An Awareness Video on the Need for Accessible Information Technology in Education

• Pat Brown, AccessIT

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Rationale

• IT is ubiquitous in the schools and can increase access to education when developed correctly

  • Webpages

  • Multimedia

  • Educational software

• IT can reduce the effort required to participate

  • Attend classes remotely

  • Register online

  • Have text read to you rather than hold large textbook

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Rationale

• IT can also have the opposite effect

  • Reduce access

    • Inaccessible websites

    • Inaccessible tools (whiteboards, chat)

    • Software that requires a mouse

  • Increase effort

    • Websites that are difficult to understand with a screenreader

    • Materials uploaded only in pdf

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Goals

• Wanted to raise awareness about the need for accessible IT

• Wanted to focus on IT not AT

• Wanted it to be high interest and motivating

• Accessible

  • Captioned, audio described

• Short enough to be used in a variety of instructional settings (length=11:53)

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The Content

• We describe the potential accessible information technology (IT) holds for people with disabilities

• We then talk about barriers experienced by people with disabilities because IT is inaccessible.

• Finally, we discuss an approach to making changes to reduce these barriers.

• The concepts are conveyed using the voices of individuals with disabilities as well as experts in the field of assistive technology and information technology.

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Who Should See It?

• Higher education faculty, instructors, administration, staff,

• Community college instructors, administration, and staff,

• Educational technology staff and technical staff,

• K-12 teachers, administrators and staff,

• Policymakers,

• Parents,

• Advocates.

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How Can it be Used in Training?

• Needs to be matched with curriculum that focuses on more detail and technique

  • An introduction to face to face training

    • Lecture, course, unit

  • An introduction to web-based training

  • Prior to a policy development effort

  • To mobilize advocates and parents

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AccessIT Materials Appropriate for Follow-Up Training

• Introduction to Accessible IT in Education (Webcourse)

• Surfing the Web with a Screen Reader (Video)

• AccessIT Knowledge Base

• AccessibleU

• Information Technology in Education Accessibility Checklist

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Where Can I Get It?

• To order Accessible Information Technology in Education: Building Toward a Better Future, visit:

  • www.washington.edu/accessit/betterfuture.php.

• Cost: $10.00

  • DVD with talking menus

  • VHS with Closed Captioning

  • VHS with Audio Description and Closed Captioning

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Questions & Answers