1. Disabilities & ICTs 4 learning
developing an accessible learning environment from a User
Centered Design perspective
Dr. Eva P. Gil-Rodríguez
Pablo Rebaque Rivas
Llorenç Sabaté Jardí
Office of Learning Technologies
Office of the Vice President for Technology
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Lorena Bourg-Arceo
Ariadna Servicios Informáticos
2. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
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Distance University
On-line
Digital contents
Virtual classrooms
www.uoc.edu
3. 0.
AGENDA
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Introduction: Disabilities & ICT’s 4 learning
User Centered Design of Virtual Learning Environments
Theory
Methodology: Participant Observation of final users
Results & Recommendations
Conclusions
5. 1.
Introduction: Disabilities & ICT’s 4 learning
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ICT’s & Disabilities: Opportunity or Risk?
Depending on the adaptation of technologies to people with
disabilities
6. 1.
Introduction: Disabilities & ICT’s 4 learning
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eduwai project: developing a specific learning environment for
the inclusion of people with disabilities into the job market
http://eduwai.grupogesfor.com
8. 2.
User Centered Design of Virtual Learning
Environments
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9. 2.
User Centered Design of Virtual Learning
Environments
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Our users!
11. 3.
Theory
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ICT make the construction of flexible and personalized
learning routes possible (Beale, 2005)
Besides this, it is clear that people with intellectual
disabilities improve their quality of life when they have a
job (Eggleton et al., 1999; O'Brien and Dempsey, 2005;
Kraemer, 2003)
No research about how technology may help people with
intellectual disabilities to become included in the job
market
12. 3.
Theory
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The accessibility standards and e-learning communion
does not guarantee a satisfactory experience for people
with visual disabilities (Lawton & Grossnickle, 2005)
The clearest example is the screen reader, which reads
the website in a linear way, where reading in sighted
people is holistic and hypertextual (Lazar, J. et al. 2006)
No research about usability of Virtual Learning
Environments for visually impaired people
14. 4.
Methodology: Participant Observation
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Learning Scenario 1: people with visual disabilities
Learning Scenario 2: people with intellectual
disabilities
15. 4.
Methodology: Participant Observation
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Learning Scenario 1: people with visual disabilities
www.uoc.edu
16. 4.
Methodology: Participant Observation
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Learning Scenario 2: people with intellectual
disabilities
www.fundacionprodis.org
17. 4.
Methodology: Participant Observation
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Learning Scenario 1: people with visual disabilities
• Participant Observations at home
• Non Structured Interviews
• User Tests of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
with assistive technologies
18. 4.
Methodology: Participant Observation
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17 students: 2 screen reader, 8 magnifier, 7 zoom PC
7 men & 10 women, aged between 22 & 64
Most of them lived with their family
Different studies
19. 4.
Methodology: Participant Observation
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Learning Scenario 2: people with intellectual disabilities
• Participant Observations in 3 classes with 12 students
each one (both genders, most of them with Down
Syndrome, aged between 18 and 30)
• Focus group with 8 educators and employment
mediators
22. 5.
Accessibility and usability of Virtual Learning
Environment is not enough: you should also provide
access to accessible and usable contents IN
ADVANCE
Provide all possible formats (audio, word, pdf...), put
self-explanatory links, priorize information!
Train teaching staff in accessibility issues
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Results& Recommendations
23. 5.
Results & Recommendations
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Priority given to visual content over read content
VLE should allow personalization
VLE should adapt to the different stages of the
student’s training (in class and while employed)
VLE should help families and work coleagues to learn
how to interact with students
25. 6.
Conclusions
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Specific users require different solutions:
Specific solution (platform to
create videogames) is
developing now
Universal Design of VLE’s is
possible!
26. learningtechnologies.uoc.edu
WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK:
The eduWAI project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of
Industry, Tourism and Trade, the Advanced R+D
Programme (AETSI Avanza I+D 2009) TSI-020312-2009-
27
UNIDISCAT, funded by the Agency for the Administration
of University and Research Grants (AGAUR, the Catalan
government), Case No. 11
More information: egilrod@uoc.edu
@evapatriciagil
Notes de l'éditeur
User Centered Design Perspective means that first of all, we gather the needs and requirements of our potential users. In this presentation, we will try to explain specifically how we gather user requirements and which are these recommendations of design for virtual learning environments in the case of our users.
Who are our users? Actually, and because of the limited scope of our project, by the moment we only work with two kinds of users: users with visual impairement and users with intellectual disabilities.
Some theory about the relationship between ICT’s for learning and intellectual disabilities
Some theory about the relationship between ICT’s for learning and visual disabilities
Our first learning scenario of this participant observation is about students with visual disabilities from our university, the Open University of Catalonia.
Our second learning scenario is about people with intellectual disabilities from the Prodis Fundation. Prodis Fundation is a non profit organization also in Spain but in Madrid, and whose goal is to teach people with intellectual disabilities in order to improve their inclusion in the job market.
We analyse all this information through content analysis, workflows of their relationships and tasks flows of processes of learning of both students, and we identify difficulties and opportunities in this process, thinking in solutions we can offer, and it’s important to note that these solutions were sometimes based on technological answers and sometimes not!
And about our conclusions, our main conclusion is that specific users require different solutions. In the case of people of intellectual disabilites a specific solution is developing now. And in the case of people with visual disabilities, we conclude that universal design of virtual learning environments is possible if we follow this kind of recommendations.