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Using student experiences to deliver an employability resource aimed at disabled students
o Simon Ball and Lisa Featherstoneo JISC TechDiso www.jisctechdis.ac.uko [email protected]
What do JISC TechDis do? (In theory)
o A leading UK advisory service on technologies for inclusion. We explore and promote inclusive practices, resources and advice for learning and teaching in UK higher education, and the wider further education & skills sector.
What do JISC TechDis do? (Actually)o Staff development
o TechDis Tuesdayso Xerte Fridayo Accessible IT Practice
Support Programme
o TechDis Toolboxo Aimed at learnerso Working smarter with
technology
o TechDis Voiceso Jack & Jesso Text-to-speech
o SBRIo MyDocStoreo Navitexto uKinecto PSLT
TechDis Tuesdays
o Fortnightly updates on Tuesdays, 13.00o Intro dialogue (~10 minutes)oDetailed discussion with delegates (~20-30
mins)o Show notes to highlight further readingo Podcast, transcript, discussion summary and
show notes all posted online
o www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/tdtuesdays
So, why am I here?
o In the creation of the Toolbox (including the Voices), we utilised students heavily to design, develop and disseminate the resources.
o First of all, a brief introduction to the resources….
TechDis VoicesWho will benefit?
o People who prefer to listen.o People who prefer to multitask.o People with better oral than literacy skills.o People who like making use of dead-time
eg travelling, queuing etc.o People who don’t carry around files but do
carry around phones.o People with print impairments.o Tutors who want to give more options to
learners.
Listen to them.
TechDis VoicesHow do I get started?
• Make sure you are eligible (post 16 learning provider in England delivering publicly funded courses).
• Go to www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/voices• Watch the videos and follow the
instructions and links.
Community-Based Participatory Research
Kushalnagar, Williams and Kushalnagar (2012) “Most accessible technology research approaches include the target population as end-users, not as community partners”
“Community-Based Participatory Approach: Students as Partners in Educational Accessible Technology Research” Lecture Notes in Computer Science 7382, Computers Helping People with Special Needs, ICCHP Proceedings July 2012, Part I
Why the Toolbox came about…o We asked students (via focus groups in special
schools, independent specialist provision for young adults, mainstream colleges and students from Higher Education with diverse needs) ‘what should your tutor have told you but never did’?
What they said…
o Feedback from students showed many had informal support networks outside of education environment.
o It also showed that in the wider skills area, there were a lot of gaps in people’s knowledge, and the informal support networks were the only real way of obtaining ‘training’
So we created mini-videos o Inspired by the Commoncraft videos – parents
and carers told us they were ideal.o Here’s an example:
o http://jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/multlinkres/detail/CC_Wiki
o We commissioned similar videos to ‘fill the gaps’ in basic digital literacy skills. Here’s one example:o http://jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/multlinkres/detail/PDF_
ReadOnScreen
Simultaneously to this….The Voices….
We regularly received anecdotal feedback that free text-to-speech voices were:o Too ‘computerised’ or ‘robotic’o Too oldo Too American
Most institutions only had licenses for the ‘good’ voices for specific students, mitigating against their wider use.
BIS agreed to fund development of two national ‘free’ text-to-speech voiceso CereProc won the tender, and provided us with
voice samples from 7 young British actors.o 400 students provided feedback as to which they
preferred (not only existing TTS users)o Many were still critical: ‘too posh’, ‘too Southern’
Jack and Jess
o Following the feedback on the voice of ‘Jack’ we asked Cereproc to find 7 female actors with ‘not posh’ and ‘not Southern’ voices.
o Eventually ‘Jess’ was selected from feedback from 400 students again – the first ever ‘Northern English’ text-to-speech voice.
o Both voices were taken back to the 400 students again who suggested re-working to better pronounce key words.
Feedback from students 1
o I have quite a basic Dell laptop perhaps not as sofisticated [sic] as some (obviously provided by my employer for the job) so chose this one to use rather than my personal computer . I think it's clear enough .
o I didn't read the instructions - as might be expected to be the case for many :)
Feedback from students 2o The files are big and the install takes a while to get
going - or perhaps my slow old PC. I used Powertalk to test and the voices are pretty good.
o I did the installation and I listened to the Jess and Jack voices in the 'Speech' properties. I then listened to both voices. Both of which sound really great, the best I have heard. I now can't seem to get this to work or find instructions on how to get this to work in the BBC news site for example.
Feedback from students 3
o Nathan, from Henshaws College
“I like using the Voice with my light writer as it helps me chat up girls”
Now using students for disseminationo Both Toolbox and the Voices need to be spread
widely, at both institutional level (in which we have some experience) and at user level (where we have much less).
o Students have been absolutely key here. We have worked with a variety of ‘Ambassador’ groups such as the DOTs (Digital Outreach Trainers)
Who are these ‘ambassadors’?o We discovered that several regions have
schemes where young people are used as informal ‘trainers’.
o South Yorkshire DOTs – Digital Outreach Trainers – give an hour a week to train people on IT.o Waqas – used Toolbox to get his autistic sister onlineo Khaled – working with refugees in Rotherham using
Toolbox and Voices to teach English and IT
We decided we could learn a whole lot moreo The Ambassadors so astounded us we started
looking for them elsewhere. We went to ISCs to ask students how they used technology, both formally at college and informally at home - and some of the results were quite impressive:
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEGLlOiLHLU
Future work
o A large Ambassadors project in the South Easto www.clickstart.org – London based communities
for students with learning disabilities – we want to roll this out nationwide, possibly using Inbook
o Bid currently in for creating Northern Ireland voice(s)
o Many more short videos on Freemium services eg Evernote, Skype, Dragon Dictate for iPhone, Twitter, Camstudio, Jing etc
This has been just a small sample of what JISC TechDis has to offer.
Visit our main website for more advice on technologies for inclusion.
www.jisctechdis.ac.uk
