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Beyond AccessibleMAKING YOUR COURSE ADA COMPLIANT FOR A BETTER STUDENT LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Presented by Steven McGahan – UNK eCampus
Phase 1WHY IS ACCESSIBILITY IMPORTANT
What is ADA?
1973 – Rehabilitation Act, Section 504 1990 – Americans with Disabilities Act At its core, ADA is a civil rights issue that affects a significant
percentage of the population of the United States It is not about “special treatment” It is about inclusion in the same world that every one of us
inhabits and protecting people with disabilities ADA sets the rules for providing a “level playing field” Accommodations are set through the disability services offices Covers both temporary and permanent impairments
Who Qualifies?
A person who: Has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits a
major life activity; Has a record or history of such an impairment; or Is regarded as having such an impairment.
It is also unlawful to discriminate against someone solely because of his/her association with an individual with a disability.
Types of Disabilities We Will Cover
Vision Hearing Mobility Learning
Disability in Higher Education
A 2012 study showed that 11% of higher education students have some form of disability
These numbers may also be underreported
Those that are reported may also have multiple disabilities
2007 data (seen right) shows that mobility is the largest percentage, followed by learning, psycho-social, and vision.
S. Burgstahler, University of Washington, and C. Chang, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Student Responsibilities
Students must self-identify This starts with the disability
services office They may need to provide
documentation of their disability Students need not self-identify to
their classmates
Instructor Responsibilities
Provide Reasonable Accommodation to those who are identified as having a disability
What is reasonable? This is determined primarily by
the disabilities office Instructors should work with the
disabilities office when there are questions about how to accommodate a student
How Does This Affect Teaching?
The rules laid out in the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 show clear standards for institutions and teachers in federally funded higher education
Institutions and instructors have a responsibility to design courses and learning materials with accessibility in mind
While most education based companies have integrated accessibility in to their products, commercial products may not
All content, exercises, assignments, etc. should be created/reviewed with accessibility as a key criteria
Students need not have an exact experience, but must have an equivalent experience
Proactive Vs. Reactive
Proactive Lessens legal exposure Creates an environment of
inclusion Creates fewer “emergency”
situations Costs more money Takes time to develop
Reactive Can cost less money Saves time by not focusing on all
courses Causes more “emergency”
situations Can cause some students to
abandon their goals Increases legal exposure
Universal Design
Universal design is a process for creating accessible content
It started in the physical space, but has moved in to the digital world
Most of the tenets of Universal Design can be linked to accessibility issues from ADA
Universal Design strives to accommodate more than just those with identified disabilities
Why Universal Design
Non-Universal Design Universal Design
Why Universal Design
Good design is good design regardless of the population being served
Usable by the largest range of people Increased accessibility for students Design improvements can create a better learning environment
for all students Technology implementation is easier with Universal Design Remember that there are no true universally designed products Many ADA considerations are part of good Universal Design
Phase 2EVALUATING EXTERNAL RESOURCES
External Websites and Programs
External websites and programs need to be chosen with a critical eye
Run an accessibility checker on websites to ensure that they are compatible with screen readers
When working with a third-party program, spend time looking at their accessibility options
If they have none, look for another program to use for the assignment
Most education programs will have an accessible option
Mobility
Mobility impairment is difficult to estimate
These include both permanent and temporary impairments
For online courses, these tend to be the easiest to accommodate
Students with a mobility impairment may have issues with test taking, assignments, and navigation of the course
LMS Considerations
Always alt tag your images, charts, graphs, hyperlinks, etc. Use the built in accessibility tools in Blackboard to make sure
your courses are as accessible as possible before the start of the class
New design options can make courses prettier, but be sure to consider issues that may cause problems for various students
Accommodation for students that require more time is easier than ever with Test Availability Exceptions
Using the Blackboard options as much as possible will ensure that your course is as accessible as possible
Strategies
Allow those with mobility impairments extra time on tests and quizzes
The use of speech to text programs can assist students with their typing issues (most if not all will have access to these programs)
Avoid real-time chats Have alternate (equivalent) assignments for those who may have
issues with fine motor skills assignments Release assignments early to give students extra time to work on
them Most of the strategies for mobility issues are linked to time
Resources
Dragon Naturally Speaking http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm
Windows Speech Recognition http://
windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dictate-text-speech-recognition#1TC=windows-7
Macintosh Dictation https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202584
Learning
Learning disabilities can be difficult to understand
Many go undiagnosed until later in life
Skills of these students may be underdeveloped
Types Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia Auditory and Language
Processing Disorders Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities ADHD and Memory Disorders
Stars, Rockets, and Moons
Check out the Moth Podcast episode “Stars, Rockets, and Moons”
Exercise
When the next slide comes up, use the legend on the right to read the text presented
A copy of this legend will be on the next slide as well
See how long it takes to read the text
What it says
This typography is not designed to recreate what it would be like to read to read if you were dyslexic it is designed to simulate the feeling of reading with dyslexia by slowing the reading time of the viewer down to a speed of which someone who has dyslexia would read
Strategies
Give due dates at the beginning of the course Open materials early Do not add last minute assignments, tests, readings, etc. Do not move assignments due dates up Keep instructions brief and uncomplicated and use the same
instruction text for similar assignments Allow time for clarification of instructions/directions
Resources
Accommodating College Students with Learning Disabilities: How Much is Enough? https://
www.uu.edu/centers/faculty/resources/article.cfm?ArticleID=116 Teaching College Students with Learning Disabilities
http://www.ericdigests.org/2002-3/college.htm Helping Students with Learning Disabilities Succeed in Hi
gher Education http://
blog.cengage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/FALL2007.Gaumnitz.Helping-Students-with-Learning-Disabilities.pdf
Phase 3CREATING ACCESSIBLE DOCUMENTS
Vision
In 2012 there were an estimated 285 million people in the world with a visual impairment
Visual impairment doesn’t mean blind
Low, altered, or obstructed visions are included in this category
Students who are vision impaired may have issues with images, video, and text.
Screen Readers and Documents
Documents must be readable by technology
Basic design principles allow you to create accessible documents
Using the accessibility checker is a good first step
Other choices can make your document “more” accessible
The secret life of Word Styles!
Color Blindness
8% of males are color blind and .5% of females are color blind
Color blindness affects what specific colors can be seen
Complete color blindness (Achromatopsia) is rare, most have only partial limitations
Designing for color blindness should include high contrast in saturation and brightness, not just hue
Color Blindness
8% of males are color blind and .5% of females are color blind
Color blindness affects what specific colors can be seen
Complete color blindness (Achromatopsia) is rare, most have only partial limitations
Designing for color blindness should include high contrast in saturation and brightness, not just hue
Color Blindness
Strategies
Check the accessibility of all of your documents Be sure to use high-contrast colors (black on white is the best
contrast) When creating documents, do not use tables unless you are
presenting data that needs to be in a table Use heading formatting for titles, sections, and sub-sections Don’t skip heading levels Be sure all of your images, audio, video, tables, etc. are alt
tagged Do not rely on color as a differentiator, use other methods as well Use lots of white space between columns
Strategies Continued
Use plain or san serif fonts (Arial, Helvetica) and avoid all script fonts
Avoid using lots of graphics on a single page Be sure to detail important information from graphics in the text
of the document/item Make hyperlinks descriptive instead of using “Click Here” or
“More” Do not create text graphics to replace standard text Access to screen readers Use textbooks that have a digital or braille option
Resources
Accessibility Checkers Office has a built in accessibility
checker For PDFs, use the built in
accessibility checker or http://accessibility.tingtun.no/en/pdfcheck
For web pages, use http://wave.webaim.org/
Phase 4CREATING ACCESSIBLE AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS
Hearing
Approximately 15% of adults aged 18 and over report some hearing loss
Approximately 5.3% of the people in the world have disabling hearing loss
Types of hearing loss include conductive, sensorial, and mixed
Students with hearing loss may have troubles with video and audio
Hearing Continued
Hearing issues can be the most difficult to address
The main ways of accommodating hearing impairment are captions and transcripts
These can be costly, time consuming, or both
It may be difficult for instructors to transcribe or caption video and audio
This tends to be the most reactive area of accommodation
Free and Contracted Services
Free captioning can be done via media distribution platforms like YouTube
These captions have their own issues
Rhett and Link Companies like 3Play Media and
Caption Associates will caption files
A newer option is Rev.com Affordable captioning through
distributed workload processes
Strategies
Script your recordings ahead of time to provide alternate experience or to use as captions when putting video/audio online
Purchase a speech to text program like Dragon Naturally Speaking to convert your non-scripted recordings to text for captioning
Make sure that all of your assignments, exercises, etc. have a text option if you use video/audio
Captioning is either expensive or time-consuming, be prepared for this
Auto-captioning is getting better, but still only has, at best, a 90% accuracy
Use services that allow for captioning of content (YouTube)
Resources
YouTube captioning https://
support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734796?hl=en
Caption It Yourself https://www.dcmp.org/public_cont
ent/ai/ciy/
Dragon Naturally Speaking http://
www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm
Transcribing Video/Audio with Dragon http://
www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-transcribe-your-recording-with-dragon-natur.html
Captioning Service http://www.rev.com
Final Thoughts
ADA issues can be a balancing act between proactive and reactive
Many of the tools you will need are already at your disposal
Remember that “reasonable” is in the accommodation rule
When in doubt, talk with your disability services coordinator
Good design is effective for more than accessibility issues
Be good to yourself, and each other
Thanks for Attending
Steven McGahan Associate Director University of Nebraska at Kearney
– eCampus [email protected] 308-865-8341
