Slides for a talk on "Accessibility, Inclusivity and MOOCs: What Can BS 8878 Offer?" given by Brian Kelly, Cetis at an ILSIG Webinar on ‘MOOCs and Inclusive Practice’ held from 12.30-13.30 on 27 March 2014. See http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/ilsig-2014-accessibility-inclusivity-and-moocs-what-can-bs-8878-offer/

1. Accessibility, Inclusivity and MOOCs:
What Can BS 8878 Offer?
Brian Kelly
Innovation Advocate
Cetis
University of Bolton
Bolton, UK
Contact Details
Email: ukwebfocus@gmail.com
Twitter: @briankelly
Cetis Web site: http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
Slides and further information available at
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/ilsig-2014-accessibility-
inclusivity-and-moocs-what-can-bs-8878-offer/

2. About Me
Brian Kelly:
• Innovation Advocate at Cetis, University of Bolton
• Was UK Web Focus at UKOLN, University of Bath
• Professional interests include web accessibility,
web standards, social media, web preservation, …
Selection of Web Accessibility publications:
• Developing A Holistic Approach For E-Learning Accessibility,
Kelly, B., Phipps, L. and Swift, E., 2004
• Holistic Approaches to E-Learning Accessibility, Phipps, L.
and Kelly, B., 2006
• Accessibility 2.0: People, Policies and Processes, Kelly et al,
2007
• A Challenge to Web Accessibility Metrics and Guidelines:
Putting People and Processes First, Cooper et al, 2012
Introduction
2

3. The WAI Perspective
• xx
3

4. How
WCAG’s core principles
4

5. University Accessibility Policy
University accessibility policies are often linked to from all
corporate pages (e.g at http://www.foo.ac.uk/accessibility)
5

6. University Accessibility Policy
University accessibility policies are often linked to from all
corporate pages (e.g at http://www.foo.ac.uk/accessibility)
6

7. University Accessibility Policy
University accessibility policies are often linked to from all
corporate pages (e.g at http://www.foo.ac.uk/accessibility)
7

8. In addition:
• Conformance is binary:
no notion of reasonable measures
• Is “just-in-case accessibility” always desirable?
• See limitations in “Forcing Standardization or
Accommodating Diversity? A Framework for Applying
the WCAG in the Real World”
WCAG’s Limitations
But WCAG approach has limitations:
• Is dependent on browsers which conform with UAAG
(what to do with legacy browsers?)
• Is dependent on authoring tools
which conform with ATAG
• Needs to be applied to all
formats (not just HTML)
8

9. Content Must Be Understandable?
One of WCAG’s key principles:
“Content and controls must be understandable”
9
Which is the cancerous cell?

10. Content Must Be Understandable?
One of WCAG’s key principles:
“Content and controls must be understandable”
10
What does this convey?
Man against snow, Austrian Tirol 1974,
reproduced with permission of the
photographer: Professor Paul Hill

11. Content Must Be Understandable?
One of WCAG’s key principles:
“Content and controls must be understandable”
11
What does this convey?
Man against snow, Austrian Tirol 1974,
reproduced with permission of the
photographer: Professor Paul Hill
What does it man to “understand”
a surrealist painting?
The Great Masturbator, S. Dali

12. Teaching and Learning Challenges
Furthermore:
• Assumes accessibility is a function of the digital resource
• We have argued “web accessibility is not an intrinsic
characteristic of a digital resource but is determined by
complex political, social and other contextual factors, as well
as technical aspects which are the focus of WAI
standardisation activities”
12
Kelly, Phipps and others (2004-2007):
• Importance is accessibility of
learning objectives, not learning
resource
• May be several alternatives,
including real-world alternative
• “Blended accessibility for blended
learning”

13. MOOCs: What Is To Be Done?
Policies and practices for accessibility of MOOCs is
needed.
What should be done?
• WCAG statement: all resources on this MOOC
conform with WCAG AA
• WCAG aspiration: we will try to ensure that all
resources on this MOOC conform with WCAG AA
• Something else: But what?
13

14. What Is Being Done?
Hyperlinked Library MOOC
14

15. What Is Being Done?
Hyperlinked Library MOOC
15

16. MOOC Resources
MOOC resources:
• Produced in-house, following in-house
production guidelines
• Found online and used based on selection
criteria
16

17. BS 8878
BS 8878:
• a framework that
allows definition of
the process
undertaken by
organisations to
build or procure an
optimally accessible
web site
17
What is to be done?
• WCAG conformance statement
• WCAG aspiration
• Evaluate benefits which use of BS 8878 could provide?

18. BS 8878
BS 8878:
• a framework that
allows definition of
the process
undertaken by
organisations to
build or procure an
optimally accessible
web site
18
What is to be done?
• WCAG conformance statement
• WCAG aspiration
• Evaluate benefits which use of BS 8878 could provide?
Over to you to decide!

19. Further Information
Video & slides of
talk on "BS 8878
&the Holistic
Approaches to Web
Accessibility",
CETIS Accessibility
SIG, Feb 2011
19
I said:
… still requires “conformance with WCAG 1.0”!
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/meetings/cetis-accessibility-sig-2011-02/

20. Questions?
Any questions, comments, …?
20

21. This presentation, “Accessibility, Inclusivity and MOOCs: What
Can BS 8878 Offer?” by Brian Kelly, Cetis is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence
Note the licence covers most of the text in this presentation.
Quotations may have other licence conditions.
Images may have other licence conditions. Where possible links are
provided to the source of images so that licence conditions can be
found.
21
Slides and further information available at
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/ilsig-2014-accessibility-
inclusivity-and-moocs-what-can-bs-8878-offer/
Licence and Additional Resources