sein Kuss.

Meine Ruh ist hin, Mein Herz ist schwer, Ich finde sie nimmer Und nimmermehr. Mein Busen drängt sich Nach ihm hin.

[Ach]1 dürft ich fassen Und halten ihn,

Und küssen ihn, So wie ich wollt, An seinen Küsse Vergehen sollt!

His noble figure, His mouth's smile, His eyes' power, And his mouth's Magic flow, His handclasp,

and ah! His kiss!

My peace is gone, My heart is heavy, I will find it never and never more. My bosom urges itself toward him.

Ah, might I grasp And hold him! And kiss him, As I would wish, At his kisses I should die!

This Schubert’s Lied is in three parts: one for the voice, and two for piano. Piano parts are clearly delineated as

harmonic, chordal support in the lower part (left hand) and constant figural movement in the upper part (right hand). The right hand figural line moves swiftly and signifies the turning of the spinning wheel. The vocal part is female belonging to Gretchen who is thinking of her love and his kiss. The dynamics is progressing along with the spinning from the softest pianissimo toward mezzo forte and forte in each strophe to reach climax in the seventh stanza when Gretchen remembers his kiss and forgets to spin. This situation is also remarked with the fermata and sforzandos to then reinstate the mood from the very opening with the same lyrics.

Read the words to the poem first to get the content and then watch the video paying particular attention to the score. You do not have to be able to read notation, just follow the direction of each part described above within the context of the lyrics.

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Characters: Narrator, Father, Son, Earl king

Who rides so late through the night and wind? It is the father with his child;

He has the boy safe in his arm,

He holds him secure, he holds him warm.

"My son, what makes you hide your face in fear?"

Father, don't you see the Earl king? The Erlking with crown and flowing robe?

"My son, it’s a wisp of fog."

"You lovely child, come, go with me! Many a beautiful game I'll play with you; Many colorful flowers are on the shore, My mother has many golden robes." "My father, my father, and don't you hear What Erlking is quietly promising me?"

"Be calm, stay calm, my child;

The wind is rustling through withered leaves."

"Do you want to come with me, dear boy? My daughters shall wait on you fine; My daughters will lead the nightly dance,

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"My father, my father, and don't you see there Earl king's daughters in the gloomy place?"

"My son, my son, I see it clearly:

The old willows they shimmer so grey."

"I love you, your beautiful form entices me; And if you're not willing, I shall use force." "My father, my father, he's grabbing me now! Earl king has done me some harm!"

The father shudders; he swiftly rides on, He holds the moaning child in his arms, is hardly able to reach his farm;

In his arms, the child was dead.

Similar to the previous Lied “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” Schubert in “Earl king” uses piano to illustrate the horse galloping through the forest. The piano part again moves very swiftly and also provides basis in harmony. The singer, Fischer-Dieskau invests in all four characters with different facial expressions and change in vocal mannerism. While the piano threads consistently the recognizable motif, narrator appears in a factual voice, the father in authoritative and calming,

boy in scared (watch for facial expression at 2:37 and 3:13 time), and Earl king in sweet, luring voice. At the very end, the vocalist almost recites the finishing lyrics, followed by a two chord resolution in piano.

Study the lyrics of the poem carefully and then watch for performer’s facial expressions to identify the characters.

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Organizing Your Course Accessibly

Set clear course expectations

When you set up an online course it is important to remember that for many students it marks a big change from a traditional classroom. This can be challenging for students with physical or learning disabilities as they can feel disconnected from their instructor and other support systems.

Make time limits and deadlines flexible

Many course designers create course materials that put users with learning and physical disabilities at a disadvantage without intending to. Usually disadvantages result from users not having enough time to complete tasks or not having appropriately designed resources.

Here are a couple things to consider when organizing course materials in a time-sensitive manner:

Use the Discussions tool rather than instant messaging tools (such as the Chat tool) for user participation and reflection. Instant messaging tools can be difficult for users with visual, motor, or learning disabilities because they require users to process and respond to information quickly using technology that does not match their needs. Discussion areas give all users time to reflect. If you use instant messaging, be aware that some users may require an alternative solution such as phone or face-to-face contact. Also consider the accessibility of the instant messaging interface; the Desire2Learn Chat tool is specifically designed to be accessible by keyboard and screen readers.

Provide readings and assignments well in advance of deadlines so users can work ahead and prepare. Many students need the extra time to organize extra help and to read through content multiple times. Have your course designer create a Special Access option, which you can apply to particular students to extend assignment or quiz deadlines.

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materials and assignments that appeal to more than one sense. For example, the same material or assignment can have an audio, video and text component. This type of redundancy helps engage students with different learning types, reinforces important concepts, and helps ensure that users with physical disabilities can access content in a suitable format.

Provide text-only alternatives to multimedia and image files

Videos, graphics, and audio files are a great way to generate interest in a topic, present material from different perspectives, and help students with learning disabilities through redundancy. But for the vision and hearing impaired, text-only alternatives are essential.

Allow students to demonstrate learning through different assignments associated with the same grade item or competency activity

For example, a written reflection, a recorded interview, or a slide show presentation.

Set up discussion areas that encourage peer-to-peer support

Regularly review information in the forums and adjust your content appropriately

Use the Equation Editor in combination with written descriptions of the formulas

Although the Equation Editor supports accessible equations through MathML, these standards are not supported by all browsers or assistive technologies. Written descriptions help all students interpret what they need to do to complete the equation.

Use a vertical layout for quizzes so that only one answer/concept appears per line

Screen readers will interpret the order of the material easier, it will minimize formatting problems when text sizes are adjusted, and most students will interpret their options quicker.

Provide appropriate alternative text

Alternative text provides a textual alternative to non-text content in web pages. It is especially helpful for people who are blind and rely on a screen reader to have the content of the website read to them.

Provide headings for data tables

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appropriate table headers. Data cells should be associated with their appropriate headers, making it easier for screen reader users to navigate and understand the data table.

Ensure links make sense out of context

Every link should make sense if the link text is read by itself. Non-descriptive phrases like "click here" and "more" should be avoided.

Caption and/or provide transcripts for media

Videos and live audio must have captions or a transcript. At the very minimum, a written summary should be provided.

Don't rely on non-accessible text files

A number of popular file formats such as PDF files, Microsoft Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations are not accessible to screen readers without extensive and time-consuming modifications. A simpler solution is to have your course designer convert all documents to HTML, and then provide the original file format as a printable or downloadable version.

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Resources

PSU Disability Resource Center SFSU Accessibility Guides

National Center for Accessible Media Guidelines

WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind: http://webaim.org/

Useful links provided by Bridge Multimedia, specializing in accessible media:

http://www.bridgemultimedia.com/links.php

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm

AccessWeb

http://www.washington.edu/doit/Resources/accessweb.html

EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information)

http://people.rit.edu/easi/index.htm

Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards (Section 508)

http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/standards.htm

International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet

http://www.icdri.org/

National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education (AccessIT)

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National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) resources

http://ncam.wgbh.org/

Trace Research and Development Center

http://www.trace.wisc.edu/

Universal Design: Principles, Process, and Applications

http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/Programs/ud.html

W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM)

http://www.webaim.org/