E-Learning for the BC Tech Industry  An opinionated monthly column exploring the current use, future potential, and commercial value of e-learning in BC’s high tech sector. E-Learning Accessibility: March 14th, 2003 By Paul Stacey Access has long been touted as a major benefit of e-learning. But is it really accessible to all? Canada, like many countries, believes Information and Communication Technologies (ICT's) are essential for the country's social and economic development. In a move toward ubiquitous technology access, Canada was the first nation in the world to link all its schools and libraries to the Internet. But is there a gulf between technology haves and have-nots creating a digital divide? Should every person have a network enabled device?   Schools and libraries are not the only locales for technology access. One fascinating UK initiative to increase access was the University for Industry sponsored construction of an ICT learning centre in Sunderland Football Club's "Stadium of Light" a new soccer field built in the 90's.   The United States has also been addressing accessibility concerns through public policy.   In 2001 the US enacted the No Child Left Behind Act. This law outlines Bush's plans for education reform and makes significant changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Particularly pertinent for accessibility is the requirement for state and district reports to show achievement gaps between students who are economically disadvantaged, from racial and ethnic minority groups, have disabilities, or have limited English proficiency. This information will be used to help close the achievement gap between students of different groups and make sure that no child is left behind. See http://www.nochildleftbehind.gov for more.   Another aspect of accessibility focuses on ensuring those with disabilities are not excluded or disadvantaged. How accessible is e-learning to someone who has arthritis or is a quadriplegic?   Is e-learning accessible to people with vision, hearing, physical capacity, and cognitive skill disabilities?   The US Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. See http://www.section508.gov for more.   But public policy can only go so far. Accessibility needs to be designed in from the start. Lets take a look at some of the ways technology and e-learning are being designed to enable accessibility.   In the technology itself "accessibility" is facilitated through hardware and software (the operating system and in software applications).   Hardware   Access to a computer is the first hurdle to accessibility. While this minimum requirement can be met through public Internet cafe's, schools, and libraries the optimum experience is attained by having your own personal computer. In this context affordability is a barrier to accessibility. For low income earners the expense of a computer can be out of reach.   Computer hardware comes in different configurations. Computers with more RAM, faster processors, larger hard disks, and other media enabling capabilities tend to be better for e-learning. They provide access to more media rich and interactive experiences than minimally configured computers.   Just as faster is better for a computer, faster is better on the network. There are differing qualities of experience based on bandwidth. Those with only dial-up will not have access to the same range of rich features available with ADSL or cable.   In addition to these off-the-shelf hardware considerations an increasing variety of "assistive technologies" are being developed to meet the ICT accessibility needs of those with vision, hearing, physical capacity, and cognitive skill disabilities.   Assistive hardware technologies include:   - alternative keyboards - alternative mouse systems - Braille computer displays - Braille embossers & printers - screen magnifiers - screen readers - electronic aids to daily living - speech synthesizers - haptic devices   An excellent overview of different hardware assistive technology options including a description and considerations of each can be found at: http://snow.utoronto.ca/technology/products/   Operating Systems   Human Computer Interface designers have customized popular operating systems to provide user definable "Accessibility" settings.   The Windows and Macintosh operating systems have special Accessibility options such as: generating visual warnings when the computer makes a sound captioning speech and sounds adjusting the display to use colours and fonts designed for easy reading controlling the mouse pointer using numeric keys on the keyboard These features make computer use more possible by those who have special visual, audio, or physical needs.   While faster is better in general (as noted in the hardware section), accessibility brings an interesting twist. For those with physical limitations the speed at which a computer does things can in fact be a problem.   Operating system interface features or interactions that are based on timing of events should be customizable by the user.   Software Applications   The World Wide Web Consortium and IMS have both created a set of Accessibility guidelines. To access the guidelines yourself check out Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, a World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation 5-May-1999 and IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications Version 1.0, a white paper produced by IMS 27-Jun-2002.   I've extracted and interpreted a few accessibility guidelines from them both. They provide a range of considerations in terms of e-learning accessibility: Allow for customization based on user preference. Display elements should be customizable - including font, font style, font colour, font size, cursor size, screen layout, and background. Ensure text and graphics are understandable when viewed without colour. Provide equivalent access to auditory and visual content based on user preference. To make e-learning accessible to those with hearing impairments developers can caption and provide a text transcription of auditory content. For blind or visually impaired users text and audio descriptions of visual content should be provided.. Provide context and orientation information. Indications of size, a consistent layout, grouping elements and providing contextual information about relationships all enhance accessibility. Provide clear navigation mechanisms including such things as site maps and consistent navigation bars Make things keyboard accessible. Manipulation of things like menus and dialog boxes should be possible from the keyboard. . A whole range of software assistive technologies have been developed to enhance accessibility including: Speech synthesizers Screen magnification Screen readers and talking browsers Closed captioning Voice recognition Word prediction An excellent overview of different software assistive technology options including a description and considerations of each can be found at: http://snow.utoronto.ca/technology/products/ Canada continues to pursue e-learning Accessibility goals through initiatives like: - The Barrier Free Learning Environment http://barrierfree.ca - The Inclusive Learning Exchange http://barrierfree.ca/tile   Conclusion   The impetus to ensure accessibility comes not just from e-learning, but from e-government, e-commerce, and other forms of the e-connected world. How will this push for connection be met through public policy?   Ensuring accessibility is a technical challenge for those developing learning objects, courses, and other forms of e-learning content. What must a developer do to ensure their content accessible?   Accessibility needs its own technology stack like web services. From a developers perspective the question is: What gets handled at the hardware level, the operating system level, within software applications, or as a mini-applet in the content itself? What can I depend on being there and what must I add?   I look forward to the advance of accessibility. I expect the changes accessibility brings will benefit the ICT use of all.   Paul Stacey, is an e-learning specialist in corporate and higher education working in Simon Fraser University's eLearning Innovation Centre (eLINC). A frequent e-learning speaker and workshop leader Paul produces active and alive learning as part of LearningTimes a free online community for education professionals. Contact: Paul Stacey What Do You Think? Talk Back To Paul Stacey E-Learning: An opinionated monthly column exploring the current use, future potential, and commercial value of e-learning in BC’s high tech sector. E-Learning Archive: an index and links to all the E-learning columns Paul has written for T-Net going back to April 2000.