Abi James

Completion, Comments and Repurposing a Digital Accessibility MOOC

The ‘massive’ and ‘open’ nature of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can provide powerful dissemination tools to raise awareness of topics in need of public attention, such as digital accessibility and its impact on assistive technology users. The subject is a wide-ranging one when taught from the point of view of those who may have sensory, physical and/or cognitive impairments coping with a myriad of digital activities on a daily basis. These may range from creating and viewing documents, surfing the web to using a mobile or a washing machine. An analysis of the interactions and learning experiences of those who completed the FutureLearn Digital Accessibility MOOC was conducted, using a combination of statistical and qualitative methods. Preliminary results indicate a progressive loss of participants over time, which is to be expected with MOOCs. However, certain measures such as the number of comments per participant, completed steps, and the “likes” count suggest a relatively high degree of engagement from this particular learning community. After examining the topics that triggered most participation, a suggestion has been formulated to repurpose parts of the course in order to exploit its most engaging sections and offer alternative forms of support for those activities that required more explanation.

Towards an Open Authoring Tool for Accessible Slide Presentations

Creating and sourcing accessible Open Educational Resources is a challenge. Although slides are one of the primary forms of educational resources, there has been little focus on what is required to make slides containing different media accessible and how to encourage authors to improve accessibility. This paper examines the components within slide presentations that impact accessibility and will evaluates six different approaches for encouraging authors to add accessibility issues. Authors indicated a preference for being encouraged and guided to resolve issues rather than allowing for automatic corrections.

Comparing Accessibility Auditing Methods for Ebooks: Crowdsourced, Functionality-Led Versus Web Content Methodologies.

Accessibility guidance for the development of web-apps for users with cognitive disabilities is sorely lacking despite the availability of extensive web content accessibility standards. This paper examines additional requirements suggested by specialists in the field, in order to further aid developers looking to create accessible interactive web experiences for all.

Signing recognition and Cloud bring advances for inclusion

Purpose – The papers aim is to focus on: two projects that investigated innovative assistive technology solutions for people who sign (uKinect) and people with print impairments (MyDocStore); and a second phase that aims to create working prototypes for commercialisation.Design/methodology/approach – The approach was, in part, determined by the funding stages. In proof of concept phase, the organisations explored possibilities, identified barriers and, through user testing and feedback, refined processes. Trials are set to continue in Phase 2, when both projects will extend and improve functionality. uKinect applies gesture recognition and Microsofts Kinect to the communication needs of Makaton sign language users. MyDocStore uses Cloud, desktop and mobile‐based file management to facilitate transfer of text files, converted into the users preferred format, between devices. Both employ user‐centred development.Findings – uKinect helped signing learners to improve the clarity of their signing, while its...

Do text-to-speech synthesisers pronounce correctly? a preliminary study

This paper evaluates 4 commercial text-to-speech synthesisers used by dyslexic people to listen to and proof read text. Two evaluators listened to 704 common English words and determined whether the words were correctly pronounced or not. Where the evaluators agree on incorrect pronunciation, the proportion of correct pronunciations for the four synthesisers is in the range 98.9% to 99.6% of the 704 words. The evaluators also listened to the same synthesisers speaking phrases in which there were 44 pairs of homographs and determined whether each instance of the homograph was correctly spoken or not. The level of correctness for the four synthesisers ranged from 76.3% to 91.3%

Learning through videos: are disabled students using good note-taking strategies?

The importance of note-taking in face to face teaching and learning situations is well understood in terms of successful outcomes for the majority of students. Outcomes from interactions with online learning and the use of videos as a way of revising has been less well researched, in particular with disabled students. This paper aims to introduce the notion that not all disabled students who could use technology to support note taking necessarily find it effective although they prefer to listen and watch videos. A small survey provides an indication that students may not necessarily be making the best use of their technologies or have access to alternative ways of viewing online learning materials. Where there are options to view videos using lecture capture systems; time constraints and the quality of the videos prove to be further barriers, rather than providing a successful outcome. Despite the possibility of multi-modal/multichannel approaches there also remains very little research on the subject in particular when using more recent Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). There are, however, indications that with the increased use of transcriptions and graphical tools, these options could offer good note-taking strategies as part of a more inclusive approach for all students.

Framework for selecting assistive technology user-participation methods

Purpose – A number of participatory research methodologies can be used to assist with developing assistive technologies. These methods vary in the amount that users lead and contribute to the work. Selecting the correct method can be important to ensure the overall success of the project and the engagement of users. The purpose of this paper is to explore factors that can impact on the degree of user participation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers whether criteria, that might influence assistive technology (AT) selection made during an assessment of need, review or purchasing process, could also be used to clarify the appropriate strategies for user involvement when developing assistive technologies. It outlines how this approach has been applied to two research and development projects which aimed to improve AT provision within niche markets. Findings – The paper demonstrates that it is possible to apply a decision making process to selecting the best participatory research method, based...

eBooks, accessibility and the catalysts for culture change

The evolution of any product is usually in response to perceived benefits; either for the workflow, cost-benefit or for the end users. The development of accessible digital print resources at source of publication is uniquely advantageous in many ways. A system with improved accessibility for humans also enables content to be machine read[1]. Although the global publishing and digital distribution industries have not uniformly embraced accessibility, the United Kingdom (UK) has been able to make significant positive progress. The UK has not embraced a specific disability ebook format and distribution system; instead, through a model of cross-industry stakeholder engagement, a cultural shift has begun to embed accessibility at source within the publishing industry. The authors maintain that the cultural change witnessed is not a coincidence and has its roots in a particular set of catalysts being initiated by stakeholders resulting in a model that could be replicated.