Going Beyond Basic ADA and S508 Compliance with Universal Design for Learning

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Going Beyond Basic ADA and S508 Compliance with
Universal Design for Learning

• Dr. Melissa Engleman
• Dr. Tara Jeffs
• East Carolina University
• Greenville, NC

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Overview of Todays Session
8-830 Welcome
830-900 The Future is Now Rationale Legal Requirements
900-915 Universal Design
915-930 University Compliance and Universal Design Simple Steps to Designing for All
930-1000 Going Beyond Compliance to Excellence Whats Your Learning Style?
1000-1030 Morning Break
1030-1100 Personality Preferences Universal Design for Learning
1100-1130 Universal Design for Learning in University Online Courses
1130- noon Bringing it All TogetherSome Final Thoughts
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Why Worry About Those People? Those People are
You and Me.

• Most people will have a disability or experience
  a
• limitation that will temporarily or permanently
  alter
• their lives.
• Many companies will no longer do business with
• companies whose products are inaccessible to
• people with disabilities. (IBM Report, 2005)

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Why Worry About Those People? Those People are
You and Me.

• With our aging population, the "mature customer
  is the fastest growing group.
• Changes in vision hearing, dexterity memory
  are results of aging that create accessibility
  issues
• Few organizations can afford to deliberately miss
  this market sector. (Access-IT)

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Why Universal Design on the World Wide Web?
Fiscal Considerations

• 750 million people worldwide have disabilities,
  and they control about 175 billion
• This number is increasing with the aging of the
  baby boomers.
• Number of adults with a severe disability has
  increased by 70 since 1966.
• 37 million Americans have disabling arthritis

(World Health Organization, 2005 Arthritis
Foundation, 2005)
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(No Transcript)
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The Web is displacing traditional sources of
information and interaction

• The internet is used increasingly by individuals
  of all ages.
• An accessible Web has the potential for
  unprecedented access to information and resources
  for people with disabilities. (Access-IT)

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Why is Accessibility Important?

• 1 out of every 5 Americans over the age of 5 have
  a disability (2000 Census)
• Barriers to accessibility affect the 8.5 of the
  population that has at least one disability that
  would impact internet use
• Visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive,
  and neurological disabilities

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Why is Accessibility Important?

• If accessible, the Web could offer unprecedented
  independence to people with disabilities.
• Web accessibility has benefits for other users.
• The Law See first 3 pp. in notebook (from
  Speak-out website)

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Legislation, Regulations and Standards

• Section 508 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act
  of 2000 Electronic and information technology
  MUST be accessible to federal employees and and
  the members of the public with disabilities who
  use that service.
• Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
  requires manufacturers of telecommunications
  equipmentto ensure that the equipment is
  designed, developed, and fabricated to be
  accessible to and usable by individuals with
  disabilities, if readily achievable."

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Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended
in 1998

• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments
  require
• Federally funded websites are accessible
• Any organization receiving federal funding have
  an accessible website
• Enforcement provisions of section 508 are
  effective as of June 21, 2001 .

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The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) ADA
Regulation for Title III

• Appendix A to Part 38 - Standards for Accessible
  Design established by the access board
• prohibits discrimination on the basis of
  disability in places of public accommodation"
  (businesses and non-profit agencies that serve
  the public) and "commercial facilities websites
  are considered places facilities
• (See Gumson Vs. Southwest Airlines, 2004)

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What the ADA Requires, According to the Office of
Civil Rights

• NOT enough for public entities to wait to
  respond to individual
• accessibility complaints. "
• p. 1, 1997

Provision should be in a manner and medium
appropriate to the significance of the message
and the abilities of the individual. There must
be a comprehensive policy in advance of any
request for auxiliary aids or services. Inclusion
of persons with disabilities is required in
developing such policy.
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Recent Litigation - 2004

• 2004-present
• Banking - Legally binding agreements New York
  State Settlements of 2004
• Priceline.com, Ramada.com were required to pay
  costs of the investigation and redesign
• Access Now, Inc. vs. Southwest Airlines
• Target vs. NFB

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Litigation Case Law

• The Toyota Case (2001)
• Barnes and Noble and Claire's Stores (settled)
• Wynne v. Tufts University School of Medicine
  (1992)
• Tyler v. City of Manhattan (1994)
• National Federation of the Blind vs. AOL (1999)
• Gumson v. Southwest Airlines(2004)

• Ninth Circuit in Wong v. Regents (2004)
• Tennessee v. Lane (2004)
• Rush v. National Board of Medical Examiners,
  (2003)
• Stern v. University of Osteopathic Medicine and
  Health Services (2000)

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Key Language in the Laws

• Must effectively communicate (Office of Civil
  Rights)
• 1. Timeliness
• 2. Accuracy
• 3. Appropriate Medium

• Department of Justice, Disability Rights Division
• accessible features
• Equal degree of access

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So, how do we do it?

• Many resources exist for finding guidelines
  Some simpler than others.

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Compliance is Perceived as More Difficult than it
Actually is

• Legalese and tech talk
• Piecemeal information - no condensed versions
• Unknown needs

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Web Accessibility Standards

• WCAG Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• Recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium
  (W3C)
• 14 guidelines, over 60 checkpoints
• Three priority levels

• Section 508 Standards
• Developed by the United States Access Board
• Provides 16 measurable standards
• All standards are required for compliance

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General Considerations

• Consistent navigation on every page
• Good color contrast
• Can the user understand the page without color?
• Chunk large amounts of information (content as
  well as links)
• Use descriptive links
• Use real-text rather than text imbedded in a
  graphic?

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Other Considerations

• Use alt tags for all non-text elements
• Use header tags where appropriate
• If tables are used, identify row and column
  headings
• If frames are used, include descriptive labels
• If videos are used on the site, use captioning,
  and for audio, a text transcript

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General Recommendations

• Avoid flashing animations or flashes between 2
  and 55 hertz (Prevent seizure triggers and
  distraction. Also they are generally annoying.)
• Use relative rather than absolute unit
  (percentages vs. pixels) This ensures that
  content fits well no matter the scale.
• In hypertext links, text should be specific to
  context, and less is more

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Accessibility is a Cross-Disability Issue

• visual disabilities
• hearing disabilities
• physical disabilities
• cognitive or neurological disabilities

Einsteins Elevator
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STARS!
(See p. 4 of notebook)

• Substance vs. Style
• Text Considerations
• Alternative Representation
• Routing
• Standards

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People who are Blind or Visually Impaired

• Access Methods
• Screen readers
• Refreshable Braille Displays
• Screen Enlarging Software
• Issues
• Reading Images.webaim.org/simulations/screenreader
  -sim.htm
• Text layout does not make sense
• Pixilation of text that is embedded in an image
  therefore can not be read

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Color blindness

• Issue
• Using color alone to convey meaning

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Another Example
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Color Contrast

• Avoid use of color to convey essential
  information.

This wouldnt be legible.
This wouldnt be legible.
Neither would this.
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Hearing Impairment or Deafness

• Captioning
• Synchronized Captions for auditory content is
  most beneficial

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Motor or Physical Impairments

• Access Methods
• Voice Recognition
• HeadMouse
• Head wand
• Expanded keyboards
• Switch Access
• Issues
• Keyboard access
• Timed Response
• Target Areas

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Cognitive Impairments

• Issues
• Text only pages
• Animated GIFS
• Tob eornot t obe
• Benefit from illustrations and graphics, as well
  as from properly-organized content with headings,
  lists, and visual cues in the navigation.

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Image Dependency A Problem for Low-Vision
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Whats wrong with these?
1.
1. This page is designed with exact font sizes
set. Then each element on the page (paragraph,
image, etc.) is placed at exact x/y coordinates
that depend on that font size. 2. When the text
is zoomed, the carefully placed elements do not
change their positions accordingly, so they now
overlap. The content is more unreadable than it
was before.
2.
From Homestead.com
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• Traditionally, what we have done in education is
  to accommodate individual needs without changing
  courses.
• For examples, we have told deaf students to
  arrange for sign language interpreters blind
  students to secure a Brailled or tape recorded
  version of printed materials.
• (Bowie, 1999)

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What is Universal Design?

• the design of products and environments to be
  usable by all people, to the greatest extent
  possible, without the need for adaptation or
  specialized design.

Ron Mace (NC State, 1997)
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On the Web, Universal Design Benefits All Users.

• Captioning and alternate text make indexing
  easier and more efficient for search engines
• More consistent user interfaces make surfing
  easier for anyone

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On the Web, Universal Design Benefits All Users.

• Also, young children, nonreaders and people who
  are elderly
• Backward" access slow connection speeds or
  older equipment and software
• Reduces fatigue for all users

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Impact on Universities

• E-Learning requires accessible web access and
  accessible learning materials

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University Legal Requirements

• Obligated to provide accessibility unless doing
  so would fundamentally alter the content (not
  the method)
• Must not impose an undue burden
• Choice of inaccessible software that must later
  be fixed is not an undue burden
• Academic freedom is about ideas, not
  accessibility requirements

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University Legal Requirements

• Whether a university is obligated under S508
  standards is individual, depending on their
  policy statements.
• They are obligated under S504, ADA and the
  Telecommunications Act.
• For a comprehensive list of links to laws and
  discussion of these issues
• http//www.washington.edu/accessit/webpslegal.html
  

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University Legal Requirements

• If the university has a policy statement
  concerning what students must be able to access
  before they can take an online course, it may get
  them off the hook - for now.
• On request, the university must provide needed
  assistive technology, but not necessarily that of
  the students choice.

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So, how are we doing so far?
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Schmetzke, 2001

• Schmetzke, (2001) found that 81 of distance
  education home pages had major accessibility
  errors.

The most commonly found problem was failure to
provide alternate text.
(Picture of a man, lost in a maze)
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Schmetzke, 2001

• General academic units/programs 25-28
• Special education programs 27
• Colleges of Communication Schools of Journalism
  21
• Schools of Library and Information Science 23
• Online databases were also found to have numerous
  accessibility errors.

• In a related study, this researcher
• found major accessibility errors across higher
  education internet sites, as follows

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Blasers Findings at For-Profit Online
Universities
-confused responses -referrals to special
offices
Response from the accessibility experts at one
for-profit online university Please specify
the kind of accessibility you would need and what
a screen reader is."

2001
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Through the Looking-Glass

• ECUs subcommittee report on S508b compliance

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A Few One Size Fits All Accommodations Are
Typically Offered, Regardless of Individual
Needs.
Typically provided accommodations for students
with learning disabilities Scribe or
reader Note-taker Extra time Solitary space for
testing
They dont actually fit all.
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Other Commonly Offered Accommodations (NCES
Study)
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More Than One Barrier to Access
People with disabilities do NOT tend to have the
higher income, education, and employment that are
usual accompaniments to computer use. For
online education, one needs more than just a
computer. That computer must be hooked up to the
Internet, at a reasonable "speed" -- and one must
stay on the computer for hours at a time.
Another barrier is availability of high speed
services
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Accommodations cant be one size fits all

• Butthey can be many sizes fit all

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Are Course Management System Tools Accessible?

• According to their explanations on the Bb 6.0
  website, this course management system does
  adhere to S508 rules,
• However, there are still places in this CMS that
  are limited in accessibility options. Persons
  with disabilities are referred to another site,
  and instructors are given instruction about how
  to vary assignments, as necessary.
• Alternative! Find options that provide
  flexibility in taking advantage of each students
  strengths.

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The Good news and the Bad News about Course
Management Systems

• Courseware provides a consistent format
• Most products now have text and meaningful
  titles, alternate text, and so on.

• Many products have accessibility limits with
  optional parts such as virtual chat and
  assessment tools

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The Bottom Line

• No student is disconnected from
• any part of the course due to his
• or her functional impairment.

Schenker, K. Scadden, L., 2002
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Pathways to Assure Student-Course ConnectionSee
notebook section Online Design

• 1. Consumer evaluation should be conducted at
  formative stages of development
• 2. Captions of audio, or audio of visual content
  are provided.
• 3. Universal Design approach - takes into
  consideration all needs of potential users before
  development.

• Source http//www.washington.edu/accessit/articl
  es?203
• (Access IT, Fact Sheet 211)

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Pathways to Assure Student-Course Connection

• 4. Steps to planning accessible video
  production consult individuals with
  disabilities regarding content, format, and
  presentation.
• 5. During scripting, be sure most important
  content is given.
• 6. Consider captions in large font and in upper
  and lower-case letters, or low vision.

• Source http//www.washington.edu/accessit/articl
  es?203
• (Access IT, Fact Sheet 211)

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About 10-15 of the Total Student Population on
Any Given Campus Acknowledge a Disability

• Lissner, (1995)

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Student Needs Inside and Outside Courses Bb
Survey Results (2001)
Use of the Internet Percentage of Institutions Who Use Regularly or Require Use
Email 54
Web page as part of course 42
Course Web Sites 30
Instructor Home Pages 23
Courses offered 100 on the Web gt50
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In a Nationally Representative Sample of 21,000
Undergraduates
(NPSAS, 2000)
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About 30 of Students with Disabilities Report
Learning Disabilities
All other disabilities combined
Learning Disabilities
Total students of students who disclose a
disability

• (Horn, Berktold, Bobbitt,1999 Lewis Farris,
  1999 NCES, 2005)

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The group of students with learning disabilities
continues to be the fastest growing group of
persons with disabilities in colleges
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Question If students with Learning
Disabilities are the most prevalent in our
universities and the most rapidly increasing
group, why is most accessibility focus for the
WWW on physical and sensory accessibility, with
little attention to learning needs?
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Learning Styles

• Do your students ask profound questions such as
• How long should the paper be?
• or
• Why do I have to take this class?

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Are you bewildered and frustrated with your
students because they seem hopelessly under
prepared?
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Chipmunks?
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Learning Styles Inventory

• Activity!

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Whats Your Learning Style?(See section in
notebook)

• Yellow
• A. visual B. verbal
• Blue
• A. sequential B. global
• Green
• A. active B. reflective
• Pink
• A. sensory B. intuitive

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Break!
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Understanding the Learner

• Past 15 years studied new students.
• 4000 students administered Myers-Briggs Type
  Indicator test
• By understanding how students learn can help us
  meet the needs of new students that sit in our
  classrooms

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• Sensing Learners

• They have difficulty with complex concepts and
  low tolerance for ambiguity. Less independent in
  thought and judgment and more dependent on ideas
  of those of authority
• Also more dependent on immediate gratification
  and exhibit more difficulty with basic academics
  such as reading and writing

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Sensing vs. Intuition

• 60 sensing learning style prefers direct,
  concrete experiences moderate to high degrees of
  structure, linear sequential learning, and often
  need to know why before doing something.
• In general, students who prefer sensing learning
  patterns prefer the concrete, the practical, and
  the immediate.

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Many Paths to Learning

• Schroeder suggests that this research indicates
  that there are many paths to excellence and
  perhaps the greatest contributions we can make to
  student learning is recognizing and affirming
  paths that are different from our own.

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Personality Preferences Activity
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Whats Your Sign?

• Yellow
• A. extrovert (E) B. introvert (I)
• Blue
• A. sensing (S) B. intuitive (N)
• Green
• A. thinking (T) B. feeling (F)
• Orange
• A. judging (J) B. perceiving (P)

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The Online Course Design Study at ECU

• College of Education Graduate MAEd Students
• 282 responses over 3 years
• Sampled from SPED 6002 Addressing Differences in
  Human Learning in Schools

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How did the students compare in their personality
preferences?

• They were very different from faculty!
• They differed in many different ways.

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Faculty Types Mostly INFJs and ENFJs
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Students Mostly ISFJs and ESFJs
78
Faculty Mostly NFPs NFJs
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Students Mostly SFJs - some NFJs
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Faculty Types Mostly NFs, with some NTs
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Students Mostly SJ s, with some NFs
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FACULTY STUDENTS
INFJ 22 9
ENFJ 21 15
INFP 13 lt1
INTJ 10 5
ISFJ 8 24
INTP 8 lt1
ENFP 5 lt1
ESFJ 5 26
ENTJ 5 1
ISTP 3 0
ISTJ 0 10
ESTJ 0 5
ESFP 0 3
ESTP 0 1
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More Type Comparisons

• Students were primarily
• Sensory (S)
• Judging (J)

• Faculty were primarily
• Intuitive (N)
• Feeling (F)

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• Sensing-Judging (SJ) May be called
  traditionalist, stabilizer, or consolidator. They
  value caution, carefulness, and accuracy
• Like clear, sequential steps, see the trees,
  teacher-pleasing, like things to be right
• Intuitive-Feeling (NF) A spokesperson and
  energizer, they value harmony and
  self-determination.
• Likes the big picture (what box?), see the
  forest, searching for meaning, like things to be
  intriguing and fulfilling

These preferences imply very different styles for
teaching and learning online - or face-to-face -
but online learning can either be rigid or
flexible, according to instructor design...
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What About Learning Styles?First, the students...
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Learning Styles Only One in Common

• Students Preferred...
• Active
• Sensory
• Visual
• Sequential

• Faculty Preferred...
• Reflective
• Intuitive
• Visual
• Global

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Implications

• One-size does NOT fit all
• Instructors who primarily design online courses
  the way they like learning will fail to use the
  best strategies for most of their audience
• This is why we drive each other crazy!
• and most importantly....

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Providing simultaneous options for how to access
learning will provide the best experience for
everyone.(See notebook section Faculty
Information and UDL for evaluations of common
teaching methods)
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Universal Design for Learning

• 1990s challenged us to think about who should be
  responsible for accessibility.
• The Intersection of educational initiatives. For
  example, integrated units, multi-sensory
  teaching, multiple intelligences, differentiated
  instruction, use of computers in schools, and
  performance-based assessment to name a few.

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• The task for educators is to understand how
  students learn and use the technology available
  in this digital age to provide selected supports
  where they are needed and position the challenge
  appropriately for each learner.

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Learning Networks

• Learning is distributed across three
  interconnected networks
• the recognition networks what
• the strategic networks .how
• the affective networks ..why

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Recognition Network

• Exercise your recognition networks' processing by
  quickly listing the individual objects you
  recognize in this picture

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Strategic Network

• Exercise your strategic networks by examining
  this image for a few different purposes. Notice
  how you look at the image differently depending
  on your purpose.
• How old are the people in this picture?
• What time historical time period or geographical
  location might it represent?
• How might the people be feeling in this picture?

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Affective Network

• Exercise your affective networks' processing by
  looking at the picture once again .
• What strikes you about the picture?
• Note something about your self that may have led
  you to this conclusion.

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Comparison of UD and UDL Benefits and Pitfalls
Typical Design Universal design Universal Design UDL
many accommodation requests or potential lawsuits dramatically reduces number of accommodation requests virtually no accommodation requests
may lose students who have disabilities attracts students with sensory and physical disabilities attracts more students with learning disabilities
not in strict compliance with the law. compliance to the letter of the law beyond compliance to best practice
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Comparison of 3 Designs typical, using UD and
using UDL
Typical Design Universal Design Universal Design and Universal Design for Learning
Initial costs, training design time are low Later costs may be very high Initial costs for training, and design time a little higher Later costs will be lower Higher initial costs for training and design time Virtually no costs later
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Universal Design Framework

• Universal Design for Learning calls for ...
• Multiple means of representation, to give
  learners various ways of acquiring information
  and knowledge,
• Multiple means of expression, to provide learners
  alternatives for demonstrating what they know,
• Multiple means of engagement, to tap into
  learners' interests, offer appropriate
  challenges, and increase motivation.

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Multiple means of representation

• Present information in multiple ways. Anything
  written or otherwise offered visually is also
  spoken aloud or vice versa.

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Multiple means of expression

• Offer multiple ways for students to interact with
  and respond to curricula and materials. (Talking,
  writing, typing, videoing, etc)

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Multiple means of engagement,

• Provide multiple ways for students to find
  meaning in the material and thus motivate
  themselves. Students may work independently, or
  in teams. They may show that they master
  principles by applying their favorite
  activities.

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Universal Design for Learning

• Various means of
• Representation
• Engagement
• Expression
• addresses individual learning needs and
  preferences by designing for all potential users

By designing learning experiences for many
possible learners with various characteristics,
ALL learners benefit
Example The spelling test.
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Universal Design for Learning Applications to
Online Courses

• Okay, UDL is a good idea. How do we do it?

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Multiple Means of Representation Example

• View the video clip of Martin Luther King giving
  the I Have a Dream speech.
• Read Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream
  speech.
• Listen to audio clip of Martin Luther Kings I
  Have a Dream speech.
• Find and read at least 5 pertinent pieces of
  historical literature on Martin Luther Kings I
  Have a Dream speech

• Read the Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream
  speech to a partner.
• Listen to a partner reading Martin Luther
  Kings I Have a Dream speech.
• Watch a documentary on Martin Luther Kings I
  Have a Dream speech.
• Find at least 5 pertinent pieces of critical
  literature on Martin Luther Kings I Have a
  Dream speech.

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University Examples
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Example
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For more information, contactDr. Melissa
Engleman or Dr. Tara JeffsSpecial EducationEast
Carolina UniversityGreenville, NC
27858-4353englemanm_at_ecu.edu or jeffst_at_ecu.edu