E.A. Draffan

Digital Agility and Digital Decision-Making: Conceptualising Digital Inclusion in the Context of Disabled Learners in Higher Education

Digital inclusion in higher education has tended to be understood solely in terms of accessibility, which does little to further our understanding of the role technology plays in the learning experiences of disabled students. In this article, the authors propose a conceptual framework for exploring digital inclusion in higher education that attempts to broaden the way in which it is understood. The conceptual framework encompasses two strands: one that focuses on technology, personal and contextual factors, and one that focuses on resources and choices. This framework will be used to present and discuss the results of a study which aimed to explore the e‐learning experiences of disabled students at one higher education institution. The discussion will focus particularly on concepts of digital agility and digital decision‐making, and will consider the potential implications for the empowerment of disabled students.

A Formative eAssessment Co-Design Case Study

Formative eAssessment can be very helpful in providing high quality higher education assignments. However, there are obstacles restricting the uptake of formative eAssessment in higher education including both cultural and technical issues. When a university is encouraging the uptake of formative eAssessment internally it is useful to have case studies from academic schools detailing how academics enthusiastic about formative eAssessment have used it in their modules. It is particularly helpful if these case studies document: i.) the principle obstacles that these champions had to deal with, ii.) a cooperative-design process through which these obstacles have been dealt with by the champions (with assistance from e.g. learning technologists), and iii.) an evaluation of the effectiveness of the resulting formative eAssessments. However there is a shortage of such real-world long-term case studies. This paper helps fill this gap in the literature by describing the case of a Modern Languages module within a Russell Group university (Southampton). The formative eAssessment solution resulting from the case study utilises our QTI, mobile QTI, accessibility, and web 2.0 tools and can be positioned at the cutting edge of formative eAssessment practice. We have evaluated this with undergraduate student volunteers from Spanish modules and received positive feedback.

Web Accessibility and Usability—Can It Happen with Flash?

Issues of accessibility and usability in relation to interactive multimedia Web content are discussed; in particular applications producing animation on the Web, such as Flash movies. The barriers that these types of technologies cause to some assistive technology users is mentioned, but it is stressed that with a pragmatic and proactive approach at the design initiation stage, it is possible to ensure that many more people can enjoy the rich media that the Web has to offer on a wide range of devices.

Exploring the technology experiences of disabled learners in higher education: challenges for the use and development of participatory research methods

There is a need for more in-depth exploration of the e-learning experiences of disabled learners in higher education, taking into account the complex relationship between learners (skills, knowledge and beliefs), their assistive technologies and the e-learning contexts in which learners are required to operate. Participatory methods appear to have great potential in enabling the voice of disabled learners to be a more central focus of e-learning studies. This paper will describe and evaluate a two year research project called LExDis which aims to use participatory methods to explore the e-learning experiences of disabled learners in one higher education institution. The experience of conducting phase one of the LExDis project will be discussed with regards to three main challenges to using participatory methods: informed participation; valued participation and empowered participation.

Access toolkit for education

This paper describes three tools that have been developed to help overcome accessibility, usability and productivity issues identified by disabled students. The Web2Access website allows users to test any Web 2.0 site or software application against a series of checks linked to the WCAG 2.0 and other guidelines. The Access Tools accessible menu helps with navigation to portable pen drive applications that can assist with accessibility, productivity and leisure activities when on the move. The accessible Toolbar provides support for the majority of browsers and accessible websites through magnification, spellchecking, text to speech readout, dictionary definitions and referencing modification of text, page style, colour and layout.

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.

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.

Developing a Framework for Localised Web Accessibility Guidelines for University Websites in Saudi Arabia

This paper presents a new framework for localised web accessibility guidelines for university websites in Saudi Arabia. The main purpose of this framework is to provide the basis for the development of localised guidelines. Applying these localised guidelines on Arabic websites would enhance their accessibility for Arab people with disabilities. The development process of the new framework is described in detail. This process involved three phases, determination, synthesis and specification phases. The proposed framework comprises six main components; web accessibility, genre-specific cultural markers, costs, user diversity, Internet infrastructure and technology variety.

A Voting System for AAC Symbol Acceptance

This paper aims to illustrate how an innovative voting system has been developed to allow AAC users, their therapists, carers and families show their degree of acceptance for newly developed symbols and their referents. The approach, taking a participatory model of research, occurs via an online symbol management system using a set of criteria that provide instant feedback to the developers and the project team. Scores and comments regarding the symbols are collated and where a majority vote has occurred, symbols are added to the Arabic Symbol Dictionary with lexical entries in both Arabic and English.

Synote: collaborative mobile learning for all

Abstract This paper describes mobile enhancements to Synote, the freely available, award winning, open source, web based application that makes web hosted recordings easier to access, search, manage, and exploit for all learners, teachers and other users. Notes taken live during lectures using Twitter on any mobile device can be automatically uploaded into Synote and synchronised with a recording of the lecture. Syntalk, a mobile speech recognition application enables synchronized live verbal contributions from the class to also be captured on Synote through captions. Synote Mobile has been developed as an accessible cross device and cross browser HTML5 version of Synote. Synote Discussion supports commenting on Synotes Synmark notes stored as discussions in its own database and published as Linked data so they are available for Synote or other systems to use.