An eLearning Accessibility Technology Standards Update and Blended Accessibility Requirements

Back to Notes from the Joint Accessibility and Assessment SIG Meeting.

Click on topic (13 topics) to move to section:

1. Some Things Are Happening.
2. Individualised Adaptability.
3. Cross-Walking Media.
4. Publishers Coming Together
5. Issues.
6. Blended Accessibility.
7. Solutions to Modal Thinking.
8. The UCAS Accessibility Use Case.
9. UCAS Use Case Requires.
10. How To?
11. Publisher Use Case.
12. SC36 WG7.
13. Not the End...Discussion Cases.

This is the HTML version of the An eLearning Accessibility Technology Standards Update and Blended Accessibility Requirements (PowerPoint format - 1.79Mb) given by Andy Heath, Axelrod Access For All.

1. Some Things Are Happening.
   
   • WCAG 2.0 nearly here:
     
     • Lots of tech comments;
     • Cognitive Disabilities not so there yet.
   • WAI pf Dynamic Web Accessibility - E.g. AJAX.
   • Individualized Adaptability and Accessibility - Will be ISO standard in September.

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2. Individualised Adaptability.
   

   Digital Resource Descriptions, Personal Needs Profiles, Matching, including locating, adapting, transforming.

   

   The screenshot above is of a dialog showing the selection of alternative content containing an English captioned version of a French video.

   

   The screenshot above shows a still from a video which does not have captions.

   

   The screenshot above shows the same still from a video but with English captions, which appear underneath the picture.

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3. Cross-Walking Media.
   
   • Customisation must work across many aggregation formats:
     
     • Transparency across media - E.g. SMIL, MPEG
     • Issue - E.g. identifying and accessing media parts and what is an alternative?
   • Several efforts towards making this picture work.

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4. Publishers Coming Together.
   
   • IMS Common Cartridge.
   • CEN-ISSS Document Processing for Accessibility.
   • IMS Rich Media - DRM/podcasts/streaming?, Ajax, IMS CC, access to media parts?
   • IMS CP 1.2 - Variant resources.
   • Formal Methods to Crosswalk - IEEE LTSC RAMlet ontologies.

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5. Issues.
   
   • Digital Rights Management - wanted for podcasts:
     
     • DRM may lock down media (access to parts):
       
       • E.g. screen reader access to pdf text;
       • Replacing components and re-aggregation;
       • Who and what tools can access the parts?
   • Authoring - Is many to many (many places to put effort to make accessible).
   • Adaptations require fine-grained approach.

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6. Blended Accessibility.
   
   • Modal thinking:
     
     • Either eLearning or not;
     • Reasons:
       
       • Computers need strict data typing;
       • Vendor product focus - And conformance.
   • Accessibility adaptation to eLearning content may be not so simple as captioning:
     
     • A book;
     • A different module;
     • The notes in large print 3 weeks before and a human interpreter accompanying;
   • Or it may be:
     
     • An aggregation of online resources;
     • A time-dependent service;
     • Some Time-dependent resources;
     • A scheduled activity;
     • An aggregation of these things.
   • The aggregated delivery needs to satisfy:
     
     • The individual's PNP;
     • The educational objectives.

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7. Solutions to Modal Thinking.
   
   • Services architecture - The Framework.
   • Online descriptions of online/offline things.
   • A model for how to use these.

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8. The UCAS Accessibility Use Case.
   
   • A potential student uses an interpretative enquiry service prior to applying for a place.
   • She/he asks:
     
     • With these grades, and wanting to study these subjects and these accessibility requirements where can I go?
     • Will this course be accessible to me?
     • Will module X be accessible to me - how?

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9. UCAS Use Case Requires.
   
   • Metadata at learning object and component level - A4A Individualised Adaptability.
   • Metdata at Module level - Module Accessibility Statement.
   • Metadata at Course Level - Course Accessibility Statement.
   • Any others?

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10. How To?
    
    • Roll up A4A DRD Metadata to module and course level descriptions -Different elements may be different treatments.
    • Incorporate offline/online objects/services - the descriptions.
    • Definitions and a model.

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11. Publisher Use Case.
    

    What are the processes to enable accessible content for different media kinds in blended contexts?

    • E.g. DAISY, PDF, print, Brailles...;
    • E.g. offline resources and services matching online ones;
    • E.g. online resources and services matching offline ones.

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12. SC36 WG7.
    
    • Have charged me to propose and conduct work to enable blended accessibility solutions in the context of A4A.
    • Long term but proposal due in 10th July.
    • Wiki and List - http://axelrod.plus.com/able.

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13. Not the End...Discussion Cases.
    
    • Strict Typing? - The following images are depict different tools that can be used by one person throughout the day.
      

      
      

      Source: Wikipedia on 15th March 2006.

      
      

      Source on 15th March 2006.

      
      

      Source on 15th March 2006.

      
      

      Source on 15th March 2006.

      
       
    • A Blended Telephone Repair Service? The complete telephone man - 1911  vintage - was mobile, mechanized and well equipped. With his tools around his waist, he carried telephones on his back, chest and in his bicycle sack. As today, telephone men 80 years ago were safety-minded, which in that era included wearing your sleeve guards and trouser clips.
      

      

      Source: Image and Text on 15th March 2006.

      
       
    • Consider:
      
      • A learner writes a CV targetted for a specific job and the CV contains a video.
      • The learner does not (and should not) know that the person that will interview her requires captions for the audio component and a (language?) interpreter.
      • How can these components be aggregated?