accessible technology and education robert cohen valerie haven university of massachusetts boston
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Accessible Technology and Education
Robert CohenValerie Haven
University of Massachusetts Boston
Part 2 Topics
Teaching accessibility in introductory programming courses Work with Alex Fairley, Gustavo Lima, and
David Gerry Improving accessibility for students with visual
impairments Work with Arthur Meacham, Joelle Skaff, Emily
Higgins, Jessica Lanzoni, and Michael Wissell Thanks
East Alliance - http://www.eastalliance.org BATEC - http://www.batec.org
Teaching Accessibility in Introductory Programming Courses
Goal: Bring awareness of accessibility to Java
programming students Method:
Java based projects that incorporate accessibility Results:
Simple accessibility unit for programming course Several interesting Java projects
Motivation Initial factors
Programming student who is blind Effective interaction with emacs Moving to Eclipse
East Alliance SURF Scholarships Supporting undergraduate research in
accessibility in STEM Major motivation
Accessibility is important Easy to add (technically) to a programming
course that uses Java and Swing
Accessibility Making technology available to all users
Regardless of disability Required by law
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 Section 508
The right thing to do Many assistive technologies exist
special keyboards, intelligent mice, typing aids, text-to-speech software, speech recognition software, easy-touch screens, etc.
Useful for all users In different modalities
Assistive Technology for the Visually Impaired Screen readers important
Convert text to speech Helps make applications accessible Application design is crucial
Technologies JAWS common (but expensive) Gnome Accessibility Project (Gnopernicus)
Java Accessibility Screen reader connections
Accessible name, description and tool tips Keyboard shortcuts - mnemonics
Accessible Software (Trace Center)
Type 1 designed with accessible features built in
Type 2 compatible with current assistive
technology Type 3
neither directly accessible, nor readily compatible with existing assistive technology
Teaching Accessibility in CS1 The goal is to make students aware of the
issues not much more – Java programming courses are
already packed full of material Gives a context to discuss a social issues
The technical distance is small Type 1 Projects require learning about sound
Beyond the scope of the course Type 2 projects require little more than the
Swing we (may) already teach For example, there is a section on Tool Tips and
Mnemonics in Lewis & Loftus 4th Edition
Design Guidelines We can introduce some design rules:
Provide Accessible Names for all Components. Provide Accessible Descriptions for components
that need to have one. Provide keyboard navigation and focus for all
components that a sighted person would want to see or interact with.
Provide Mnemonics for keyboard control. Customized components should support
accessibility. Should not be a major focus of a course
Could be part of a term project
Sample Projects Examples
Number Format Converter converts numbers from one radix format to
another Accessible Calculator
Write accessibility into a custom component (a keypad)
Audio Visualizer Illustrates the use of both graphical and audio
display elements
Demo
Improving Accessibility for Students with Visual Impairments
Current tools to assist users who are visually impaired read text Good for textual information Poor for diagrams
We focus on relational diagrams Diagrams where underlying
representation are graphs
Subway Maps
UML Diagrams
Organization Charts
Molecular Diagrams
Pert Charts
Visual Maps
Network Map
PLUMB(exPLoring graphs at UMB)
Use auditory cues to help visually impaired users explore graphs Active exploration
Implemented on a tablet PC using C# Uses the pen and a modified mouse
Goals Assist visually impaired users to understand
relational data represented as graphs. Active exploration – the user should be able
to navigate and explore the graph based on user interface gestures
Usable by both blind and sighted users Implemented on widely available hardware
and software
Tablet PC Advantages
Conducive for active exploration Blind users can jump to remembered
locations Compact in size Widely available Good built-in multimedia capabilities Usable with little or no hardware
modifications
Future Work
Allow students with visual impairments to create diagrams
Accessible whiteboards Universal collaborative visual
mapping tools
Demo
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