A picture is worth a thousand words

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A picture is worth a thousand words
Unless you cant see the picture
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Making Instructional Technology Accessible To
Students With Disabilities

• Montgomery County Community College
• Ninth Annual Technology and Learning Conference

October 17, 2003
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Presenters

• Saul Finkle
• Director of Services for Students with
  Disabilities
• Coordinates services and accommodations for
  students and advises faculty and staff on
  disability related issues
• Russ Loverdi
• Russell Loverdi, Counselor/Assistant Professor
• Formerly, the primary service provider for
  students with disabilities.
• Currently, the Interim Counseling Team-Leader
  providing counseling services to students with
  disabilities.
• Pat Rahmlow
• Assistant Professor, Computer Science
• Teaches online, face-to-face and hybrid courses

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Why Should We Make Instructional Technology
Accessible?

• Legal Issues
• Pedagogical Issues

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Legal Issues

• 1973
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
• 1990
• Americans with Disabilities Act

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Section 504

• Prohibits colleges and universities from
  discriminating against qualified students with
  disabilities
• Requires that appropriate accommodations and
  auxiliary aids be provided to ensure equal access
  to educational programs, services, and activities

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Americans with Disabilities ActTitle II and
Title III

• Upholds and extends the standards of 504 to
  employment, communications and all policies,
  procedures and practices that impact on the
  treatment of students with disabilities

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Americans with Disabilities ActTitle II and
Title III

• Title II (public institutions) and Title III
  (private institutions) requires effective
  communication for individuals with disabilities,
  including telecommunications, computer
  technology, and internet based information

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Pedagogical Issues

• Impact of Instructional Technology on Learning
• Universal Instructional Design

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Advantages of Instructional Technology

• Provides opportunity for visual, hands-on, and
  auditory learning
• Stores, manipulates, and shares information

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Disadvantages of Instructional Technology that
is not accessible

• Students who are not visual learners
• Blindness
• Low vision
• Color blindness
• Learning Disabilities

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Disadvantages of Instructional Technology that
is not accessible

• Students who are not auditory learners
• Deaf
• HOH
• Learning Disabilities

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Disadvantages of Instructional Technology that
is not accessible

• Students who are not hands-on learners
• Neuromuscular disorders
• Paralysis
• Learning Disabilities

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Universal Instructional Design

• The basic premise of Universal Instructional
  Design is that curriculum should include
  alternatives to make it accessible and applicable
  to students with different backgrounds, learning
  styles, abilities, and disabilities.

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
www.cast.org
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Some Principles of Universal Instructional Design

• Create a welcoming classroom environment that
  encourages students to identify their needs
• Syllabus statement regarding accommodations

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Some Principles of Universal Instructional Design

• Provide varied instructional methods
• Lectures
• Videos
• Text
• Diagrams
• Charts

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Some Principles of Universal Instructional Design

• Provide a variety of ways for students to
  demonstrate knowledge
• Tests
• Papers
• Oral presentations
• Multi-media projects

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Some Principles of Universal Instructional Design

• Provide natural supports for learning
• Study guides
• Discussion groups
• Practice tests
• Web sites

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Some Principles of Universal Instructional Design

• Encourage faculty-student contact
• Interactive learning activities
• Mini interviews

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Some Principles of Universal Instructional Design

• Use technology to enhance learning and to
  increase accessibility
• PowerPoint and Smart Board presentations
• Videos that are closed-captioned
• Web-based materials and lecture notes that are
  accessible to screen readers

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Four Reasons Why Instructional Technology May be
Inaccessible

• The student cannot navigate the screen using a
  mouse due to blindness or physical impairment

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Four Reasons Why Instructional Technology May be
Inaccessible

• The student cannot read print or has difficulty
  reading due to blindness, low vision, or learning
  disabilities

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Four Reasons Why Instructional Technology May be
Inaccessible

• The student cannot hear audio description due to
  deafness or hearing loss

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Four Reasons Why Instructional Technology May be
Inaccessible

• The student cannot comprehend or remember
  information easily due to cognitive impairment

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Assistive Technology

• JAWS
• ZoomText
• Dragon Naturally Speaking
• Kurzweil 1000 and 3000

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Assistive Technology

• Trackballs
• Intellikeys
• Large Monitors
• Braille Printer and Translation Software

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Assistive Technology

• IBM Home Page Reader
• Office XP
• Read and Write

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Instructional Technology ConsiderationsWeb Based
Documents

• Content
• Headings
• Punctuation and paragraphs
• Dates
• Date or math?
• Color based instructions
• Always have an alternative indicator
• Font size
• Relative to allow user to increase as needed

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Instructional Technology ConsiderationsWeb Based
Documents

• Images
• Names
• Screen reader will speak
• Importance
• Do you need to hear a name or should you skip
  this picture?

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Instructional Technology ConsiderationsWeb Based
Documents

• Links
• Ability to skip
• Option to skip repetitive links on each page
• Placement
• Ability to hear content first
• Content
• Avoid click here use meaningful link text

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Instructional Technology ConsiderationsWeb Based
Documents

• Tables
• Layout
• Vertical versus horizontal
• Headers
• Linking content cells to column and row headings

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Instructional Technology ConsiderationsWeb Based
Documents

• Forms
• Placement of titles
• What is this text box for?
• Use default text for instruction
• Buttons
• Names

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Instructional Technology ConsiderationsWeb Based
Documents

• Frames
• Name each frame screen reader will read to
  identify

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Instructional Technology ConsiderationsWord
Processing Documents

• Headings
• Invisible punctuation
• Dates
• October 17, 2003 vs. 10/17/03
• Tables
• Layout

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Instructional Technology ConsiderationsColor
Blindness

• Contrast
• Light / dark
• Color based instructions
• Provide an alternative
• Resources
• colorfilter.wickline.org/colorblind/filter/
• See your web page from view of color blind user
• www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.html
• Tests for color blindness

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Instructional Technology ConsiderationsOther
Disabilities

• Motor Skills
• Cant use mouse
• Specialized hardware
• Hearing Impaired
• Video Closed Captioning
• Audio Transcript

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Reference Material

• cast.org/bobby/
• Check web sites for accessibility compliance
• www.w3.org/WAI/
• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
• faculty.mc3.edu/prahmlow/tech03
• PowerPoint presentation
• Web site list

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Questions