Comments on: Accessibility in e-learning design - time for some standards? http://blog.realprojects.co.uk/2009/08/accessibility-in-e-learning-design-time-for-some-standards/ E-learning and learning technologies Fri, 18 May 2012 06:03:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Rob Alton http://blog.realprojects.co.uk/2009/08/accessibility-in-e-learning-design-time-for-some-standards/#comment-6800 Rob Alton Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:30:31 +0000 http://blog.realprojects.co.uk/?p=170#comment-6800 Thought provoking post. You got more Google hits for website accessibility because, I guess, there's more of that stuff being developed than elearning materials, but it is still food for thought. Until recently I would have put this lack of movement/interest down to the fact that many elearning developers use Flash and similar products, which don't offer any accessibility options (not even users being able to increase font size). Many of the new rapid tools work on the same basis. Text to speech converters, for example, seldom seem to work with some of these packages. Here's my 0.2 on what we might be looking for: Ability to hear text as speech Change font size Change colour pallets and contrast Ability to use keybd and switches instead of mouse clicks People are trying to get to grips with accessibility in elearning development though - the Xerte tool from Nottingham University is a good example (and it's free from here: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/). You might also want to look at what techDIS are doing also - http://www.techdis.ac.uk/ When thinking about accessibility I always go back to this old saw and use it as starting point: How does someone who cannot use a mouse highlight a word in a Word Document and change its attributes - from plain text to bold/underlined? Try it - it's very difficult. Thought provoking post. You got more Google hits for website accessibility because, I guess, there’s more of that stuff being developed than elearning materials, but it is still food for thought.

Until recently I would have put this lack of movement/interest down to the fact that many elearning developers use Flash and similar products, which don’t offer any accessibility options (not even users being able to increase font size). Many of the new rapid tools work on the same basis. Text to speech converters, for example, seldom seem to work with some of these packages.

Here’s my 0.2 on what we might be looking for:

Ability to hear text as speech
Change font size
Change colour pallets and contrast
Ability to use keybd and switches instead of mouse clicks

People are trying to get to grips with accessibility in elearning development though - the Xerte tool from Nottingham University is a good example (and it’s free from here: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/). You might also want to look at what techDIS are doing also - http://www.techdis.ac.uk/

When thinking about accessibility I always go back to this old saw and use it as starting point:

How does someone who cannot use a mouse highlight a word in a Word Document and change its attributes - from plain text to bold/underlined? Try it - it’s very difficult.

]]> By: admin http://blog.realprojects.co.uk/2009/08/accessibility-in-e-learning-design-time-for-some-standards/#comment-6578 admin Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:46:33 +0000 http://blog.realprojects.co.uk/?p=170#comment-6578 Thanks for the post Geoff. As an industry we definately need to pay more attention to accessibility issues. The multiple browsers often make it difficult to get everything to display but with the advent of more stable web standards this should become easier. Thanks for the post Geoff. As an industry we definately need to pay more attention to accessibility issues. The multiple browsers often make it difficult to get everything to display but with the advent of more stable web standards this should become easier.

]]> By: Jeff Goldman http://blog.realprojects.co.uk/2009/08/accessibility-in-e-learning-design-time-for-some-standards/#comment-6556 Jeff Goldman Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:29:32 +0000 http://blog.realprojects.co.uk/?p=170#comment-6556 When it comes to accessibility I have always relied on 508 compliance, but I also believe, and welcome, specific standards as they relate to e-learning. However, outside of courses made for the federal government, I do not think many designers are even concerning themselves with 508 let alone more specific standards. Here was my take on it several months back - http://minutebio.com/blog/tag/508-compliance/ Thanks for the post and hopefully we will get there. When it comes to accessibility I have always relied on 508 compliance, but I also believe, and welcome, specific standards as they relate to e-learning.

However, outside of courses made for the federal government, I do not think many designers are even concerning themselves with 508 let alone more specific standards. Here was my take on it several months back - http://minutebio.com/blog/tag/508-compliance/

Thanks for the post and hopefully we will get there.

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