Georgia Tech Research on Accessible Distance Education (GRADE)

Robert L. Todd, Project Director

GRADE Funding and Copyright

Funded by the Office of Post Secondary Education (OPE) at the U.S. Department of

Education under Grant #P333A020050.

©2002 All Rights Reserved,

Georgia Tech Research Corporation.

About GRADE

• GRADE’s mission is to provide resources and training to improve the accessibility of online education.

About GRADE

• GRADE works in partnership with MERLOT to address the issues of online learning objects. One such initiative is the creation of voluntary guidelines for accessible learning objects.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• Institutes of higher learning are steadily

shifting the delivery of courses from more traditional teaching to online distance learning methods.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• According to a 2003 report from the

National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), in the 2000–2001 academic year, there were approximately 3,077,000 students enrolled in all distance education courses offered by 2-year and 4-year institutions in the United States.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• As distance education becomes more and

more prevalent, the needs of students with disabilities may be overlooked.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• A 1999 NCES study showed that 6% of the

undergraduate population had some form of disability, and that percentage will continue to grow as students with disabilities receive increasing accommodations at the elementary and secondary levels.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• The design of many online learning

courses erects barriers to the full participation of students and instructors with some types of disabilities.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• A 2003 NCES study found that only 18% of

institutions surveyed reported that they followed established accessibility guidelines for their websites.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• Of primary concern is the integration of

existing information technology – such as Internet sites, spreadsheets, or video lectures – with assistive technology devices utilized by people with disabilities.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• Assistive technology alone does not

remove all access barriers in online education.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• While assistive technology can help

provide increased access to computers, online learning offerings must be designed to work with assistive technology devices – such as screen readers, alternative keyboards, and switches – to be fully accessible to students with disabilities.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• This has two important implications for

online instructors.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• First, instructors with courses or modules

that have already been developed and that are available for students should be reviewed for accessibility, and if need be, retrofitted to accommodate students with disabilities.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• Second, instructors working to develop

new courses or modules should be aware of accessibility issues and work to ensure that their products are universally-designed to provide the greatest level of usability for all students.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• As a plus - designing online courses that

are accessible to students with disabilities results in courses that are easier to use and understand for everyone.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• For example, accessible online courses

that provide alternative text with images can allow students to search for key words and phrases.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• Captioned videos may help students

whose instructor’s primary language differs from others in the class and whose speech is not easy to understand. They can also help students who are taking courses in a non-primary language.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• Accessible courses are more compatible

with many browsing devices, such as wireless handheld computers, as well as with emerging semantic web technologies, such as style sheets and extendable markup.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• But teachers, instructional designers and

others often do not know how to design or retrofit courses to increase accessibility.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• Guidelines for this process exist, but they

are not uniform. They are often hard to find and vary widely between applications – requiring significant study effort to learn each new approach.

The Problem – Why Guidelines?• A set of guidelines following a consistent

structure, and covering the most-frequently used types of material in online courses, can assist instructors to create more accessible learning objects. Consistent structure will require less learning time and promote efficient development.

The Guidelines• GRADE discovered that post-secondary

education courses often use the following technologies/applications:

– HTML

– Adobe PDF

– Macromedia Flash

The Guidelines– Microsoft Excel

– Microsoft PowerPoint

– Microsoft Word

– Video

The Guidelines• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/) are a voluntary set of guidelines for HTML accessibility.

The Guidelines• They have proven utility and flexibility,

and have influenced other widely used “standards” such as the Section 508 regulations (http://www.section508.gov/) and the Adobe PDF Solutions for Accessibility (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/solutionsacc.html).

The Guidelines• GRADE used the WCAG structure as a

basis for its guidelines, and applied the WCAG principles to the “second generation” applications most used by instructors.

The Guidelines• Our goals:

– The guidelines must address “second generation” accessibility.

– They must address different disability types.

– They must address different products.

– The guidelines must address different priorities.

The Guidelines• The result – a three-tiered approach that includes

practical techniques and tips for greater usability.

– “Must” – items critical to basic access for people with disabilities

– “Should” – items that can make access significantly easier

– “May” – items that can provide added functionality for people with disabilities.

The Guidelines• Let’s take a look at one set of the draft

guidelines …

The Guidelines• PowerPoint Examples

– Bad - http://www.hyperorg.com/misc/DoubleTreeShow_files/frame.html

– Good - http://www.txreviews.com/merlot/final.html

The Guidelines• Video Example

– “Math is Everywhere”

The Guidelines• More examples of files that illustrate use

of the guidelines can be found at www.accesselearning.net

The Guidelines• Please give us feedback on these

guidelines.

– Are they easy to use?

– Effective?

– Do they cover the topics you need?

Contact GRADE• GRADE www.catea.org/grade

• Access E-Learning www.accesselearning.net

• Phone: 404-894-4960 (v/tty)• Fax: 404-894-9320• Email: robert.todd@coa.gatech.edu