Students with a range of disabilities should be able to
completely use ICT when studying at Wits.
At present, when accessing courses on Wits-e / Sakai, those
with disabilities are often not be able to fully participate in the electronic
learning experience because the necessary assistive technologies/ adjustments
to hardware and software have not been effected.
eLSI has been tasked with leading an online accessibility
initiative and Ofentse Tabane is currently exploring techniques that lecturers
can adopt and tools that students can use to enhance the accessibility of Wits’
collaborative learning environment. At
present, the main accessibility issues that we are dealing with are
accessibility for those with visual impairments. Webpages are often designed in
a manner that can further disable a blind or low vision student. Instructors
are often not aware of guidelines for
creating accessible sites and their failure to consider accessibility issues
can create another digital divide. Without considering the visually impaired
student, photographs, images and animations on sites can be indecipherable.
HTML, the language of the web, is sometimes used to manage the appearance of a
page. Incorrect use of this mark-up language can have a profound impact on the
navigability and readability of a page.
Text and any images
on any course site should be legible, both to humans and machines. When marking
up text, it is important that the designer keep to accessibility criteria and
use appropriate colours, fonts and font sizes. A text reader is a software
application that assists persons with visual impairments to make use of a
computer. The text reader achieves works with the personal computers operating
system (OS) and provides audio information about applications, files, folders,
icons, tabs and menus and they assist users navigate through the text on the
screen. There are multiple text readers available, including Jaws, Microsoft
Narrator, NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA),
Text to Speech, ZoomText etc.
When using Wits-e / Sakai, an instructor can lay out their
course in a manner to enable the text reader to recognize and relay the correct
information to the user. Designing an accessible course is possible if the
following guidelines for accessible course design are followed.
Accessibility Design Tips:
An accessible course page
- Has sans serif fonts like Arial and Verdana, it makes use of
a monochromatic colour scheme and provides hyperlinks that allow for easy
navigation from the top of the page to lower page elements.
- Follows proper mark-up procedures for adjusting the size and
weight of text on the page. For example, use heading tags (h1, h2, h3), instead
of bolding regular text.
- Use hyperlinks, that are clearly identified and describe
where they are going. For example, instead of writing Click here to access your
course readings change the link to access your course readings
- Keeps the text at the top of the page brief and concise by
using headings, subheading and abstracts. Long descriptions in the initial
paragraphs make it harder for the visually impaired user to determine the
importance of a page
- Use images with descriptions associated for the visually
impaired. Provide an alternative text ("alt") and long description
("longdesc").
- Offers alternatives. Allow lecture notes, presentation
slides and other course materials to appear both in their original and in an
audio form. You can also provide enlarged copies of course materials.
- Provides a list of required course materials in advance.
This list will allow students to make arrangements to find alternatives of what
is required.
- Has instructions that show students how to make use a text
reader.
- Use tables when necessary for tabular data (not for design).
If tables are used, make them accessible
through header and footer information.
- Captions videos used in a course.If they cannot be
captioned, then a linked transcript would be helpful.
Starting to build a course on Sakai with accessibility
foremost in mind is much easier than attempting to fix problem afterwards.
However, creating an accessible and user friendly learning environment does
require that lecturers and learning designers be aware of accessibility issues.
As a unit, eLSI is mindful of the need to create a learning environment that
provides all users with similar levels of access. eLSI’s Software Development Team is also
working with the disability unit in ensuring that the correct tools are
incorporated into Wits-e / Sakai the
university learning management system. The first phase of our accessibility
project has been to develop a zoom text tool for Wits-e / Sakai. This text
magnifier will help those with visual impairment and is being quality assured
and will then be placed on live site. Documentation for accessibility, course
design and tools will accompany this tool. Accessibility also is the
responsibility of the course designer and by incorporating these
recommendations into your online learning environment, you'll be on your way to
building an accessible course.
https://elearn.wits.ac.za/home/default/news/Accessibility
