Accessible e-Learning in Higher Education
The DelAcc project builds on the wider work of the JISC TechDis service, which supports accessibility and inclusion across UK higher, further and specialist education through the use of technology.
Executive summary
Background and aims
The project builds in particular on e-learning development projects undertaken by the 24 Higher Education Academy Subject Centres under the auspices of the JISC Distributed E-learning (DeL) Programme. Twelve of the 24 Subject Centres participated in the DelAcc project.
The DelAcc project consisted of a series of informal interviews and a self-administered audit concerning the accessibility issues encountered during the DeL project. Through these mechanisms DelAcc sought to:
- raise awareness of disability and e-learning issues within DeL development teams based in Subject Centres
- exemplify practices that highlight e-learning as an enabler using the work carried out under the DeL programme
- provide a mechanism for documenting processes and harvesting cases when working with e-learning
The participating projects represent a broad range of digital platforms and technologies, some e-learning specific, and some generic but with particular e-learning uses. These include: virtual learning environments, e-portfolios, podcasts, learning objects, proprietary office and mapping tools, web audio and video, and CD ROM.
Accessibility should always be viewed in context. What may be applicable in one situation is not guaranteed to be the most appropriate response in another apparently similar situation. The subtleties of personal need and preference mean that no one size fits all approach is of value for long. The recommendations produced in this report are designed to be taken as a guide to creating an ethos of inclusion, and not a definitive checklist of steps that need to be taken to become somehow ‘compliant’. This is why most of the recommendations have been phrased to allow an element of value judgement to be applied within the context of each project or programme seeking to address inclusion within their work.
Principal issues and lessons learned
Organisational
- Addressing accessibility in new resources can be a staff development opportunity and chance to review the accessibility of existing provision
- Many staff responsible for creating learning content do not have:
- general awareness of accessibility requirement
- competence to address technical accessibility requirements.
- A distributed content creation model requires:
- investments in staff training for accessibilit
- comprehensive briefings for content authors, which include accessibility
Project planning
- Accessibility needs to be planned for at the start; ‘retro-fitting’ is often impossible and always resource intensive
- Testing is an important element of project planning and tends to be overlooked
- Copyright and licensing considerations can prevent the redistribution of existing content or access to new content – copyright can be one of the primary barriers to access
- Each media type – HTML, digital images, Flash, video and audio – offers both affordances and barriers for students with different learning needs; understanding these is an important part of project planning and implementation
Project implementation
- Choice of development format is crucial, and its significance is not always obvious in accessibility terms – especially for non-technical project leads
- Commonly available office software can be used by non-technical authors to create high-quality and accessible content, provided clear non-technical guidance is given
- Flash is an increasingly common development format and has a reasonable reputation for accessibility; however, it is a proprietary format and as such can inhibit or restrict the re-use and re-packaging of learning content
- Validating against technical web guidelines such as WAI WCAG is quite technical, and interpretation can be complex; it needs to be undertaken by developers with appropriate knowledge and expertise
Principal recommendations
Recommendations for future funders
In order to promote accessible learning content and learning experiences in HE, funders should:
- Require that project proposals incorporate a draft accessibility policy; ensure that any policy takes account of current holistic/accessible learning approaches as promoted by TechDis, as well as IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications
- Recognise that developing and implementing a thorough accessibility policy for an e-learning project requires additional staff expertise and time
- Require that proposals include a brief summary of the accessibility affordances and barriers of their chosen development and delivery formats
- Require that proposals demonstrate that staff development opportunities are maximised and made explicit during the course of a project
- Require that proposals incorporate a testing programme with end users.
Recommendations for future content developers
In order to deliver accessible learning content and learning experiences in HE, content developers should:
- Include an accessibility policy for the project in your proposal:
- take account of the accessible/holistic learning approach promoted by TechDis, and its implications for your project
- include a summary table of the anticipated accessibility affordances and barriers for your chosen development and delivery platforms
- ensure your team is aware of the IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications and their relevance for your project
- Be aware of the current levels of knowledge and expertise regarding accessibility and disability within the project team; supplement this with expertise from either within or outside your HEI, including expert resources such as TechDis
- Ensure that appropriate user testing is included in your project plan
- Ensure that you have fully considered any copyright or licensing issues that may arise for your project
- Don’t neglect commonly available office software as a development and delivery platform; programmes such as PowerPoint can be used to develop high-quality and accessible e-learning content, and have the advantage of being familiar as well as widely available
- To aid sharing and reusability:
- Where a project assumes delivery of content via a VLE, plan for optimum reusability by developing content in such a way that it can be used outside a VLE as standalone content
- When using proprietary formats such as Flash, try to ensure that only the pieces of content that actually require animation are developed in Flash, and other elements of content are developed in open, non-proprietary formats
- Accessibility requires considerations and adjustments throughout the development cycle, not just at the relatively late stage of manipulating the content on its given development platform.