Now that we've discussed why and for whom to make web pages accessible, let's take a look at what some students with disabilities use or find helpful when operating a computer. This will illustrate why we're changing the way we think about online course development.

Cognitive impairments

The concept of cognitive disabilities s extremely broad, and not always well-defined. In loose terms, a person with a cognitive disability has greater difficulty with one or more types of mental tasks than the "average" person. For the purposes of this guide, we will discuss the category of cognitive impairment known commonly as learning disabilities, as that is the type of cognitive impairment that will be encountered most with students who take college level courses. Learning disabilities are also the most frequently occurring type of disability. Instructors should encourage students to use services available through the university's disability services office.

Students with learning disabilities sometimes use the following computer adaptations for accessing online courses:

• speech-synthesis/screen reader systems (voice output systems that read back text displayed on the computer screen),
• speech-recognition systems (systems that allow the user to write and operate the computer by speaking to it),

Students with learning disabilities may also use other technologies, including word processors with spell checking, proofreading, abbreviation expanders (programs that allow students to type abbreviations for frequently used words or phrases and press the space bar to produce the complete word or phrase), and outlining software programs.

There are also various types of devices and strategies that don't require the use of a computer. Variable speed tape recorders, listening aids (systems that use a microphone and headset designed for students with auditory deficits), and talking calculators are examples of these.

Changes in course content or accessibility that help

Clear writing

Use concise writing that's well organized with appropriate use of headers and other organizational clues.

• Keep the display of information uncluttered and the layout consistent from one page to the next.
• Minimize and make clear references to spatial information and/or directions in text-based material.
• Define organization and expectations in any method of format of data presentations, such as a course outline, assignment or project directions; or webpages with clear or marked navigational links and menu bar.
• Include a reference to eCollege or WebCT for help with software, etc. that support any of the assistive technologies implemented by individuals with learning disabilities, such as audio-taped books or talking browsers.
• Use Headings and subheadings
  • Readers can locate information more easily.
    • Example, a document about design aspects of a performing arts center
      • Main heading is "Main Hall Acoustics"
      • Subheadings are "Background," "Materials," and "Design Considerations". Readers can quickly find information without reading the whole report.
  • Headings and subheadings as visual stopping points
    • These stopping points keep your reader's attention focused on your content rather than on where they are in the text
  • Headings and subheadings should be clear and consistent
    • When using Microsoft Word, use the Styles and Formatting feature to keep styles consistent
      • covered in the Techniques section of this document, page 30
• Avoid the following
  • Wordiness (note the progression in the following sentences):
    • In my experience, I have come to realize that anyone who wants to be a good writer must sooner or later accept the fact that [s/he] will have to learn to love pithiness of expression.
    • If you want to be a good writer, you must accept the fact that you will have to learn to love pith.
    • You must learn to love pith in your writing.
    • Learn to love pith.
    
    To read more about wordiness, go to:
    Transaction Net's Maximizing Meaning in Your Text
    http://www.transaction.net/web/tutor/text/terse.html
    
  • Run-on sentences
    • Incorrect: We often speak in run-on sentences, but we make pauses and change our tone so people can understand us, but when we write, no one can hear us, so sometimes we must break our sentences into shorter units so that they do not sound run-on.
    • Correct: We often speak in run-on sentences, but we make pauses and change our tone so people can understand us. But when we write, no one can hear us, so sometimes we must break our sentences into shorter units so that they do not sound run-on.
    
    To read more about run-on sentences, go to:
    English Plus' Grammar Slammer
    http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000011.htm

Time on test-taking

Provide extended time on timed essays or tests for individuals with learning disabilities who require additional time to process written information. This can be coordinated through the university's disability services office and the office on your campus in charge of online courses.

Key Concepts for Cognitive Disabilities - Challenges and Solutions

• Users may become confused at complex layouts or inconsistent navigational schemes.
  • Simplify the layout as much as possible.
  • Keep the navigational schemes as consistent as possible
• Users may have difficulty focusing on or comprehending lengthy sections of text.
  • Where appropriate, group textual information under logical headings.
  • Organize information in manageable "chunks."
• One method of input may not be sufficient
  • Where appropriate, supplement text with illustrations or other media, and vice versa.

(WebAIM)

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Visual impairments - blindness, low vision, and color-blindness

This section uses terms that some instructors may not be familiar with. Here is a short list of those terms and their meanings:

Alt text - this is text that describes an image, it pops up when the mouse hovers over an image. It is important to provide this because it takes the place of an image for blind users.

Link text - the clickable portion of text displayed (usually as blue, underlined text) for a link

Frames - some web pages are actually composed of two or three individual web pages, arranged in 'frames'. Often, 'navigation frames' are used, providing links to key areas of a site, that will remain on screen as you browse the site of which it is a part. If the frame does not have a title, or the title is not meaningful, it can cause accessibility issues.

Tables - Tables of data, comparing information by displaying items in columns and rows

Screen readers and Braille displays

A screen reader is a software program that allows a person who is blind to listen to text on the screen and identify some graphics like buttons on a toolbar or icons on the Desktop. A person hears the information from a speech synthesizer or the computer's sound card. It also allows a person to navigate the screen, since the mouse is unusable by a person with blindness.
Source: Iowa Department for the Blind.

Key Concepts for Blindness - Challenges and Solutions

Some of these concepts may not apply to all instructors. Instructors use different techniques of presenting information in an online course. More widely-used concepts are placed at the top of the following list.

• Images, photos, graphics are unusable
  • Provide text descriptions, in "alt" text and, if necessary, longer explanations (either on the same page or with a link to another page).
• Colors are unusable
  • Do not rely on color alone to convey meaning
• Users often jump from link to link using the TAB key
  • Make sure that link text makes sense out of context
    • Example: instead of "click here", use text in the document
• It may be difficult for users to tell where they are when listening to information presented in tables
  • Provide column and row headers (<th>). Make sure that tables - especially those with merged cells - make sense when read row by row from left to right.
• Screen magnifiers reduce the usable window size
  • In either Front page or HTML, table width can be set as either a percentage of the screen size or as an absolute size. For example, you can set the width as 70% or as an absolute value of 500 pixels. Use the percentage option rather than the absolute unit
• Frames cannot be "seen" all at once. They must be visited separately, which can lead to disorientation.
  • Don't use frames in course content pages
• Complex tables and graphs that are usually interpreted visually are unusable
  • Provide summaries and/or text descriptions.
• Not all screen readers support image maps
  • Supply redundant text links for hot spots in image maps

Low vision and magnification software

The most common technology that people with low vision use is the screen magnifier. Screen magnification does just what it says, and magnifies the screen allowing people with low vision to see it more clearly. The degree of magnification can vary according to the needs of the person using it. The greater the level of magnification required results in less information that can be displayed on the screen. In some instances the magnification can be so great that only two or three words are displayed on the screen.

Common screen magnifiers include ZoomText and MAGic. Certain types of content are easier to interpret when enlarged. For example, text is easier to read, provided it's not really part of a graphic, such as text in a word processor, and most text on web pages. This is a screenshot of text that has been enlarged with a screen magnifier.

When magnified, graphics that contain text can become blocky and -pixelated- (an image in which individual pixels are apparent to the naked eye), making the text difficult to understand. This image on the right is a screenshot of text within a graphic that has been enlarged.

Key Concepts for Low Vision - Challenges and Solutions

• Text in graphics does not enlarge without special software, and looks pixelated when enlarged
  • Solution: Limit or eliminate text within graphics
• Users may set their own font and background colors
  • Solution: Allow them to do so by using as much real text as possible, rather than text within graphics.

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Color blindness

Although there isn't any assistive technology that people with color blindness use, understanding how it impacts their use of the Web is important. Most people who are color-blind can see colors, they just have difficulty distinguishing between certain colors. Red and green, when the colors are about the same intensity, look the same.

Make sure that colors are not your only method of conveying important information on a web page. Most of the time when people put images on the Web, the fact that they are in color at all is irrelevant, the viewer can understand the image even with all of the colors removed. To understand this, print out a color graphic in grayscale, with no colors. If, however, the purpose of posting the image is to communicate something about the colors in that image, then it is important to provide some other way of understanding the information.

For example, if the image shows a pie chart with different colors representing the segments, with a legend based also on colors, students with colorblindness may not be able to tell which segment represents what. Change the type of graphic (as below), supply an annotation of the graphic itself (and supply the appropriate alt text) or change the text in the Web page to supplement the color-dependent method of distinguishing between segments.
(WebAIM)

Note: These two graphs were produced with PowerPoint. The only difference in their creation was choosing the type of graph.

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Hearing impairments - deafness and hard of hearing

People with hearing impairments do use assistive technology and different methods of communication, but those aren't directly related to using a computer or to accessing the Web. However, when it comes to accessing sound via the web, there are measures that are taken to make audio clips and video with sound accessible.

Key Concept: Deafness - Challenge and Solutions

• Audio is unusable
  • Provide transcripts for audio clips.
  • Provide synchronous captioning for video clips

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Motor impairments

There are many conditions that can cause motor impairments that affect hand function. A few of them are:

• Spinal Cord Injury (quadriplegia)
• Cerebral Palsy
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Arthritis

While these conditions also affect other parts of the body, we will cover computer modifications that may be utilized for participation in an online course.

Modifications to accommodate motor impairments

Sometimes, people with motor impairments either use a standard keyboard with difficulty, or cannot use one at all. Solutions may include alternative input interfaces, modified keyboards, or voice input. Some people may use items like head wands or mouth sticks to activate keys.

Examples of other ways to access computers include:

• Trackballs work essentially as "upside down" mouse units, and allow persons with limited hand and arm motion to spin a rotating ball in the direction they wish the cursor to move, rather than having to move the entire unit.
• Keyboard Modifications and Modified Keyboards - sometimes a simple modification to a keyboard or a keyboard with a different layout than the standard QWERTY layout is all that is required to make a computer more accessible to people with limited hand function. Here are examples of common keyboard modifications:
  • Sticky keys - a keyboard feature where modifier keys, such as Shift, Control, Command, and Alt/Option, will "stick" down and apply to the next keystroke, so that only one key needs to be pressed at a time.
  • Slow Keys or Filter Keys - a keyboard feature that prevents keystrokes from registering until a key has been held down for a certain period of time.

The assistive technologies listed above are some of the more prevalent technologies, but there are literally thousands of products available for a wide range of motor disabilities. Despite this wide variety, there is really only one key point to keep in mind:

Most assistive technologies for people with motor impairments either work through the keyboard or emulate the functionality of the keyboard.

Knowing this, developers can focus on making their content accessible to the keyboard, and ensure that the site is navigable with as few keystrokes as possible. This level of access usually is handled by the course management system. When instructors use links to other web pages, the following key concepts will apply.

• Users may not be able to use the mouse
  • Make sure that all functions are available from the keyboard (try tabbing from link to link).
• Users may not be able to control the mouse or the keyboard well.
  • Do not create small links or moving links.
• Users may be using voice-activated software.
  • Voice-activated software can replicate mouse movement, but not as efficiently as it can replicate keyboard functionality, so make sure that all functions are available from the keyboard.

(WebAIM)

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