Skills for Access

Author

Sidney Tyrrell, Coventry University

Key multimedia technology

PowerPoint; Impatica; screen readers; JAWS; screen magnification software; Lunar.

Specific Issues/Key Terms

Keyboard accessibility; non-visual accessibility; audio equivalents to text and graphics.

Introduction

Some years ago I experimented with the production of small animations to illustrate my teaching of quantitative methods. I realised though, with the advent of the Disabilities Discrimination Act Part IV, that these would present accessibility barriers to some students.

Using each slide in PowerPoint as an animation frame, as well as utilising PowerPoint's inbuilt animation facilities, and providing a voice over, enabled me to produce effective animations relatively easily. Impatica, a relatively cheap commercial package, was used to stream the presentations for delivery over the internet.

Project Aim

The aim is to provide a collection of many small accessible learning objects in a familiar medium. The advantage of a voice over, coordinated with each slide, is that this is helpful to dyslexics, and can be heard by those with visual impairments. The provision of forward and backward buttons enables the learner, if they wish, to take control and move at their own pace through the presentation. In the context of widening participation, and the transition into Higher Education (HE), this is particularly useful, offering the opportunity for the construction of small freestanding units to provide specific directed learning at a basic level in order to build the learner's confidence. The fact that they can be delivered over the internet adds to their potential as 'any time any place' learning.

The second aim is to provide teachers with a collection of many small accessible learning objects, giving them the freedom to choose just one or two, as appropriate, to embed within their own teaching resources, either as PowerPoint or as html.

Technology Used

Recent software developments have opened the way for easy development of animated multi-media presentations. The ubiquitous PowerPoint can be used to produce animations with voice over (giving effects similar to Flash but with considerably less effort). The files can be compressed using Impatica producing accessible materials, which can be viewed satisfactorily using a standard 56k modem without the need for any special viewing software.

The exciting potential of this approach is further enhanced by the facts that (a) it relies primarily on IT skills, such as use of PowerPoint, that are already widespread and (b) it is applicable to virtually all HE disciplines.

Accessibility Design Objectives

One of my students is registered blind, though does have some residual vision, and I was anxious to produce something that she could benefit from and which would be compatible with her screen reader, JAWS. The voice over does not add additional text so a deaf student would not miss out on additional information.

I also wanted to produce something that the student had control over. To me, the ability to pause and go back is a vital part of a useful learning object. Too often 'clever' technologies forget that we do not all possess high quality PC's with broadband internet access, but the impaticised files stream over a 56k modem and do not require a special viewer.

Project success

The project was successful, but other users should judge for themselves. There were some problems last year with Java and some versions of Microsoft XP but they seem to have been resolved.

My blind student reports: "I have viewed the Boxplot files using Internet Explorer and the original PowerPoint presentation. Both are accessible using JAWS screenreader, and Lunar (magnification). These files definitely have potential usefulness, as short explanations of useful topics.

My major difficulty was moving between slides, especially using the HTML version as the buttons were not accessible without sight, although it is more practical to do this using the original PowerPoint presentation in the form of a Slide Show view as it is possible to adjust the length of time that each slide is in focus and to review the slide using speech.

PowerPoint slides can be reviewed either using the Slide Show or Normal views. Colour contrast is also good as it is clearly visible if inverted in order to provide a less glary on-screen environment."

Reflections

Overall I am satisfied with the results especially as it uses relatively familiar technology, PowerPoint, and a relatively cheap commercial package to change these into web based resources. As such is it available to anyone. The next stage of my project is to embed these in a squeaky clean validated web page - and produce lots more with the assistance of other students with various disabilities.

See the Boxplot PowerPoint presentation - requires Java.