Whilst the term ‘accessibility’ can mean different things to different people, look it up in Wikipedia and it comes up with the following really useful definition:

Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product (e.g., device, service, environment) is accessible by as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the “ability to access” the functionality, and possible benefit, of some system or entity. Accessibility is often used to focus on people with disabilities and their right of access to entities, often through use of assistive technology.

Then look up the term ‘web accessibility’ and it lists the essential factors that should be considered in making not just web resources but all digital resources and materials accessible.

Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites (and other digital resources) usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality. For example,

• when a site is coded with semantically meaningful HTML, with textual equivalents provided for images and with links named meaningfully, this helps blind users using text-to-speech software and/or text-to-Braille hardware.
• When text and images are large and/or enlargeable, it is easier for users with poor sight to read and understand the content.
• When links are underlined (or otherwise differentiated) as well as coloured, this ensures that color blind users will be able to notice them.
• When clickable links and areas are large, this helps users who cannot control a mouse with precision.
• When pages are coded so that users can navigate by means of the keyboard alone, or a single switch access device alone, this helps users who cannot use a mouse or even a standard keyboard.
• When videos are closed captioned or a sign language version is available, deaf and hard of hearing users can understand video.
• When flashing effects are avoided or made optional, users prone to seizures caused by these effects are not put at risk. And
• when content is written in plain language and illustrated with instructional diagrams and animations, users with dyslexia and learning difficulties are better able to understand the content.
• When sites are correctly built and maintained, all of these users can be accommodated while not impacting on the usability of the site for non-disabled users.

When education only took place in the classroom, pens, books and blackboards were the main study aids. Now you can learn via Smart phones, PDAs like the HP iPAQ and mini laptops. However, the technology must be accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities.

Sending material to devices with small screens should concentrate developers’ minds on what is clear, concise and simple, which benefits everyone.

Accessibility should be a priority from the beginning when designing education software - not an afterthought.

There should be a choice about how to access material, for example using a keyboard only, altering the mouse reactions, using speech input or other devices. And output could involve adapting display formats, depending on text being converted to synthesised speech and print or braille.

It should also be possible to customise the layout, colours and fonts you prefer, say the IBM guidelines. (http://www-03.ibm.com/able/access_ibm/principles.html )

Technology can also be adapted to meet disabled people’s needs, using:

• larger or more visible keys for those who have dexterity difficulties or visual impairments,
• screen reading software and magnification for those who are blind or have visual impairments,
• variations in colours, fonts and size to make text easier to read for those with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia.
• Use of clear icons and graphics with audio for those with cognitive learning difficulties

Digital text allows you to choose how you display content and the form it takes. It could be visual, audio, interactive and text based but must always be easy to access.

Headers and sidebars can be made to stand out, perhaps using different colours and fonts, along with summaries and key questions. And reminders of key points and revision aids can be set into the text. http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/presentations/digitaltext.cfm

New areas are opening up all the time. For example, you can now view the BBC website on your mobile: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/web/index.shtml

This was particularly useful for student Sarah. “I was due for an upgrade on my phone,” she said. “So after doing some research I went to Orange. They offered me a Smart phone, which allows me to use Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The phone also has Wi-Fi connection, so I am able to connect to the internet for free!”

(http://www.lexdis.ecs.soton.ac.uk )

Software like Adobe Flash allows developers the chance to support learning preferences by introducing multimedia elements that do not require users to access learning objects with their assistive technologies but still offer universal access.

And as an example of how creative educational materials can be, try the British Museum Turning the Pages^TM books (http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html ) which may not yet be available on a mobile phone or PDA, but offers a novel way of viewing historical information.

By E A Draffan - University of Southampton

The difference in the way sighted and blind people experience technology is the key to designing accessible and usable resources.

It is tempting to deal with issues like access and usability separately, when they are actually complementary.

If you start with material that is clear, concise, easy to navigate and is written in plain English, this goes a long way towards making it accessible to all and usable by everyone.

To understand this fully, you need to analyse the difference in the way people look at screens and paper documents, and take into account how disability affects your experience of technology.

Sighted people have butterfly minds when it comes to reading a screen. Research has shown that on screen most people only read the first three words of an article to see if it catches their interest.

And when graphics, pictures, sound and words are competing for our attention on a screen, it tends to jump around, too.

However, when reading a paper document, people tend to sit tight and read every word.

Blind or partially sighted people using a screen reader don’t have the chance to jump around. They are given one piece of information at a time.

Although that means they do not look at a number of things on screen and think about the relationship between them, they will be focused fully on the material they receive, which helps learning.

Now that your educational resources might go to a dozen different devices, simple is better. Mobile phones, for example, have a small screen and short paragraphs of focused text are most likely to come across clearly to those with and without a disability.

When planning a new product, people will often ask, how many people with sight problems will be using this? Is it worth bothering to modify the design for them?

This is the wrong way around. If you think about making the material as clear and simple as possible, and available in bite-seized chunks for easy digestion, you have gone a long way towards making it accessible and usable, however it is delivered.

As we look to a future where people are as likely to get their essay material as a text message, a voicemail, or a Blackberry routed email as on a computer screen with graphics and complicated elements, less is more.

Being democratic about design so that the greatest number can access and use it should come as second nature.

This is not just a moral duty, but a legal one, as anyone treating a disabled person less favourably can be prosecuted under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

The good news is that there is lots of support available and modifications can be carried out to meet pupils’ needs, such as using:

• Clickable buttons large enough for users with mobility problems
• Software to read the website/application for those with visual problems
• Devices to input information without using the keyboard, with a single switch or voice recognition system.
• Touch-sensitive computer screens or a touch-sensitive tablet that corresponds to areas on the computer screen.

For more details read Epicentre’s mini-white paper or call them direct on 01273 728686

Accessible applications and websites work better for everyone, not just those with a special need or limited ability. So an accessible product does a better job.

Software testing company Epicentre has a dedicated Accessibility Lab, which has been involved in this area since the late 1990s - longer than any other accessibility testing service.

When evaluating your product, Epicentre recommends it is compatible with the following assistive tools and technologies so that it reaches the widest audience possible and reduces the need for a costly redesign.

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative

Widely regarded as setting the international standard for web accessibility, the (WAI) outlines guidelines and criteria that websites must meet.

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

JAWS for Windows

The industry-standard screen reading software application. With well-designed websites and applications, JAWS will read screen text content and alt-text to the user via its synthesised ‘voice’. Check all page elements and attributes to ensure that a JAWS user can navigate and use your product.

http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp

Supernova

This is s screen reader with magnifier and Braille support. Users with visual impairments can access applications and websites via synthesised speech and screen magnification.

http://www.yourdolphin.com/productdetail.asp?id=1

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Voice recognition software enabling the user to write emails, create documents; browse the internet and access applications by speaking.

http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/

Bobby

Helps web designers to create standard compliant websites. Bobby uses guidelines established by W3C to help increase accessibility.

http://www.watchfire.com/products/webxm/bobby.aspx

These are the main assistive tools and technologies, though there are others available (e.g. Windows Eyes screenreader, Lift automated accessibility checker etc.). For a more comprehensive list, see W3C’s website:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/complete

To discuss any issues raised by this article, contact Lucy Fisher on 01273 728 686 or email lucy.fisher@epic.co.uk.

Since version 6, accessibility features have been built in to Flash, so developers can label elements of the Flash movie, such as buttons or graphics, to expose them to screen readers, along with the contents of text fields.

This also allows a name and description to be attached to movie elements.

With the Flash 8 plug-in, the developer can update this information with ActionScript, so, if a dynamic screen is being used to show content which might come from a database or XML, the labelling information can be obtained from the same source.

That’s as far as the built-in accessibility features go, but the power of Flash allows the developer to go much further.

Flash is a rich multi-media environment, able to provide superior recorded commentary where budget allows. This is better than a computer generated voice, because it can be programmed to keep up with changing content, and allow highly interactive features to be accessible to the blind or partially sighted by using audio prompts and keyboard shortcuts.

For partially sighted users, the scalability is a boon. Flash based programs can be maximised on a big screen and content will scale up without loss of quality.

For people with hearing disabilities, subtitles can be provided for video content, or a transcript can be supplied as an alternative to audio content.

Those with limited motor skills are able to access highly interactive content via the keyboard rather than the mouse.

So Flash can be made more accessible than any other web or CD-ROM based content, but it needs a sizeable budget.

There are serious downsides to the built-in accessibility features of Flash.

The audience can be limited by the software it uses. This is because Flash uses Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA), which is only available in Internet Explorer on Windows, and it seems only works with three screen readers, JAWS, Window-Eyes and IBM Home Page Reader. Only users with those programmes can receive it.

The built-in accessibility features only work with relatively static and linear content. If the content is animated, constantly changing or highly interactive, it is possible to change labelling information on the fly, but this forces the screen reader to start reading the Flash movie again, preceded with a “Loading… load done” message.

For static and linear content, HTML would be as good as Flash, and it is inherently accessible. One approach could be to provide an HTML alternative to a Flash based site.

Flash is often used to develop programs on CD-ROM. When Flash content is packaged as a projector, an executable file that doesn’t need a browser to open it, these accessibility features are not available.

One solution to this is to provide an HTML page as an alternative way of launching the program, but this may disable key features.

Where content is relatively static and linear, consider providing an HTML alternative or ditching Flash altogether.

Only rely on the built-in accessibility features of Flash if you can be sure that the audience is using compatible screen readers such as JAWS, Window-Eyes or IBM Home Page Reader screen readers on Windows.

• Deafness and hearing problems,
• Motor skills,
• Cognitive impairment,
• More unusual visual impairments such as colour blindness

This mini white paper, produced by Brighton based testing facility ‘Epicentre’, gives some useful facts and figures about who needs help with access, some devices that address accessibility issues and some useful links.

Accessibilty: it’s not just about visual impairment (PDF)

Vivid resources

A four CD ROM reading aid that uses innovative ways of teaching reading comprehension skills to KS2 pupils is to be launched in September.

Cracking Comprehension is the second programme Vivid are producing with Rising Stars, following the success of Scientific Enquiry.

The aim is to build comprehension skills by viewing different types of text in a variety of ways. Pupils can also listen to the text to develop listening comprehension.

First the class reads the story with the teacher, then they analyse the question, search the text for information and decide what their answer will be.

Extracts from the texts can be highlighted and copied to the ‘Crack it’ screen so the pupils can review what they have discovered and write their answer.

Their final answer can be checked against a model answer, so that the class and teacher can see how close they are to success.

We were approached with a simple brief:

“Keep the front end and content the same - just completely replace the CMS with something intuitive that actually works.”

A bit like the magic tablecloth trick, only with the entire back end of a website.

When considering how to approach said CMS transplant, we chose to use the most recent release of WordPress (2.5.1 at time of writing) to provide a highly intuitive back end administration area whilst being able to call upon the necessary time saving features of a decent PHP framework.

WordPress has a lot going for it at the moment:

• It’s open source
• Its feature set is increasingly more powerful with each release (to the point where it can now act as a full CMS rather than just a blog engine)
• The plug-in resources are expansive, offering plenty of exciting options for developing flexible websites
• The default administration area is truly intuitive (I once heard a client describe it as “a combination of Word and FaceBook”)
• It’s the most popular choice for powering blogs in the world right now
• The development community is huge, offering more support than you can shake a very large stick at

The website’s new CMS is up and running and the response so far has been good.

Links:

• www.trinityhospice.org.uk
• Recent Projects

One of the greatest recent innovations in the digital world has been the Nintendo Wii. This device has transformed the landscape and introduced the world of digital interaction to a wide audience outside the traditional gaming user group of 18-30 year old males.

This has introduced the spectre of whole families participating in interactive games: middle aged mothers hooked on the technology, grandads taking on their grand children.

It isn’t just the technology that is so impressive but also the applications for the Wii, the DS and the DS-Lite that have fired the imaginations of the populace across the generations.

Into this new world we have come across the Wii based experimental work of Johnny Chung Lee. He has devised a way of building an interactive whiteboard using a Wiimote, a projector, a DIY Infrared light pen and some custom software provided free by Johnny himself.

Johnny’s interactive whiteboard can be projected on to almost any flat surface and has the potential for multi-touch application.

We fancy having a go at this ourselves and will let you know how we get on in future bulletins.

You’ll see that Johnny has also devised a way of having a 3D experience with your own TV using the same technology.

Just a few tweaks and we can make paper resources into digital ones, can’t we? Well no, and here’s why:

As specialists in digital media for education, one of our core activities is the design and production of digital resources for educational publishers. These publishers, typically, are traditional organisations whose businesses have been built on the publishing of educational books and other printed matter.

Now, in the 21^st century, with technology sophistication and the ubiquity of digital media in all of our lives (partially due to the demise of analogue TV by 2012), these very same publishers are having to turn their attention to the publishing of digital media. For many publishers this has initially meant the production and publication of digital media resources linked to published books. In time, more publishers will produce resources that do not have a book element and are complete digital resources in their own right.

For most publishers the transition is a pretty painful one because it involves more than just tweaking a few processes. It involves very real and significant change.

There are high-level strategic decisions to be taken including: what digital publishing platforms (e.g. CD-ROM, DVD, web, mobile devices, Broadband and IPTV, other devices e.g. DS, Wii, psp, etc.) should be addressed; what distribution mechanisms (e.g. on-line subscription, e-commerce, mail order, etc.) should be employed, now and in the future; where does ‘digital’ publishing sit within the organisation in relation to brand, marketing, markets.

One of the key considerations in this is what new opportunities does the dawning of digital media bring.

The decisions taken around these questions and the aims and objectives that come from these considerations then filter down to the practical level of how to achieve them, both at an organisational level and at a day-to-day operational level.

But to be able to make informed judgements both about what the new opportunities are, and what organisational changes will be required to address them, it is essential to be clear about what the day-to-day operational requirements are. And also to understand that the processes, skills and experience required in producing interactive digital media resources are very different to those required in producing printed resources.