www.r2d2.uwm.edu accessibility of distance education: evaluating the impact of at & ud roger o....

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Accessibility of Distance Education: Evaluating the Impact of AT & UD

Roger O. Smith, PhD, RESNA Fellow

Aura Hirschman, MS, CRC

Carly Golden, BS

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© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu 2

Workshop Overview

I. R2D2 Center & Existing Materials

II. Practical Application & ExamplesIII. Introduction to DETA & GoalsIV. DETA Goal 7V. DETA Tool DevelopmentVI. Next StepsVII. FeedbackVIII. Wrap up


I. Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center

What lead to our participation in the DETA Project?

3 MODEL DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS TO IMPROVE

THE QUALITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES


I. R2D2 Center Existing Materials

1. Project IMPACT – Strategies to integrate

assistive technology into the post-secondary setting

2. ACCESS-ed – Universal Design in Education

with resources for accessibility and measurement of

accessibility, a website, and campus infusion

strategies (DARCs)

3. UD ITEACH - Documenting accessibility

barriers, diagnosing institutional needs, and

Identifying accessibility and usability issues in

existing and emerging educational technologies


II. Practical Application & Examples


II. LMS

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the

administration documentation tracking reporting delivery

of electronic educational technology (also called e-learning) education courses or training programs (e.g. Moodle, D2L, Blackboard, etc.).


II. KEY ISSUES in the ACCESSIBILITY OF DISTANCE EDUCATION (DE)

Accessibility of the learning management system (tasks)

Accessibility of the actual course content (and delivery) (interventions)

Skill of the student in using (the technology and) their assistive technology (demographic)


II. Ten Simple Steps Toward Universal Design of Online Courses

1: Develop content first, then design.2: Provide simple, consistent navigation.3: Include an accommodation statement. 4: Choose CMS tools carefully. 5: Model and teach good discussion board etiquette.

Project PACE - http://ualr.edu/pace/tenstepsud/#top


II. Ten Simple Steps Toward Universal Design of Online Courses

6: Use color with care. 7: Provide accessible document formats.8: Choose fonts carefully.9: Convert PowerPoint™ to accessible HTML.10: If it's auditory make it visual; if it is visual make it auditory.

Project PACE - http://ualr.edu/pace/tenstepsud/#top


II. Examples in the Field

Students with alternative text accommodations PDF text to speech (Bad PDF, Good

PDF) Students can convert their own text

(using Read&Write Gold software)

Blind students using JAWS Use of updated software Skill set


III. DETA: Determining Access in Distance Education

“The National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological

Advancement (DETA) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, funded by

the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of

Postsecondary Education, seeks to foster student access and success

through evidence-based, cross-institutional online learning practices and

technologies. Moreover, the DETA Research Center looks to identify and

evaluate effective course and institutional practices in online learning,

including competency-based education, specifically addressing

underrepresented populations.”


III. DETA: Determining Access in Distance Education- Objectives

1. Understand and determine distance education outcomes

2. Identify practices (instructional and institutional) that impact those outcomes

3. Conduct rigorous, interdisciplinary, and standardized research to identify outcomes and influences on all students, including those with disabilities.


III.DETA Goals


IV. DETA Center- Goal 7



“Goal 7, specifically, aims to create tools to prompt educators to incorporate and evaluate the level of accessibility components built into their designs and to develop the infrastructure to tease out, not only what works, but what works and what doesn’t, for students with disabilities.”



Activity 1: Embed disability specific questions/data fields within research instrumentation

Activity 2: Create curricular disability accessibility assessment tools

Activity 3: Identify which interventions impact learning for which types of disabilities


V. DETA Tool Development

Developing taxonomies:

1. Demographics

2. Student Tasks

3. Accessibility Interventions (UD)


1. Demographics

Understanding the student background What type of impairment/disability? How severe is the impairment/disability? What AT/other interventions are they

implementing to manage their disability?


1. Demographics- Minimal Data Set Excerpt

Visual Impairment Hearing Impairment Intellectual Impairment/Learning

Disability Psychological Disorder Upper Extremity Impairment Lower Extremity Impairment Overall Body Impairment (e.g.

fatigue/weakness) Mobility Impairment Language Impairment (expressive or

receptive) Sensory Impairment/Environmental

Sensitivity Behavioral Limitation Blindness Deafness

Technology & Modifications Vision and Reading Aids

Auditory/speech output devices

Screen readers Optical character

recognition (OCR) systems

Screen magnifier/enlarger

Manual/electric page turners

Speaker phone Audio textbooks


1. Demographics- Scoring Scale

Scale: Application to myself Question: This descriptor

applies to me Always (2) Sometimes (1) Does not apply (0)

Scale: Impairment level Question: This impairment

significantly affects me Always (2) Sometimes (1) Does not affect me (0)

Scale: Level of modification Question: I use this

modification/assistive technology Always (2) Sometimes (1) Never (0)


2. Student Tasks

Understanding what is required of a DE student in order to be successful Required Course Activities Course Management Skills Tasks required for all students (not specific

to a student with a disability)


2. Student Tasks- Minimal Data Set Excerpt

Course Activities Types of instructional media delivery (direct

& indirect) Slideshows Audio Files Readings Videos Website links


2. Student Tasks- Scoring Scale

Scale: Level of requirement of activity Question: In this course, this activity

was required Always (2) Sometimes/electively (1) Never/not used/not applicable (0)


3. Availability of Accessibility Interventions

Understanding UD interventions utilized in a course to make it more accessible for all students Time interventions Media interventions Social interventions Motor interventions


3. Availability of Accessibility Interventions- Minimal Data Set Excerpt

Media Visual media alternatives

Pictures, illustrations, photographs, diagrams, documents, and other static information

Readings and other static text information Materials screen reader compatible Font sizes alterable Readings Optical Character Recognition (OCR) compatible Textbooks provided in electronic format Braille screen display/printer output compatible

Pictures, illustrations, and other static non-text information Equivalent text descriptions (EqTD) provided for pictures,

graphics


3. Availability of Accessibility Interventions- Scoring Scale

Scale: Availability Question: In this

course, this intervention was available Always (2) Sometimes/only upon

request (1) Not available/do not

know (0) Not applicable (question

not scored)

Scale: Usage Question: In this

course, this intervention was used Always/consistently (2) Sometimes (1) Not used at all (0)

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VI. Next Steps

Minimal Data Set taxonomies into scorable assessments- for students

Full taxonomies for thorough assessment tools

Accessibility and Universal Design Information Tool (AUDIT) development


VII. Feedback

Evaluate Minimal Data Sets What’s missing?

What AUDITs need to be developed specifically for DE?

What direction does accessibility in DE research need to be going?

What tools should we develop to determine access in DE?


Resources- Universal Course DesignEquity and Excellence in Higher Education's Universal Course Design (UCD) Web site

http://www.universalcoursedesign.org/home

Universal Course Design Tutorials

http://www.universalcoursedesign.org/ucd-tutorials (Copyright, the University of Massachusetts Boston. The Equity and Excellence in Higher Education project is funded by the US Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education (P333A050051). The contents of the website do not necessarily reflect the official position of the US Department of Education.)

------------------------------------------------------------------

Making Online Teaching Accessible (2010) - Norman Coombs

http://www.universalcoursedesign.org/home

http://www.universalcoursedesign.org/ucd-tutorials


Acknowledgement

The DETA Center and this work are supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education, grant number 1894-0006. The opinions contained in this publication are those of the grantee and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Education and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

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R2D2 Center Contact Information

Web: www.r2d2.uwm.edu Email: [email protected] Voice: (414) 229-6803 TTY: (414) 229-5628

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http://www.r2d2.uwm.edu/

mailto:[email protected]


Copyright

Presenters may choose to use these slides as a stand alone presentation or use all or a subset of the slides in another presentation.

Slides may be displayed and duplicated, as long as the copyright information and credit to the authors is maintained.

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Presenter Options: Including Universal Access Features

The “speaker notes” function in PowerPoint is used as a universal access feature. The speaker notes contain long text descriptions of

the graphics, because it was not feasible to do this with PowerPoint’s ALT text function to provide access for people with disabilities, including vision and cognitive impairments.

The notes can also be used to prepare a presenter for delivering the slides.

Where graphics repeat, the descriptions for graphics only describe what has changed from the previous slide.

Unfortunately, current versions of the free PowerPoint Viewer do not support “speaker notes.”

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Presenter Options:Viewing Speaker Notes

Using the “Slide Show” view In Windows, right click on the slide in use or use

the context key to bring up the menu, and then select “speaker notes”

On a Mac, using Ctrl + Click on the slide and select “speakers notes” from the menu.

The notes can also be seen as a part of the “Normal” view or directly by using the “Notes Page” view.

When in “Normal” view, F6 can be used to switch between the slide, notes, and outline panes respectively.

• Go back to the opening presentation slide

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www.r2d2.uwm.edu accessibility of distance education: evaluating the impact of at & ud roger o....

Documents

r2d2 logo

uwmilwaukee logo

applied research

basic research

measurement of accessibility

deta project

deta goalsiv

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