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(this document is an excerpt from Report on the Computer Network Study Project (1999))
This chapter was written in response to a mandate from the 75th Texas Legislature to investigate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of developing electronic textbooks that may be used by students who are blind or have other disabilities. The chapter is based on the work of a subcommittee of the Computer Network Study Project Advisory Committee established under Senate Bill 294, 75th Texas Legislature. Committee members are listed in Appendix A.
This chapter discusses the recent changes in the state textbook adoption program that shifted from sole reliance on traditional, print-based textbooks to a wide variety of instructional media. These recently available formats include, but are not limited to computer software, compact disks (CD-ROM), videotapes, interactive videodiscs, and instructional materials downloaded from the Internet or the various online services. Historically, copies of the traditional textbooks were produced in braille, large print, or audiotapes to be accessible to students who are blind or visually impaired. However, the new instructional media formats cannot easily be made accessible to students with disabilities.
The most common components of electronic textbooks that should be made accessible to students and teachers who have disabilities are described in the report. The report also summarizes the types of information and delivery modes that must be made accessible and analyzes how these electronic textbooks can be made more accessible to all students in addition to students and teachers with disabilities.
Specific recommendations are included in the report. (1) These encompass design and implementation of demonstration projects to develop accessible electronic textbooks; (2) collaboration with experts in media accessibility research, textbook publishers, software and hardware developers, and educators to develop minimum accessibility standards for new interactive electronic textbooks purchased by the state of Texas.
In 1989, the 71st Texas Legislature amended the textbook adoption process to include electronic media. The expansion of the definition of "textbook" to include product configurations that encompassed new technology led to the submission of a variety of multimedia instructional materials for state adoption. In subsequent years, instructional materials were submitted in configurations that ranged from teacher components only to more traditional student and teacher components, in print or electronic format, or in electronic format with supplemental teacher and student material in print format. Electronic components in many state-adopted programs include computer diskettes, CD-ROM, audio and videocassettes, and laser discs. More recently, access to the Internet and online providers has expanded rapidly as have opportunities to receive educational programming and distance learning via satellite.
The Texas Education Agency has a long history of providing equal access to state-adopted instructional materials for students who are blind or visually impaired. Since 1955, the agency has worked with various organizations to acquire textbooks in braille. With emerging technology, the process of acquiring braille evolved from primarily manual production to electronic production using publisher-provided computer files specifically formatted for more rapid translation into braille textbooks.
In 1991, the 72nd Texas Legislature required publishers of textbooks adopted by the State Board of Education to furnish the agency with computerized textbook files for the production of braille textbooks. The Legislature also mandated formation of a commission to work with textbook publishers on developing processes for converting publisher textbook files into formats needed for speedy braille production. In March 1993, this commission made a series of recommendations for revisions to the process of braille textbook production. Subsequently, the agency expanded the list of content areas for which textbooks could be brailled electronically to include all literary subjects in English and other languages. Currently, music and mathematics are exempt from this list due to technical complications that arise in brailling these subjects. Files supplied by the publishers were standardized and the minimum standards for these file formats were established.
Also in 1991, a videodisc-based program called Windows on Science became the first state-adopted electronic textbook in the nation. It was followed in 1992 by three electronic programs from as many educational publishers in the area of computer literacy, a required, full-year course at grade seven or eight. Each of these three programs included computer diskettes for Apple, Macintosh, or MS-DOS computers, integrated commercial software, laser discs or videotapes, and printed ancillaries. Subsequent electronic programs have been adopted in chemistry, science and world geography, accounting, economics, and other subject areas.
While expanding the range of learning opportunities for students capable of using the visual and audio features, electronic textbooks present new challenges to educators of students with visual impairments or blindness. Articulation of the major challenges and a series of recommendations to address them comprise the body of this chapter.
Accessibility refers to the freedom or ability of an individual to obtain or make full use of a product or environment. A product is accessible to an individual with disabilities only if he or she is able to use it to carry out all of the same functions and to achieve the same results as individuals with similar skills and training who do not have disabilities.
The Texas Education Code defines electronic textbook as "computer software, interactive videodisc, magnetic media, CD-ROM, computer courseware, online services, an electronic medium, or other means of conveying information to the student or otherwise contributing to the learning process through electronic means " [Sec. 31.002 (1)]." This definition defines only the physical delivery media (e.g., computer software, CD-ROM, and online services). The delivery medium is not inherently inaccessible to students with disabilities. The critical features of the electronic textbook are the content and the method of presentation of that content.
The design and presentation content within a textbook, the delivery medium, determines if 10 the information is accessible, 2) all students can learn from the content, and 3) it is usable by all students. Although, information on the Web and on the Internet can be made accessible, the accessibility of many current materials delivered through this media is questionable. This is a critical issue that must be considered as the state investigates the cost and benefits of using computer networks, including the Internet and Web in public schools, and receiving textbook updates via the Internet.
The World Wide Web Consortium is an international industry consortium founded in 1994. Its mission is to promote the evolution and ensure the interoperability of the World Wide Web. Working with the global community the Consortium produces specifications and reference software for free use around the world. The World Wide Web Consortium's commitment to Web accessibility is shown in the following activity statement: "All the protocols and languages we (the W3C) issue as recommendations should meet or exceed established accessibility goals. In addition, we will actively encourage the development of Web software and content that is accessible to people with most disabilities."
To meet this commitment and develop accessibility goals, the World Wide Web Consortium established the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in 1997. Changing the Web's underlying protocols, applications and, most importantly, the way content is developed can significantly improve access to the Web by people with disabilities. The WAI has working groups developing comprehensive and unified sets of accessibility guidelines for browser accessibility, authoring tool accessibility, and page design (presentation of content).
"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect," said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web.
In order to provide an overview of the global nature of the Web and the need for accessibility the following is excerpted from the "Briefing Package for Project Web Accessibility Initiative" (http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/access-brief.html).
"The emergence of the World Wide Web has made it possible for individuals with appropriate computer and telecommunications equipment to interact as never before. The Web is the stepping stone, the infrastructure, which will pave the way for next generation interfaces. Part of the W3C's commitment to realize the full potential of the Web is to promote a high degree of usability for people with disabilities.
The current situation in that area is not very good and is getting worse every day as more and more people rush into the Web business without any awareness of the new limitations and frontiers they may create. No single disability population is unaffected.
For example:
- People who are deaf cannot hear multimedia or audio events that do not contain captioning.
- People who are blind struggle with the Web's inherent graphical interface, its graphic-based content, and any Web protocol or application that cannot easily be rendered or accessed using audio, braille, large text or synthetic voice.
- People who are physically challenged have difficulty using certain hardware devices or web controls, including Web kiosks and WebTV.
- People who are cognitively and visually impaired have difficulties interpreting most web pages because they have not been designed with this population in mind.
- Worldwide, there are more than 750 million people with disabilities. A significant percentage of that population is affected by the emergence of the Web, directly or indirectly. For those without disabilities, the Web is a new technology that can help unify geographically dispersed groups. But these barriers put the Web in danger of disenfranchising people with disabilities in this emerging infrastructure. Furthermore, even those without disabilities would benefit from many changes motivated by the needs of people with disabilities. When driving a car, for example, the driver may wish to browse the Web for information (movie schedules, etc.) using a voice-based interface similar to that used by the blind."
Consider these common classroom uses of technology:
Now, focus on the students who have disabilities in these same classrooms:
Each of these hypothetical scenarios demonstrates the need for accessible electronic textbooks for all students. Obvious benefits are that the students will:
An accessible electronic textbook is one that allows students who have disabilities to use the same textbook and achieve the same intended benefit as students who do not have disabilities. Moreover, they would be able to achieve the benefit with approximately the same amount of effort. At a minimum, that means that the electronic textbooks should be:
Ideally, all electronic instructional materials should be made accessible to all students, including those with disabilities. All students have different functional abilities and learning styles. Each requires a variety of learning experiences to maximize learning. Providing all students instructional materials that present information in an enriched and multimedia environment allow each student to interact with the materials in a manner that best fits the individual's learning mode. Not all students can read printed material; not all students can hear audio information; and not all students can comprehend complex diagrams. However, in a multimedia environment, the information in print can be provided in audio; audio information can be captioned and displayed in print; and complex information can be displayed as a simplified series of diagrams building to create the complex diagram. Different students learn differently. The same presentation of material that makes sense to one student may be meaningless to another. A multimedia instructional environment would allow students to choose the presentation mode of the material that works best for them.
There is no one tool or medium that provides all students with all the information needed to learn well. If the textbook presentation does not provide information that is meaningful to the student, then classroom teachers, disability specific teachers, and other professionals should provide an equivalent that meets the learning goals and provides equivalent information. Passive relaying of the information is not enough when other students are obtaining the information actively.
An accessible electronic textbook might teach the concept of the piston engine by presenting a visual simulation of a model four-stroke engine. The user can manipulate the components by using a touchscreen, keyboard commands, or a mouse to grab the flywheel and turn it left and right in order to see how the pistons operate. A tone is associated with the position of the piston; as the individual used the arrow keys to rotate the flywheel, a rising tone would indicate the rising visual position of the piston. The student could hear the piston going up until the sound of an explosion was heard at the same time that the visual simulation of the spark is given. The student would then hear the piston tone going back down. In a four-cycle engine, they could hear the valves opening and the piston going up without an explosion, the exhaust valve closing as the intake valve opens. The auditory sounds could be accompanied with a simple narration (accompanied by captions) of the events as they were happening.
Electronic textbooks can be made accessible through changes to the software used to present them. Details of how to make these changes are included in this report. However, some students with disabilities may require a more comprehensive instructional approach which includes non-electronic textbook materials. Using the accessible electronic textbook with the adaptations described above, a student who is blind may not achieve the same benefit as the other students. For him or her, an unintended outcome might be that a flywheel is thought of as a left/right button. The noises may have no meaning unless they were the same as those coming from a real piston engine that the student has directly touched and manipulated. No student could learn the concepts associated with a piston engine only with noises and verbal descriptions. Some students may need additional hands-on interaction with physical models to more fully grasp the concepts. A model would be crucial to the understanding of students with visual impairments and would probably be beneficial for other students as well. Additional instruction might be needed from a teacher trained in the education of students with visual impairments to ensure that the information is absorbed in a non-visual way.
Students with other disabilities or learning styles might benefit from a series of diagrams provided in the electronic textbook that could be printed and reviewed at a later time. The electronic textbook could provide also links to other resources on the Web to ensure that students with a variety of learning styles can connect to the material.
The critical features of the electronic textbook are the content and the method of presentation of that content. The design and development of the content and its presentation within a textbook determines the its usability, the accessibility of information, and the students' ability to learn from the materials. If the electronic textbooks are not properly designed, the electronic textbook will be partially or completely inaccessible and unusable by students who are blind, have hearing impairments, or other disabilities.
In order to discuss accessible instructional delivery media and systems, it is useful to provide a common frame of reference. Many of the delivery media have common design and formatting elements that must be made accessible. It is important to contrast each element of traditional print textbooks with the elements of electronic textbooks. The print textbook is an information delivery system with which most people are familiar and, therefore, is used as a point of reference in this section.
A print textbook is made up of the following formatting and design elements:
Electronic textbooks are made up of these same formatting and design elements as print textbooks, text formatting, symbolic text, graphics, and a navigation system. These formatting and design elements are enhanced because the information is presented electronically.
Electronic textbooks may also include the following elements, which are not typical of print textbooks:
In discussing access to electronic textbooks, it is useful to use the terminology and approach which has been adopted in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Public Law 104-104. This Act refers to accessibility as the ability of individuals to directly use telecommunication products without requiring special assistive devices (i.e., devices designed to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities). The Act states that telecommunication products and services should be made accessible if this is readily achievable. The Act states that if it is not readily achievable to make products accessible, the telecommunication products and services should be compatible with existing peripheral devices or specialized equipment commonly used by individuals with disabilities to achieve access, if readily achievable. Because there is a close parallel between telecommunications software and electronic textbooks, parallel terminology is used here as follows.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 shows a clear preference for having direct or built-in accessibility for telecommunication products and services. However, each approach has advantages. Electronic textbooks should be directly accessible to the vast majority of students with disabilities and be compatible with assistive technology to meet the specialized needs of some students with disabilities. This will provide the advantages of both approaches.
Where it is impractical on a cost basis to have built-in assistive technology hardware and specialized software, compatibility with standard assistive devices has advantages.
For these reasons it is important that direct accessibility supplemented by compatibility with assistive devices be considered in the design of electronic textbooks.
Accessible electronic textbooks can take many forms. Each has different advantages and poses different accessibility opportunities and issues. There are, however, some general strategies that apply across most electronic textbook formats. The following sections describe some examples of the various formats of electronic textbooks, general accessibility guidelines pertaining to students with disabilities, and issues related to compatibility between common assistive devices and electronic textbooks.
Electronic textbooks may be produced in many different formats. For example, it is possible to deliver a standard movie either as a VHS videocassette, as a videodisc, in digital form on a digital videodisc (DVD), or as a digital file which is downloaded or played live from the Internet. When viewed, the users would have no idea whether they were looking at videotape, a videodisc, or a file from the Internet. Similarly, an interactive textbook might be delivered to the school on a DVD disc, on a CD-ROM, or over the Internet or Internet-like communications link within a single school district (i.e., an Intranet).
Regardless of the format in which an electronic textbook is produced, the basic considerations for making it accessible are the same. Some of the delivery formats lend themselves to including accessibility features more than others.
Implementing these basic accessibility requirements provides students with disabilities access to the content in electronic textbooks. Following these requirements also presents content in a variety of media allowing all students with different learning styles, language and reading abilities, and functional abilities to gain meaning from the textbook. Additionally, the requirements allow a greater flexibility of access for all students, including the ability to operate the textbooks more easily in very noisy environments or in very quiet environments. It is not necessary to limit textbooks and other instructional materials to only a presentation of the text in order to make it accessible. Strategies and tools exist for making even rich multimedia and interactive systems accessible.
The basic accessibility requirements for electronic textbooks are:
An electronic textbook without built-in accessibility should be compatible with common assistive devices and software used by people with disabilities. The effectiveness of assistive technologies providing access to an electronic textbook depends upon the design and compatibility of the electronic textbook. Information that is not available in text form, for example, cannot be displayed using speech or braille. Software that requires an individual to simultaneously monitor two events occurring at opposite edges of a screen would be difficult for someone to operate by using screen magnification.
This section will look more closely at each of the major components of electronic textbooks presented earlier and discuss the implications of making each of these accessible.
There are two ways to provide the text content of an electronic textbook - through the visual interface of the book itself, or in companion files.
Text formatting and hierarchy is important because it provides information about the structure of the information and access additional layers of information such as emphasis and keywords. Text formats identify relationships between one text element and another, highlight key words, identify a sequence of presentation, provide information about the hierarchy of information, and provide other secondary levels of information to the reader. Making information about text formatting and text hierarchy available can be done in several ways, including:
Of these approaches, only the verbal tag approach would work with information that is exported to a dynamic braille display. For spoken output, the other approaches may be less disruptive, but will become more effective as techniques that relate specific auditory cues to specific text formatting features are developed.
As discussed under Text, systems with built-in accessibility have an advantage in that they are sensitive to any special formatting which is built into the text being presented and are able to present this information. Systems that rely on external assistive technologies for providing access to the formatting information must use the standard system tools for formatting text so that they will be compatible with the screen readers. Some types of formatting and text hierarchy, however, may be difficult to present in a fashion that screen readers would be able to use or recognize and convey.
Current symbolic text representation consists of displaying the equations or text as a graphic of the actual equation. Therefore, access to a symbolic (i.e., mathematical, chemical, or economic) equation in electronic media has traditionally been difficult for students who are blind or visually impaired. Some specialized systems for reading mathematical documents have been developed, but no method for reading mathematics in common educational software is available.
The recent approval of Mathematics Mark-up Language (MathML) by the World Wide Web Consortium offers a positive step. MathML was created to meet the needs of people who want to display mathematical expressions on the Web, but who were unable to do so using HTML. It defines a machine-to-machine language for expressing mathematical symbols; that is, people are expected to use authoring tools to create the MathML code and to use a browser of some kind to read it. Reading the code itself does not convey the mathematical symbology to a human.
The MathML code provides a standardized format for encoding mathematical equations that is independent of the final presentation media, be it print, audio, or braille. Rather than using complicated typographic conventions, or even graphic images, to represent equations, MathML retains the semantics of the equation, thereby allowing assistive technology or auditory interfaces to navigate the elements of the equation. This is a major step in accessibility. MathML also provides advantages in terms of visual display and potential synchronization of mathematical equations with other media, such as narration, and brings mathematics to life.
For example, a complicated equation is displayed on the computer screen or a web page. A narrator describes the equation and a highlight or color change follows the narration through each element (or group of elements). As a student points, using a mouse or keyboard, at one of the elements, it is spoken. With an additional mouse click or keystroke the element of the equation is expanded to show additional information about the element, such as how that element was derived, the part of the word problem to which it refers, or the part of a diagram it represents. All of this is accomplished in an accessible manner and interactively.
MathML can be used to create symbolic text documents (i.e., mathematics, science, chemistry, and economics texts will include mathematical equations) that are presentable via the Web or other means. These documents would be accessible to blind and visually impaired students once the tools needed to do so are available. This would include authoring tools for writing equations that are designed to be directly or compatibly accessible so that blind students can write their own mathematical symbols. Also included would be browsing tools that convert the MathML code into something that can be rendered in audio. Because MathML uses a structured way to represent mathematical and other symbolic systems, it should be possible in the near future to provide first-rate interactive access to equations written in MathML. See Appendix C, MathML, for more information.
Graphic information within electronic textbooks falls into three general categories:
The challenges in making electronic textbook graphics accessible are:
There is great value in the redundant presentation (i.e., the repetitive display of the information in multiple formats, such as audio, closed captioning, descriptive video, braille and enlarged type) of information. For individuals who are blind or who have visual impairments as well as for those with cognitive limitations, it is often desirable to have supplemental methods or materials available in addition to any verbal descriptions. This additional information helps in the presentation and interpretation of graphical information. Tactile models, raised line drawings, braille and audio tracks help provide orientation and information that enhance comprehension of graphical images. When a screen magnifier is used to enlarge an image, it may become grainy and unreadable. It would be desirable to supplement informational graphics with student selectable full screen versions of the graphics.
In order to move about effectively within an electronic textbook, students must be able to independently and efficiently operate and navigate the textbook. Electronic textbooks, whether created from existing texts, or crafted as new works specifically for PC or web usage, can incorporate advanced navigational capabilities that benefit all readers.
Understanding that textbooks often have varying structures (e.g., an annotated edition of a novel compared to a science textbook), it is important to provide navigational mechanisms that offer consistency in the user interface while adapting to the specific style of the given book. Students should not have to learn unique navigational commands for each book used.
Multimedia presentations, such as audio, videos and animations, also must be navigable in more than just the time dimension. To be able to search for a word or scene in a video is a major benefit for all students. This concept, already applied to talking books like Daisy, is also part of the upcoming releases of the MPEG format.
The key to an accessible navigation system is twofold:
Electronic textbooks convey the structure of the content by using several methods. These include the use of simple outlines, expanding outlines, tab folders, and image maps. Electronic textbooks also use a variety of methods to help users navigate the contents. These include the use of menus, sub-menus, buttons, tab folders, outlines, scroll bars, icons, graphics, hyperlinks, and search functions.
With hypertext documents that incorporate the concept of non-linear navigation, being able to see the "big picture" is critical. Visual metaphors for structure are useful for sighted students, but they are of no value to the visually impaired. It is important for the student who is blind or visually impaired to understand what is contained within the textbook, how the textbook is organized, and what navigation options are available. Non-visual navigation systems must depend upon the structural elements of the book to create a verbal mapping (e.g., "You are at Lesson 2 of Chapter 5. There are six lessons in this chapter. There are 10 chapters in this book"). With the availability of the structural information, any kind of verbal rendering is possible using braille or speech.
For the student who is unable to use a mouse, the navigation structure must be operable through standard mouse and keyboard controls to ensure compatibility with necessary assistive technology. Though visually oriented students may utilize the mouse to select buttons, menus, or clickable areas on a graphic, it is essential that all possible selections on any given screen have an efficient keyboard selection mechanism. Further, it should be possible to obtain a verbal summary of the number and type of selections possible, whether the selection is explicitly displayed as a button or menu choice, or implied through a clickable image. This can be done directly by the book presentation software, or through an assistive software aid that can programmatically access this information.
It will be possible to adapt a variety of alternative input mechanisms to any electronic textbook. Interfaces like W3C's DOM (Document Object Model) or an Accessibility Application Programming Interface (API) like Microsoft Active Accessibility or Sun's Java Accessibility may be used for this purpose.
The key to efficient and accessible navigation controls includes:
Again, by using the structured version of a book, it is possible to go beyond just the simple "collapsing" of a table of contents. For example, a student could activate a control that says, "Show me (read to me) only the 'chapter summaries' for the History Book." It is possible to create any view a student will find useful. Another possibility is that a teacher could create custom views of a book, "collapsing sections" that are not needed at any given time. Rather than using a specific textbook for each mathematics track, use of the same textbook, with different "filters" applied to either show or hide more advanced concepts may be better. Then, educational need, rather than fixed text format drive navigation, structure, and content of the textbook.
There is nothing inherently inaccessible about hyperlinks. The three major problems faced are:
Hyperlinks are generally indicated through text formatting (e.g., the text is a different color or the text is underlined or italicized). If all of the formatting information is available to the user, the existence and location of hyperlinks is generally available as well. A descriptive hyperlink text phrase will help a student determine where the link is going and if they would like to follow it or not. For graphical hyperlinks, associate a text phrase with the image. When an individual has executed a hyperlink jump, some type of a verbal announcement that a jump has taken place is useful as a cue to the individual that the "world around their soda straw view" has changed, so that they look around and reorient themselves to the place to which they have jumped.
In some cases, expand and collapse features may already be accessible. Problems arise, however, depending on how they are implemented in a given system. All expand and collapse features should be executable from the keyboard with speech or electronic text. All non-text visual cues that are provided in conjunction with the expand and collapse features should be available via built-in accessibility or revealed to the screen reader.
A subset of the expand and collapse feature would be a zoom feature. Such a feature allows individuals who are sighted to get a bird's-eye view of the general layout of the document or landscape. They can then zoom in for detail. The equivalent for those who cannot see would be the ability to provide an image that they could feel tactually. In addition, auditory cues could be provided to indicate white space, text and numbers. This would allow them to get a sense for the global layout of the page in the same way as a sighted individual.
In addition to the ability to search for words or phrases, it is also very useful to search for character formatting or for structural items in the document. For example, the ability to search for the next title is very helpful for stepping through a document. If structure information is not available, the ability to search for the next bold or underlined text can be useful.
As with graphics, audio information in an electronic textbook can convey important information or it can be purely supplementary or decorative. For students who are deaf or have hearing impairments any information that is presented auditorially would need to be available in amplified form and as captions. For students who have both visual and hearing impairments, amplification may be helpful, but captions should also be provided in electronic form compatible with assistive technology so that they can be presented via braille. The pace at which the auditory information is presented should be controllable to allow for different levels of comprehension. For example, it should be possible to speed up, slow down, stop, pause, or replay speech and captions. The techniques needed to provide captions for audio are the same as those described in the section on fixed sequence animations and movies.
Electronic textbooks may contain full-motion video in color or black and white, with or without sound. The audio portion of the movies would be accessible to students who have low vision or blindness; however these students may have limited or no information regarding the visual information which is displayed on the screen. Students who are deaf or have hearing impairments, on the other hand, will benefit from the visuals but may not understand any of the sound. In order to make animation and movies accessible, the electronic textbook should provide:
These features can be provided in a number of ways. The same multimedia tools that are used to create the original presentation could be used to add additional audio description and captions to provide these features, and the ability to turn this information on and off could be built as a part of the interface of the product. However, three popular multimedia players now provide the ability to handle audio description and captions within the media format. These formats are:
For some electronic textbooks, it may be helpful to include supplemental materials such as tactile models, raised line drawings, braille or audio materials which can provide orientation and information which would assist students who are blind or visually impaired to understand the graphic information or auditory descriptions.
Information may change for two reasons: (1) In response to an interaction with the student (e.g., the student adds a new substance to a chemistry experiment); (2) The information is "live" and is continually updated (e.g., a weather map is updated to show current conditions).
Combining keyboard or alternative input with audio feedback creates an interface that students can use regardless of whether they can see the screen or they can use a mouse. If the additional audio is found to be a distraction to students who do not need it, the program should offer an option to turn it off.
Compatibility with assistive technologies is a second approach. It is crucial for use by students with some disabilities, such as those who are deaf-blind and use a braille display rather than audio information. For this reason, even directly accessible simulations should be access technology-compatible. However, using educational programs in conjunction with assistive technologies is less appropriate for some students, including younger students.
Technologies are now available that enable developers to design software which is compatible with assistive technologies, providing an important advance in the ability to create accessible software. These technologies are known as Applications Programming Interfaces (APIs). A possible compatibility solution for software built for the Windows platform is Microsoft's Active Accessibility (MSAA), an API for exposing elements of the screen and their state, including exposing the focus of the screen. Using MSAA, software developers can use entirely graphical custom interfaces while still making each element known to a screen reader. This makes it possible to provide access to every control and output of a simulation.
The growing popularity of Java as a programming language for the Internet has led to the development of the Java Accessibility API. With some similarities to MSAA, Java Accessibility allows software developers to expose the location, name, and state of each control while still using the graphical look-and-feel of their choice. For programs being developed in Java, this is an important tool.
Caution must be used when designing modifications of interactive animation and simulations to ensure that the same quality of information is provided to the student who is blind as is provided to other students. In the example of the piston engine, the purpose of the program was to teach a child a specific concept. Even with the adaptations, the student who is blind would not have sufficient access to the information on the screen to learn that concept. Additional hands-on instruction with tactile adaptations, physical models, or other materials necessary for the student to grasp the concept would be provided by a teacher trained in the education of students with visual impairments. Wherever possible, content creators should suggest models that may be constructed from ordinary items. This will help all teachers provide the alternative learning tools that may benefit all students.
Other programs could be modified successfully using only changes to the software. For example, a program might provide an animated story which periodically stops until the child responds to specific directions or answers questions by using the mouse or touchscreen. If there were a verbal (sound or tactual) narration of the story, and the student responses could be provided through the keyboard, then the child who is blind would have adequate accessibility to the content and could achieve the same results as other students.
Simulations often provide students with opportunities they might not have in everyday life - particularly students with disabilities. Handling beakers, flasks, burners, and other equipment in the chemistry laboratory is often not safe for students with visual or cognitive impairments and often not possible for students with physical disabilities. Manipulating the equipment via computer simulations allows students with vision to witness chemical reactions (e.g., color changes, heating, and explosions). Presenting the results of the manipulations through appropriate sound and descriptive narrative allows the student who is blind or has low vision to participate and have information similar to that, which is available in the chemistry lab. Allowing students to manipulate apparatuses via the keyboard includes students with physical disabilities and blindness in the experimentation process.
For some interactive materials, as with fixed sequence materials, it may be helpful to include supplemental materials such as tactile models or raised line drawings.
Collaborative environments allow students with disabilities to interact in communities they might not otherwise have the chance to interact in. They also provide able-bodied students the ability to interact with students with disabilities. An electronic textbook could be designed giving students the ability to collaborate, through the use of collaborative tools (e.g., chat, e-mail, discussion forum, or videoconference) with study peers or a study team to write reports, share research data, or share a "white board" or area of the screen where they can draw, write, calculate, or otherwise work together on the same "piece of paper." Electronic textbooks can provide direct accessibility to collaborative interaction (which is sometimes "live") by choosing accessible tools for videoconferencing, chat, e-mail, and other collaboration tools. If the collaborative tools are developed specifically for the electronic textbook then these tools should be directly accessible or compatible with assistive technology.
For example:
Live collaboration and videoconferencing is inherently no less accessible than face-to-face communication. It is up to the individuals who are communicating to make sure that information is accessible to each other. Basic information on how to communicate in an accessible manner should be provided to a live (human) resource before inclusion in an electronic textbook.
For students who have little voluntary movement, immersive environments can provide valuable alternatives to the experiential learning opportunities they have missed or only passively observed. As long as the environment can be efficiently controlled using keyboard equivalents, these students can control the experience using alternative keyboards or keyboard emulators. A number of strategies can be employed to make navigation and object manipulation easier and more efficient for all students. These include:
For students who cannot use the visual modality, immersive environments in their present state do not add to the learning experience. Providing text or audio labels, descriptions and meta data can provide some access to the information in the three dimensional scene, but the experience remains more frustrating than rewarding. Wayfinding in a virtual world, with few constraints on travel, can be a daunting task even for a student with full vision. This situation may change dramatically with the development and broader availability of haptic interfaces and three-dimensional sound displays. "Haptics" is a term that encompasses both the sensing and action involved in touching and manipulating.
For many students haptics is the preferred mode of exploration. Unlike the visual and auditory modality, by its very nature it is interactive. We manipulate the objects we are sensing in a continuous action-feedback-reaction loop. Thus many people do not feel they have really "seen" an object unless they have handled it and explored it with their haptic sense. With the addition of haptic rendering and haptic display/control devices, three dimensional, immersive curriculums can bring a multitude of objects and environments to the classroom for exploration by all students, including students who are blind. Three dimensional, immersive environments will become more accessible and usable as additional display and control modalities become feasible and widely available. Wherever possible electronic textbooks that include these tools should support multiple display and control modalities and provide information in redundant formats. Virtual reality environments can be divided into two general categories:
In the first case, the virtual reality is simply another way of presenting visual information. Being inherently visual, the student who is blind did not previously have access to the information. However, by making the presentation electronic, it is possible that additional access may be provided through the use of techniques and technologies for image enhancement and edge identification. These could be used in conjunction with tactile printers (e.g., braille printers) and raised-line drawings. In the second case, it is important that visualization tools created to navigate the information space preserve a nonvisual (e.g., verbal/textual) interface for those individuals who cannot use the visualization interface.
The Access to Multimedia Technology by People with Sensory Disabilities (1998) report from the National Council on Disability (NCD) estimated that the cost of making a CD-ROM accessible is 2.0-2.5 percent of the total cost of development and production. An unknown is the cost, in terms of time and money, of textbook publishers and their developers learning how to make their products accessible. The same NCD report stated that once developers learn about accessibility issues, they are interested in making their products more accessible. In the past there was limited knowledge and information available on developing accessible products. This is no longer true. Accessibility of products and information has become a worldwide issue. There is no longer a shortage of information, tools, or professionals with expertise in the development of accessible information. Examples of specific media accessibility costs are as follows:
Texas school districts use technology for students with disabilities, ESL students, and at-risk students.
Districts use a wide range of assistive technology for students with disabilities. Some districts have assistive technology teams that assess technology needs, modify and install assistive hardware and software, and train teachers, students, and parents. Special education teachers in some districts enhance their knowledge about adaptive technologies and the latest research by accessing the Internet and participating in chat rooms with peers.
Electronic textbooks and ancillaries are becoming available in a multiplicity of media including interactive media. However, they are also becoming less accessible and usable by students with disabilities. As textbooks move away from a paper delivery medium they become more difficult to produce in braille, large print, and audiotape. Texas is again leading the way in laying the groundwork for ensuring that new electronic textbooks will be usable by all students, including those with disabilities. The Texas Education Agency is investigating the use of networks in schools and pursuing pilot projects to develop accessible textbooks. It is entirely feasible that within the next six years, all new electronic textbooks in Texas classrooms will be accessible and usable by all students.
Districts use similar strategies with ESL students and teachers. Districts use technology also with at-risk populations.
A directly accessible CD-ROM-based textbook that students with disabilities could use without assistive devices.
An interactive accessible Internet-based or Intranet-based textbook that students with disabilities could use without assistive devices.
by Madeleine Rothberg and Tom Wlodkowski, CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media This is an instructive article that looks at various pieces of math and science software to evaluate their usefulness for people with vision impairments. The article also makes suggestions on how to make the programs more accessible for individuals with vision impairments.
by Lynne Anderson-Inman, Ph.D. & Leslie A. Ditson, Ph.D., University of Oregon & Mary T. Ditson, M.C.A.T. This paper describes the process and benefits of concept mapping and its use for helping students with learning disabilities study science. It includes four graphics that illustrate the concept maps. The graphics have full text descriptions.
by Bonnie Grossen & Mack D. Burke, University of Oregon, This paper addresses six important teaching strategies for "diverse learners," students who have backgrounds, foundations, or abilities that differ from most students. While it encompasses a wide variety of students, an important segment of this population is students with disabilities. The ideas presented here have definite value for teachers, service providers and others who work with students with disabilities. There are also some valuable program evaluations at the end of the article.
by Stephen L. Noble, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, This article is a comprehensive overview of the problems that K-12 students encounter using textbooks and some accessible text formats that are currently available. In particular, the article looks at the special problems posed by math and science texts for K-12 students with disabilities.
by Carol Evans, Graduate Student in School Psychology, University of Utah, This short article focuses on another dimension to using books on tapes - using recorded books along with texts. This is particularly beneficial for students with learning disabilities.
by Pat Guthrie, Home School Teacher, This article is different from most that are published in the ITD. It is a very personal account of a woman who has chosen to home-school her son who has several disabilities due to a brain injury. She has worked with the school system to put together a program that combines her home-schooling with a couple of classes at the high school. For the most part this woman uses low-tech strategies, but she has included work on the computer in her son's curriculum. This is a very human look at many of the issues that we often view only from the practical, institutional or technological perspective.
by Carmela Cunningham, EASI, This article looks at some of the challenges and problems that students with disabilities encounter when they move through the educational process. It gives some practical tips for service providers and focuses on the idea that one plan or strategy will not work well for all students.
Applications Program: Any computer program that enables the user to accomplish some tasks, but not a task relevant only to the computer's operation. For instance, a word processing program would be an applications program because it enables the user to create, edit and print text.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange): A standardized system which assigns letters, numbers, and various other characters each their own code. This allows information to be transferred successfully from one computer to another via various interfaces.
Assistive Technology Device: Any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.
Audio Video Interleave (AVI): The audio and video file format for Microsoft Windows Media player.
Bit Map: A set of numerical values specifying the colors of pixels on an output device.
Braille: A system of writing and reading used by individuals who are blind. This system is based on characters made up of raised dots.
Browser: Also called a Web Browser. A program that enables you to explore the World Wide Web.
CD-ROM: (Compact Disk--Read Only Memory): A form of storage like a floppy disk except that it is usually permanent (read only) and has a high storage capacity (typically 650 megabytes). A CD-ROM disk looks like an ordinary stereo CD, however, a CD-ROM is used to store computer data rather than music.
Chat: Real-time communication between two or more computer users on the Web. Once a chat has been initiated, either user can enter text by typing on the keyboard and the entered text will appear on the another user's computer screen.
Device: Any identifiable subsystem of a computer. Drives, video circuitry, printers, the keyboard, the mouse, and ports are devices.
Discussion Forum: An online discussion group. Forums do not provide real-time communication. A variety of web sites provide forums, in which participants with common interests can discuss topics with open messages.
Digital: Operating in discrete units or steps, not continuous. Since microcomputers operate using discrete voltages and timing pulses, they are said to be digital. Usually contrasted with analog.
DOM: Short for Document Object Model, the W3C specification for how objects in a Web page (text, images, headers, links, etc.) are represented.
DVD (Digital Videodisc): A hardware technology designed to replace audio and information CDs, laserdiscs, and even videotapes. Each DVD can hold the equivalent of seven times a regular CD (more than 120 minutes of video).
Dynamic Braille Display: A computerized electro-mechanical device which displays braille using pins or other means that permit the braille to be changed as each line is read. An electronic code sent to the system raises and lowers the pins to form braille characters which the user can sense by placing the fingers on top of the display. When the display is full, the first cell recomposes itself and the display fills up again.
Electronic Mail (E-Mail): A system whereby a computer user can exchange messages with other computer users (or groups of users) via a communications network. Electronic mail is one of the most popular features of the Internet.
Electronic Text: Textual information stored in a digital form that can be presented on a computer screen. Normally this can also be presented in braille or as enlarged characters on a computer screen.
GUI (Graphical User Interface): A way for humans to communicate with a computer that typically uses graphics mode instead of character mode. Usually involves the use of a mouse.
Hardware: Any component of an electronic system which is tangible (e.g., a computer, a monitor, a disk drive, or a printer). This category contrasts with software, which describes those components which consist only of electronic signals (e.g., programs, text files, and other quantities of information that can be stored on a disk or in a computer's memory).
Homepage: A collection of graphical and textual data organized in such a way as to facilitate easy access to all of the information it contains. Hypertext may be thought of as a precursor to multimedia, or simply as an extension of it.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): The language used to create pages for the Web. Computer commands enable users to specify different fonts, graphics, hypertext links and more.
Graphics Interchange Format (GIF): A bit-mapped graphics file format used by the Wide that supports color and various resolutions. It also includes data compression for fast delivery of images.
Internet: The name given to a large network of computers that are connected by high-speed information or data lines. The Internet also refers to the different services you can use on the Internet. Some of these activities include electronic mail and the Web.
Intranet: An organizational network only accessible by members of the organization.
Java: Java is a computer programming language. It has gained a lot of popularity because of its cross-computer support. That is, Java programs written for one computer operating system will also work on other computer operating systems, which saves the programmer from having to re-write the program to get it to work on several types of computers.
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG): A compression technique for color images. It can reduce files sizes to about 5% of their normal size with some loss of detail. Used for sending images quickly over the Internet.
Math Markup Language (MathML): A new specification developed by the W3C. It is a language similar to HTML, to be used to send mathematical and other scientific equations and information over the Web. It will facilitate the production of printed materials, as well as making math and other scientific content accessible to people with disabilities.
Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG): The collection of digital video compression standards and file formats developed by the MPEG group. Used to send video quickly over the Internet.
Modem: Short for modulator-demodulator. A device that enables a computer to communicate with other computers over telephone lines.
Multimedia: Combining static media (such as text and pictures) with dynamic media (such as sound, video, and animation) on the same system.
Object-Oriented: Generally used to describe an illustration or font file as being created by mathematical equations.
OnLine Service: A commercial service that provides capabilities such as e-mail, discussion forums, technical support, software libraries, news, weather reports, stock prices, plane reservations or electronic shopping malls. To access one, you need a modem.
Operating System: The program that allows the various parts of a computer system to "talk" to each other. The operating system is usually the first thing "loaded" after a computer is turned on, as most other programs require it in order to run.
Optical Character Reader (OCR): A device which can optically analyze a printed text, recognize the letters or other characters, and store this information as a computer text file. OCRs are usually limited to recognizing the styles and sizes of type for which they are programmed.
Platform: Specific computer hardware, as in the phrase "platform-independent."
PostScript: A computer language for describing a printed page commonly used to drive office printers. Many fonts, graphics programs, screen drivers, and printer drivers use PostScript.
QuickTime (QTM): A method of storing audio and motion picture video information on an Apple Macintosh computer. It is used to record and play back multimedia information and store the data on magnetic or optical media. QuickTime is also a collection of tools which allows movies to be modified (edit, cut, copy, and paste) just as a word processor is capable of modifying ordinary text.
Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange (SAMI): A markup language developed by Microsoft to simplify captioning of Web-based media files.
Screen Reader: A program which speaks the contents of the computer's screen via a speech synthesizer. Such a program is usually also equipped with a system that allows the user to "navigate," or find his or her way around the screen, without the necessity of seeing the screen.
Search Engine: A program on a remote machine that allows keyword searches on the Internet.
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL): A new markup language developed by the W3C that enables Web developers to divide multimedia content into separate files and streams (audio, video, text, and images). The files can be sent to a user's computer individually over the Web. The web browser would display them together as if they were a single multimedia stream.
The part of a computer system which is not tangible; that is, the programs of information that are processed by a computer or stored in memory. Commercially available software is usually sold in the form of a program or programs stored on a disk.Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML): A system for describing structural divisions in text (i.e., title page, chapter, scene, and stanza), typographical elements (changes in typeface, and special characters), and other textual features (grammatical structure, location of illustrations, and variant forms).
Tags: Formatting codes used in the Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) documents. These tags indicate how the parts of a document will appear when displayed by a Web client program.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator): A code which provides the exact location of a resource on the Internet, and describes the type of resource.
User Interface: The aspects of a computer system or program which can be seen (or heard or otherwise perceived) by the human user.
Videoconference: Using computers, with cameras and microphone, and the Web to allow people in remote locations to have a live discussion in which all parties can see and hear each other.
Virtual Reality: An artificial environment created with computer hardware and software that is presented to the user so it appears and feels like a real environment. A user wears special gloves, earphones, and goggles, all of which receive their input from the computer system. In addition to providing sensory input to the user, the devices also monitor the user's actions and respond accordingly based on the computer program.
VHS: Video recording format and medium in wide use in conjunction with television technology, offering horizontal resolution of 240 lines (not considered broadcast quality).
WAV: A file format for audio files on the Windows platform.
Web Browser: A program which enables an individual to explore the Web.
Word Processor: A type of applications software that is used to enter, edit, manipulate, and format text. In order to be considered a word processing program rather than a simple text entry and editing program, a program should have fairly sophisticated capabilities.
World Wide Web (WWW) or W3: A graphics-rich hypermedia document presentation system that can be accessed over the Internet using software called a Web browser.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): An international consortium of companies involved with the Internet and the Web. The W3C's purpose is to develop open standards so that the Web evolves in a single accessible direction rather than being splintered among competing factions.
eXtensible Markup Language (XML): A new specification developed by the W3C. XML is a sub-set or smaller version of SGML. Specifically for Web documents, it enables designers to create their own customized tags to provide functionality not available with HTML.
Appendix A
Computer Network Study Project Advisory Committee
David
Sharp, Chair |
|
Senator David Sibley |
Representative Scott Hochberg |
Senator Eliot Shapleigh |
Representative Ric Williamson |
Warren Alexander |
Adam Gierisch |
Tom Anderson |
Anita Givens |
Richard J. Callahan |
Bob E. Griggs |
Rebecca Collier |
Phil Hester |
Paul Cruz |
Mimi Jigarjian |
Beth Fischenich | |