eLearning Day 2003 eAccess at DIT

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e-Learning Day 2003e-Access at DIT

• Pat Hoey/Caroline Donoghue
• Disability Service
• 11th December 2003

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This presentation will cover the following

• Students with Disabilities at DIT
• e-Access Project/The Team/The Issues
• The Solutions/The e-Access Guidelines
• The Use of Assistive Technology
• Review and building on the initiative

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Students with Disabilities at DIT
Students with Disabilities include the
following Students who are Blind or have a
vision disability - Medical Condition Deaf or
hard of hearing - Mental Health
difficulties Physically disabled -
Communication difficulties Specific Learning
Disability e.g. Dyslexia
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Number of Students with Disabilities

• Academic Year No.
• 1998/1999 68
• 1999/2000 94
• 2000/2001 133
• 2001/2002 175
• 2002/2003 220

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Breakdown of Students with Disability

• Specific Learning Difficulties
  63
• Deaf/Hearing Impaired 10
• Physical Disabilities 7
• Blind/Visual Impairment 6
• Psychological Difficulties 6
• Acquired Brain Injuries 3
• Diabetes 3
• Cystic Fibrosis 1
• M.E 1

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Breakdown of Students with Disabilities in
Faculties

• FACULTIES
• Built Environment 19
• Applied Arts 19
• Business 19
• Engineering 17
• Tourism and Food 9
• Science 5
• Trade Apprentices/CERT 12
• TOTAL
  100

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Breakdown of Students with Disabilities by
Student Type

• Student Type No
  
• Full Time Undergraduate 170
  77
• Trade Apprentices/ CERT 26 12
• Part Time 19 9
• Post Graduate 5 2
• Total 220 100

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Projection/Breakdown of Students with
Disabilities for 2003/2004

• Student Type No
• Full Time Undergraduate 246
• Trade Apprentices/ CERT 40
• Part Time 21
• Post Graduate 6
  
• TOTAL 313

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e-Access Project/The Team

• EYPD - European Year of People with Disabilities
• The Institutes Partnership Committee
• Dr Frank McMahon - Manager/Sponsor
• The Team
• Denise Buckley - I.T. Trainer
• Caroline Donoghue - A.T. Officer
• Terry Makewell - Web Administrator
• Jen Harvey - Head of Distance Learning
• Kevin ORourke - Project Manager - LTT
• Miriam Ryan - Partnership Facilitator
• Pat Hoey - Disability Liaison Officer

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e-Access for who?

• Blind Users
• People with Vision Impairments
• People with Hearing Impairments
• People with Physical Disabilities, including
  dexterity issues
• People with Specific Learning Difficulties e.g
  Dyslexia

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e-Access/Some of the Issues

• People with Vision Impairments
• May have restricted field of view
• Problems with reading small or moving elements
• Problems with recognising text with poor contrast
• or colour choices
• People with Hearing Impairments
• May have difficulties with the complex use of
  language
• Problems with instructions
• Problems with audio clips and the use of video

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E-Access/Issues
People with Specific Learning Difficulties e.g.
Dyslexia

• Definition
• A specific learning disability is any of a
  diverse group of conditions
• that cause significant difficulties in perceiving
  and/or processing
• auditory, visual and/spatial information - of
  presumed neurological
• origin it covers disorders that impact on such
  functions as reading
• (dyslexia), writing (dysgraphia) and mathematical
  calculation
• (dyscalculia).
• A Specific Learning Disability is not an
  intellectual deficiency
• Auditory Processing
• auditory short term memory
• auditory discrimination

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e-Access/Issues

• Visual Processing
• visual short term memory
• visual discrimination
• Motor Processing
• auditory vocal
• auditory motor
• visuo-motor
• Implications for Learning Style
• e.g. visuo-motor difficulty - copying o/heads
• e.g. auditory motor difficulty - listening and
  taking notes

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e-Access/Solutions

• People with Dyslexia
• Visual Processing
• Visual short-term memory
• Visual discrimination
• Layout
• Insert spaces between paragraphs
• Use Headings, list and consistent structure
• Content
• Include summaries
• Consider turning headings into questions

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E-Access/Solutions

• Text
• Use large plain font
• Avoid overuse of italics
• Use underline for links (not for emphasis)
• Use Bold for emphasis

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e-Access/Assistive Technology

• JAWS
• KURZWEIL
• DRAGON NATURALLLY SPEAKING

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e-Access/Guidelines/Review
Comments and feedback on Guidelines welcome to
disability.services_at_dit.ie More information on
Workplace Partnership initiatives contact Miriam
Ryan, DIT Partnership Facilitator, at
miriam.ryan_at_dit.ie
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End of Presentation

• Thank you!