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Creating Accessible Online Learning Content Using
Microsoft WordEoin Campbell,
Technical Director, XML Workshop Ltd.
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 2
Overview
• Online learning material should be accessible to people with disabilities…
• …but making content accessible is not easy with current tools
• Microsoft Word material can be converted directly into highly accessible HTML, with a little work and cheap software
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 3
What is Accessibility?
• National Disability Authority: Irish IT Accessibility Guidelines
– “An accessible product or service is one which can be used by all its intended users, taking into account their differing capabilities.”
• http://accessit.nda.ie/
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 4
Accessibility Characteristics of eLearning• Online learning content
– Facilitates those with mobility, hearing and vision impairments
• Online discussion facilities
– Facilitates those with speech and language impairments
• Rich media content
– Facilitates those with literacy impairments
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 5
Accessibility Characteristics [2]
• Online assessments/interactions
– Facilitates those with manual/writing impairments
• 24/7 content availability
– Facilitates self-paced, student-centered learning
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 6
Accessible Content
• Should be browser- and platform-independent
• Should not require commercial or platform-specific client software for viewing
• => Valid HTML 4.01
– Not Word, PDF, PowerPoint, etc
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 7
Accessible HTML
• Web pages can still be inaccessible if badly marked up
– E.g. missing alt text for images
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines defines accessible markup
– Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), W3C
– Widely recognised as the standard, but not yet widely adopted
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 8
Inaccessible HTML Markup
<p class=“sechead”>Unmarked heading</p><p class=“Blist”>Lists without list tags<p class=“Blist”>Unexpanded acronyms: XML.<p class=“Blist”>Unmarked language changes: <i>Cúpla focail as Gaeilge</i>
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 9
Accessible HTML Markup
<h1>Marked up heading</h1><ul><li>Lists with list tags</li><li>Expanded acronyms: <acronym title=“Extensible Markup Language”>XML</acronym>.</li><li>Marked language changes: <i lang=“ga”>Cúpla focail as Gaeilge</i>.</li></ul>
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 10
Current Situation
• Online learning material is a mixture of files in various formats
– HTML, Word, Flash, Powerpoint, PDF etc.
• Many reader disadvantages
– Inaccessible
– Inconsistent appearance
– Hard to navigate
– Requires 3rd-party viewing applications
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 11
Current Situation: Authoring
• Many different authoring tools
– Some commercial, proprietary, expensive
• Content is hard to edit/maintain in HTML
• HTML expertise essential
• Publication process is slow, error-prone
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 12
Types of eLearning Content
• Text-book material
– Texts, maths, tables
– Static images, diagrams, etc.
• Interactions
– For online testing and self-evaluation
– Multi-choice and other question types
• Rich, dynamic content
– Flash, TenCore, video, etc.
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 13
Current HTML Editing Tools
• HTML editors
– FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc.
• Text editors
– Notepad, EditPlus, PFE
• Through-the-web interfaces
– E.g. WebEditPro, WCMSs
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 14
Tool Limitations
• Require HTML knowledge
• Poor facilities for importing content from other formats
• No support for ensuring accessibility
• May be relatively expensive
• Learning curve to use well
– May be used too infrequently to become proficient
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 15
Ideal Scenario
• Accessible HTML
• Easy to maintain and update
• Consistent appearance
• Little web skills required
• Cheap to implement
• Single source for print and online versions
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 16
Achieving the Ideal
• It is possible to achieve ideal for text-book and interaction content
• But probably not (yet) possible for richer media such as Flash, video, etc.
• General principle: design a suitable content creation process
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 17
Design Accessibility In
• Design a web page generation process which creates and retains accessible HTML by default, without rework
• Authors are the most important resource, so design the process around them
• Streamline the process, to minimise cost and effort
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 18
Benefits
• Improve quality
– Better accessibility, consistency, timeliness
• Shorten publishing cycle
– Enable staff to publish directly
• Reduce costs
– Use existing software
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 19
Process Description
1. Create/edit content in Word, using styles
2. Convert to XML
3. Convert XML to accessible HTML, adding appropriate HTML template wrapper
4. Publish to website
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 20
Basic Architecture
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 21
Architecture Components
• Authoring interface
• XHTML templates for graphic design
• Word to XML converter
• XSLT code for HTML generation
• Other optional extras
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 22
Authoring Interface
• Word template designed for authors to insert markup
– Toolbar
– Menu
– Shortcuts
– Styles and macros
• Training/guidelines required to use template
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 23
Applying Markup
• Marking up content can be done in Word, not just in a structured HTML editor
• Instead of HTML tags, use Word styles
• Convert styles to equivalent HTML tags
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 24
Styles-Tag Mapping
• For HTML, there is a good mapping between Word styles and tags, e.g.
• Title, Heading 1, 2, …
– <h1>, <h2>, <h3>
• List Bullet, List Number
– <ul><li>…, <ol><li>
• Word tables map to HTML table tags
– (but extra styles needed for better accessibility)
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 25
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 26
XHTML Template
• Provides common branding and navigational aids for all web pages
• Critical: Design to be as accessible as possible
– Use XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD
• Contains placeholders for content from Word document
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 27
XHTML Template Placeholders
• Document content
• Metadata fields
– inside <head> tag
• Content of <title> tag
– Used in browser history, bookmarks
• May include other placeholders for e.g.
– Breadcrumb trail, last modified date, other dynamic info
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 28
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 29
Word to XML Conversion
• Any Word to XML converter can be used
• Many converters available (> 20)
• Basic requirements
– Low-cost (<€500)
– Configurable
– Fully automatic
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 30
Converter Selection Issues
• Platform and version requirements
– E.g Word 98 (Mac), Word 95/97 support
• Level of integration
– E.g Word plug-in or stand-alone application
• Conversion location
– PC-based, central server, 3rd-party ASP service
• Customisation cost
– XSLT scripts for XML to HTML conversion
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 31
PC-based Converters
• Integrated with Word for Windows
– XMLW YAWC Pro (Word 97 or higher)
– Schultz eXportXML (Word 2000)
– Schema MarkupKit (Word 2000)
• Stand-alone
– Docsoft W2XML (Windows/Word 2000)
– LogicTran RTF to XML converter (Win/Mac)
– UpCast RTF to XML converter (Java)
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 32
Central Server Model
• Pros
– No local software installation, configuration and support
– Lower support costs
– Supports multiple platforms (Win/Mac) and Word versions
• Cons
– Higher initial setup cost
– Internet connection required
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 33
Server-based Converters
• Central server
– Logictran RTF Converter
– UpCast Enterprise
• 3rd-party ASP model
– XMLW YAWC Online
– Metaverse
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 34
YAWC Online
• YAWC Online Word to HTML converter
• http://www.yawconline.com/
• Configurable for any website
– Multiple configurable HTML templates
• Built-in publication service based on DC.Identifier and FTP
• Fixed monthly fee based on website size
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 35
Examples
• Structural elements
– Headings, lists, etc.
• Complex markup
– Tables, MathML equations
• Interactions
– multi-choice questions
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 36
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 37
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 38
Graphics
• Can use linked or embedded images
– Linked images must be in web-compatible format (GIF, JPEG, PNG)
– Embedded images can be in any format (Bitmap,
• Automatic image conversion
– Bitmaps, Microsoft Picture, etc.
• Automatic insertion of ALT text from caption
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 39
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 40
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 41
Tables
• Headings and bodies
• Spanned (merged) rows and columns
• Captions and summaries
– For maximum accessibility
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 42
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 43
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 44
Interactions
• Use a pre-defined Word table
• Fill in the blanks
– Question
– Right answer
– Wrong answer
– Feedback
• Can support IMS QTI XML, WebCT text format too
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 45
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 46
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 47
Equations
• Some support for embedded MathML markup
• Still difficult to display in a browser-independent way
• Ideally could convert Microsoft Equations automatically into MathML using MathType Equation Editor plug-in
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 48
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 49
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 50
Summary: Good news
• Creating and maintaining accessible online learning material is:
– Easy
– Cheap
– Fast
23 May 2003 © 2003 XML Workshop Ltd. 51
Summary: Bad news
• The excuses aren’t valid any more
– “It’s too hard”
– “It’s too slow”
– “It’s too expensive”
Creating Accessible Online Learning Content Using
Microsoft WordEdTech 2003, Waterford
Q&A
www.xmlw.ie