OTC11: Open Textbooks and Learner Accessibility: Standards, Design, and Format

OTC11: Open Textbooks and Learner Accessibility Slide 1

Open Textbooks and Learner Accessibility:

Standards, Design, & Formats

Alice Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc.

Una Daly, College Open Textbooks, Foothill College

Dial-in: 1-888-886-3951Pin: 690818

OTC11: Open Textbooks and Learner Accessibility Slide 2

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Alice Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc.

PresidentFormer educational researcherWoman with MS

Second LifeGentle Heron leads the support community for people with real life disabilitiesProvides development & employment opportunities for people with disabilities

Alice’s Second Life Avatar, Gentle Heron

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Una Daly, College Open Textbooks

Associate DirectorBook Reviews ManagerWorkshopsOpen Textbook AdoptionsAccessibility IssuesCommunity Building

Foothill CollegeComputer Technology Instructor

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Agenda Introduce yourself in chat window

What are open textbooks?How can digital resources help accessibility?

Evaluation Results of 60+ BooksStandards for open textbooks accessibility Findings and Recommendations

Next Steps Universal Design for LearningFormats for assistive tech, mobile, learningResources

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College Open Textbooks mission

Find, list, and support production and reuse of

High-quality

AccessibleCulturally-relevant

open textbooks for community college students

John_C_Abell_CC-BY-NC-SA_Flickr

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What are open textbooks?

DigitalAssistive Technology

Open LicenseReusable & adaptable

Low costLowers barriers to education

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Digital information explosion

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An open textbook was …

Copyright All Rights Reserved

to

Creative Commons License Some Rights Reserved

From the Creative Commons store

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Creative Commons allowscreator to specify re-use

Reuse: Copy and use as-is

Revise: Adapt and improve

Remix: Combine into new

Redistribute: Share copies

The 4Rs of Open

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Cost savingsAll Rights Reserved Some Rights Reserved

Publisher: Wiley Open: Connexions & QOOP

Downloadable version:

$77.50

Downloadable & online versions:

FREE

Printed bound version:

$141.95 new

$110.25 used

Printed bound version:

$31.95 new

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Educational equity

26% of tuition @ public 4-years

72% of tuition @ community colleges

150% of tuition @ California community colleges

Textbooks are a larger percentage of total cost for students at community colleges

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Why textbook accessibility?

It’s the law! Section 508

Extend Your Reachinstructors

Improve learning for everyone

Morguefile.com

Source: webaim.org

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Open Textbook AccessibilityEvaluation Goals

Review open textbooks to:

Empower faculty adopters

Educate authors

Support diverse learners

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What challenges do diverse learners face?

Cognitive learning disabilitiesSensory & motor impairmentsEnglish language deficitsLack of engagement

Kersti Nebelsiek CC-BY

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Web accessibility guidelinesand other requirements

World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Access Guidelines (WCAG 2.0)

PDF Checkpoints & Techniques

Section 508, Rehabilitation ActElectronic & Information Technology(1998, 2011)

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Textbook Accessibility ReviewsPOUR matrix

Textbook: Collaborative StatisticsAccessibility reviewed by: Virtual Ability, Inc.

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Evaluation Overview

60 Open Licensed Textbooks AnalyzedSelected from top enrolled GE courses35 websites, 25 downloadable PDFs

Types of Issues NotedWebsite Structural AccessibilityPDF AccessibilityCommon Issues (both formats)

Positive FindingsRecommendations

JAWS Screen Reader

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Five open textbook repositories sampled

Connexions.Flat World Knowledge.MediaWiki.Open Learn.Open Learning Initiative.

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Repositories’ structural accessibility problems

Pre-Set Formats (5 repositories):Structural markup - 100% nesting headers data table title summary attributes fixed width Color contrast - 80%In-page navigation - 40%

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Author-created website structural accessibility problems

Structural semantic organizers:headers - 26%, bulleted lists 3%

Tables: headings - 31%, attributes 40%Fixed width page - 14%In-page navigation - 14%Data entry using Flash - 9%Reliance on Java scripts - 6%Non-mouse operation - 9%Frames- 3%

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PDF Accessibility Issues

Features missing in all PDFs evaluatedTagging and reading orderSearchable text

– Fonts allow character extraction to text– Interactive form fields– Non-mouse navigational aids– Specified document or text block language– No security against assistive technology– Alternative text

• Download website accessibility in some PDFs

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Common Issues in Both FormatsVisual Appearance

• Dense text - 17% web, 32% PDF• Small font - 3% web, 20% PDF• Visual clutter - 14% web, 12% PDF• Specific issues with mathematical

symbols

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Visual Clutter/ Inconsistency

There is lots of text on this page. And there are images too. That makes it difficult to figure out where to look first…

Especially if you have issues related to visual attention.

Because the page is so cluttered with text and images, it’s difficult to figure out how to study the material. Inconsistency adds to the sense of confusion. Of course, nobody would put this much material on one page, but it’s tempting to do so when authoring is so easy.

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Common IssuesContent Organization

• Important/less important - 14% web, 20% PDF

• Organizational flow - 14% web, 4% PDF• Lack Table of Contents - 12% PDF, plus

other issues• Lengthy pages - 23% web, 4% PDF

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Common IssuesLanguage Usage

• Content-related Vocabulary:– Inconsistent emphasis - 9% web, 28% PDF– Need Glossary - 54% web, 44% PDF

• Author’s Voice - 11% web, 12% PDF• Consistency:

– Visual format - 17% web, 28% PDF– Reading ease - 26% web, 44% PDF

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Common IssuesAlternatives & Comprehension

• Need Alternatives:– Alt text - 63% web, 100% PDF, plus additional

issues– Color coding - 14% web, 12% PDF

• Comprehension Level - 37% web, 36% PDF

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Missing Alt Text Example

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Good Example of Color Coding

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Positive Findings

• Five percent of websites exemplary• Eight percent of PDFs exemplary

– Appropriate readability level - 3 PDFs– Visual-semantic organization - 2 PDFs– Format consistency - 2 PDFs– Presentation style - 1 website, 2 PDFs– Lack of clutter - 1 PDF– Glossary - 1 PDF

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How to Build In Accessibility?

Authors/Creators need:

• Awareness• How-To Knowledge• Professional Assistance• Incentives

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Open textbook digital formats

• Web pages

• Downloadable Formats– PDF– DAISY– ePUB

• Audio/Video – mp3, .mov, .mp4

Creative Commons Case Studies, CC-BY 3.0 License, Attribution 3.0 Unported

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Standards for Accessible Readers

• Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Consortium

– digital talking books offer benefits of regular audio books with additionof navigation.

DAISY (Digital Accessible Info System) Reader

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Standards for Mobile

• ePUB new standard– Converts to DAISY

• PDF often inaccessible– Structural markups

missing– Cannot be reflowed for

mobile devices– Primarily print format

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Universal Design for Learning

• Designed to be used by everyone without special adaptation

• Benefits all ages and abilities– Curb cuts– Video captioning

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Universal Design for LearningPrinciples

• Provide multiple means of – Representation– Action or Expression– Engagement

• UDL Guidelines 2.0– Checkpoints

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Resources for educatorsin all CA Community Colleges

• High Tech Training Center Unit– Online and face-2-face training

• Video captioning grant for instructional materials

– administered by College of the Canyons

• College Open Text Accessibility Reviews

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Join the Communityfor additional assistance

• Join the College Open Textbooks Communityhttp://collegeopentextbooks.ning.com

• Visit College Open Textbooks Resources http://collegeopentextbooks.org

• Visit Virtual Ability http://virtualability.org

OTC11: Open Textbooks and Learner Accessibility Slide 39

Q & A

Thank you for attending this morning

Handout available

Contact us for more informationAlice Krueger: [email protected]

Una Daly: [email protected]