E-learning 2.0 collaborative tools for people with disabilities

While accommodating the needs of people with disabilities in online learning environments, it also serves as a best practice for creating and developing learning opportunities that are accessible to everyone.

The design tips outlined here can help you to not only meet legislated standards, but also to develop more robust and accessible eLearning for everyone. How will you change your development and design processes to ensure your online content or eLearning is accessible?

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Please Try Later. Sign In. How we use LinkedIn. We also use this access to retrieve the following information: Your full name. Your primary email address. You can revoke this access at any time through your LinkedIn account. Sign In with LinkedIn. Already have an account? Login here. Summary: This blog post will introduce you to the three main types of impairments: vision loss, hearing loss and cognitive impairments, and describe some of the barriers learners with these disabilities face.

It will also provide you with six tips for designing eLearning that is accessible. Vision Loss It includes conditions ranging from simple nearsightedness or farsightedness, to age-related difficulties, to a variety of color-blind conditions, to complete loss of sight. The research team included students including students with disabilities , disability service providers, disability activists, professors, and eLearning specialists managers of distance education departments, for example.

E-learning is one important avenue for promoting greater access for all learners. To bring students with disabilities from the outer edge of educational considerations, teaching and information technology staff need to: apply principles of universal design, better understand the benefits of accessible technology for all learners, and ensure that electronic information environments are accessible to people with a range of disabilities.

Teaching staff and students need new skills to embrace e-learning. These include presenting information in new ways, navigating and utilising the benefits the Web, and engaging in computer mediated conferencing.

Leading edge advances, in both computer operating systems and assistive technology, provide students with disabilities new opportunities for fulfilment in educational programs. Educational administrators need to ensure that resources are available to progress the advantages of e-learning for all students, and that accessible electronic learning environments remain a central priority.

Here are some points noted in recent studies on the use of virtual instruction by students with disabilities. Students will be more successful if they are already performing much of their regular classroom instruction on a computer using the Internet and any additional screen readers, magnifiers, or other assistive technologies they will need in a virtual course.

Students who do not use the computer often in regular classroom instruction may need to learn new tools to be successful online and this can be a barrier. In one study students reported that they viewed the technology simply as learning tools. In one research study it was found that struggling students were successful in completing a virtual instructional activity and stayed highly engaged in the process, but they took 16 hours to meet the overall instructional goal that took other students 2 hours to complete.

It was successful but required flexibility in time. Having instructional PowerPoints, wikis, and other resources available just-in-time was one of the primary reported benefits of virtual instruction. Based on the findings, we make recommendations about addressing common e-learning problems encountered in postsecondary education and about how the different roles and perspectives of the four participant groups influence their views.

It is important to note this is an exploratory, descriptive study that is not theoretically based. Its main objective is to compare the views of the four groups, to suggest hypotheses for future investigations, and to propose recommendations based on available information. This paper will provide an overview of the current need e-Learning to be used as another mode of instruction, but also as a strategic tool for breaking down current educational barriers faced by students with disabilities in educational institutions.

In addition, to the technological changes in online learning, students are now faced with greater opportunities to pursue employment, both domestically and internationally. In fact, they are able to apply and obtain virtual jobs, which were not available or afforded to their peers in previous decades.

In the following section, there will be an overview of the current statistics of people with disabilities in the United States, along with an overview of distance education, which will also be referred to as e-Learning in this paper. This case study investigates the methodologies used to deliver online course content to postsecondary students with varying learning disabilities. The system currently has about half of the market in these systems in higher education Edutechnica In , the system was awarded its Gold-level certification from the National Federation of the Blind.

As Jaeger describes the system's level of accessibility it "was primarily inaccessible when it was launched and only became disability-friendly ten years later. The company acts as a central source for its system and as such is in a good position to be able to retrofit its accessibility. While this ability to retrofit has now made this platform more accessible, it also precludes other parties developing accessibility modules in a similar way to Moodle.

Both these learning management systems now have the potential to be able to provide a more accessible platform. However in both cases, even with an accessible basis for the LMS, the course content that is hosted through these sites may have its own accessibility issues as outlined by Fichten et al above. As Guglielman cautions, "disabled students can access to the e-learning platform but not to contents, resources, activities, collaboration and interaction tools.

Stienstra, Watzke and Birch observed in that "The concept of the LMS has not evolved sufficiently to keep pace with the changing landscape of academic technology, especially with modes of interaction and collaboration fostered by popular online social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Particularly, social networking sites allow students to connect formal and informal learning settings.

These online platforms and tools are not just used in the context of learning and teaching. Students, both on-campus and fully online also make use of social networks and web 2. However these online networks also have accessibility problems for people with disabilities. These networks were assessed for a number of accessibility features including section headings, color contrasts, labels and form fields, keyboard navigation, text equivalents for images, multimedia, language, and validation.

None of the networks met even thirty percent of the accessibility criteria set, as Boudreau questioned "could they do worse if they tried.

While there are clearly many accessibility issues associated with this broader digital campus beyond the online classrooms there are also as Hollier observes many work-arounds being used by the disability community to access many of these sites. Knowledge of, and literacy with, these sites can allow student with disabilities, and other students to be directed to more accessible options, particularly when these are being deployed in formal learning and teaching.

However what is the role of educators and institutions in relation to these online spaces that occur outside the university login? Who is responsible for accessibility in these informal settings, both legally and morally? Goggin and Newell observed how important the role played by legal requirements is in providing accessibility for people with disabilities to digital technology. However as Jaeger has noted "the conceptions of disability under the law, exemptions from compliance, limited enforcement, and the ability of the law to keep pace with technological development all hinder the impact that the laws have had thus far.

To activate the legislation a person has to prove both that they are disabled and are being discriminated against. It is up to the individual being discriminated against to prosecute the law. This means in practice that these laws have been harder to prosecute than those relating to other civil rights.

To force the application of a relevant law a person who is blind would, in many cases, have to launch a complaint against an inaccessible website that they are, by definition, unable to experience see Worthington However, while this tends to delay the implementation of anti-discrimination laws against people with disabilities, it does not stop them.

The relatively recent accessibility of Blackboard is a reflection of the growing awareness of universities to their responsibilities to provide an accessible environment both on an analogue campus and online for people with disabilities.

In , a coalition of disability rights organizations successfully sued a group of universities who were trying to introduce Amazon's Kindle eBook reader for textbooks.

As officials of the agencies charged with enforcement and interpretation of the ADA and Section , we ask that you take steps to ensure that your college or university refrains from requiring the use of any electronic book reader, or other similar technology, in a teaching or classroom environment as long as the device remains inaccessible to individuals who are blind or have low vision.

It is unacceptable for universities to use emerging technology without insisting that this technology be accessible to all students. This raises important questions about what level of responsibility the university has. Clearly in this case issues related to educational resources are important. However, prominent institutions such as the California State University system, that has in the past successfully pressed large organizations, such as Apple to make its iTunes U academic network more accessible, admits that it is not compliant with its legal accessibility responsibilities Keller An institution's legal responsibilities in relation to the extended digital campus are yet to be explored.

As Ingeno observes "the line between what is and isn't discriminatory is often blurred in an online setting. This teaching practice holds great potential to be an avenue of inclusion for people with disabilities in that context.

However, this potential is endangered by the relative inaccessibility of the online environment that is currently used both in terms of formal learning management systems and also the other social and web 2.

Pioneers of eLearning in pre- and early-web internet history would present information in a necessarily simple interface that was accessible to many of the assistive technologies available for people with disabilities to use online. While these online offerings were accessible they were not widely used. When Blackboard was launched in eLearning began to become far more widely distributed, but it used an inaccessible platform.

In , Blackboard receiving its Nonvisual Accessibility Gold Certification seemed to herald learning management systems moving from Ellis and Kent's widely distributed but inaccessible phase to one of being retrofitted for accessibility. How these questions of accessibility will play out, when looking at the broader environment of the digital campus, is still being determined. Like the different approaches to accessibility in LMSs the way that different platforms and networks are structured will influence how they can be adapted for greater accessibility.

In , having previously been highly inaccessible, Facebook was, like Blackboard, retrofitted to make the social network easier to access Hollier The same was not done at the then rival MySpace, but given the way individual users were encouraged to customise their own pages, implementing any change would have been more of a challenge.

Access to higher education and equality of access for people with disabilities is an important moral obligation for universities. Beyond this, in many countries, including the United States, it is also a legal requirement.

Although as Seale and Cooper note while many teachers in higher education understand that eLearning should be accessible, not all are aware how to make it accessible. This problem is exacerbated by the inherent difficulties in prosecuting civil rights legislation when it comes to people with disabilities.

In this context, it is important to observe, as Stienstra, Watzke and Birch do, the important role played of disability advocates, government and industry in driving moves towards greater accessibility. The need for those identified by Stienstra, Watzke and Birch to push for greater inclusion comes from the need to retrofit inaccessible online design.

Both Roberts, Crittenden and Crittenden and Ellis and Kent have argued for the advantages that can be had, and pitfalls that can be avoided, if courses are designed to be accessible from the beginning. This is important for both the formal online spaces of learning management systems, but also for the broader internet environment used in higher education for learning and teaching. Sadly there are limited signs at this time that Ellis and Kent's fourth stage of digital accessibility, especially in terms of eLearning and educational design is about to be reached.

But there are signs of hope, Denise Wallace, vice-president of legal affairs at Dillard University states, of the university's ambition "The goal is not to wait until someone comes and self-identifies; the goal for equal access is to make it accessible from the beginning" Ingeno While this is still just a goal and driven, in this case, by a response to the Americans with Disabilities Act, as much as a sense of social justice, this still points favorably to a future where eLearning is more an opportunity and less a barrier for people with disabilities.

Abstract This paper explores the current rising rates of online learning in higher education. Disability and the Internet The social model of disability argues that disability is located in social practice rather than an individual body.

As Annable, Goggin and Stienstra question: If there is much more acceptance of disability as a social, rather than purely medical, phenomenon, and greater public support for the removal of barriers and for an end to discrimination and exclusion of people with disabilities, why are information technologies — often the newest, most heralded ones — still disabling?

This is particularly true in the online environment, given the rapid pace of technological change and introduction of new Web-enabled technologies, as online technologies are often obsolete before they are made accessible Ellis and Kent outlined three stages of accessibility to online environments for people with disabilities.

Seale and Cooper describe accessibility in this context: Broadly speaking, accessibility in relation to e-learning e. Disability and Learning Management Systems While these potential benefits, and impediments, for students with disabilities can be applied in a variety of different eLearning contexts most universities make use of some form of formal learning management system to facilitate both blended and fully online learning and teaching.

Disability and the Digital Campus Stienstra, Watzke and Birch observed in that "The concept of the LMS has not evolved sufficiently to keep pace with the changing landscape of academic technology, especially with modes of interaction and collaboration fostered by popular online social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Legal Responsibilities Goggin and Newell observed how important the role played by legal requirements is in providing accessibility for people with disabilities to digital technology. The United States Departments of Justice and Education issued a joint statement on the case: As officials of the agencies charged with enforcement and interpretation of the ADA and Section , we ask that you take steps to ensure that your college or university refrains from requiring the use of any electronic book reader, or other similar technology, in a teaching or classroom environment as long as the device remains inaccessible to individuals who are blind or have low vision.

Conclusions eLearning is a growing area of the higher education landscape. References Allen, I. Babson Survey Research Group, January. Digital Culture and Education , 4 3. Annable, G. Accessibility, Disability, and Inclusion in Information Technologies.

Facebook as a formal instruction environment. British Journal of Education Technology , 41 6. The Impact of Supplementary on-line resources on university academic performance: A study of first-year economics students. The adaptive computing technology allows using digital devices to bypass challenging tasks.

Screen reader applications such as JAWS along with specially designed Braille keyboards allow visually challenged students to use the computer. Augmentative communication systems help students with speech problems to overcome the communication barrier. Such systems use picture charts, books, and specialized computers providing functions of word-prediction for more effective communication.

Before applying for services of a company that develops technologies for special education, consider the following advice:. Modern software allows minimizing the effort required for taking a step towards the student with a disability. Web-based solutions help to participate in an education process to the same degree with other students. Due to some forms of disabilities, students with special needs can face issues associated with moving over long distances. Web-based learning solutions allow providing educational services taking into account the interests of students and educational organizations.

The task is to offer students an easy-to-use and intuitive tools for purchasing online courses, scheduling, and tracking the academical progress. An example of such tool is Devengo, an integrated cloud-based service for online booking and payment:. Using this software, students can order one of the available educational courses online without leaving home.

Neat and intuitive web-based chatting applications allow creating online classes that help students with disabilities to communicate with each other and the teacher. Such virtual classrooms allow both learners and teachers from different parts of the world to participate in live classes. Low cost of such an approach to the educational process is one of its main advantages. All that is required is a laptop or tablet with access to the internet.

Chat rooms for up to five users allow reading lectures for small groups of students. In case of need for individual sessions, teacher or student can initiate a new person-to-person chat. Using the screen sharing feature, the teacher can demonstrate presentations to the whole class. The app also allows for recording the lessons.