Making IT more Accessible

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Talk:Webquests > Assessing your e-learning Progress > E-learning Technology > Help talk:Contents > Making IT more Accessible

Introduction

The work of technical support teams has a wide ranging impact on the learner’s experience. The ease with which a learner can access curriculum resources, information and software can be a significant component of their success. For learners with particular access needs, the technical support can make the difference between accessing the curriculum or being largely excluded. So from a practical perspective what can we do to make IT more accessible? Rather than this section of the wiki focusing on specific software or hardware products we will touch upon on the basic concepts of making access to IT more flexible.

Personalising the User Experience

Sample user scenario – “It takes me ages to get set up to work on the computers. I have to get a friend to go behind the desk to plug my tracker ball into the usb ports and then I need to change the screen properties to suit my eyesight.”

Many learners like to personalise their view of the screen. For some the ability to personalise the font sizes, colours or styles has a big impact on their productivity – even to the point of excluding them from learning. Personalisation can be achieved in a range of ways. At the very simplest level this could include a browser based plug in that allows users to quickly alter the browser settings. These are available commercially at reasonable rates or you could try the free JISC TechDis toolbar available from the JISC TechDis website http://www.techdis.ac.uk/gettoolbar. Please note that this only works on Internet Explorer.

At the other end of the scale, roaming profiles provides a high level of personalisation. Between these ends of the spectrum lie a number of approaches to providing different degrees of user personalisation.

More information – see JISC TechDis/AbilityNet article at http://www.techdis.ac.uk/gettechnical.

Students with dyslexia or photophobia may need white text on a blue background to be able to read more than a paragraph of text on screen. Students with physical disabilities may need to have their keyboard slowed down so they don’t get unwanted key repeats. This type of change can make the difference to the student staying on the course and achieving what they set out to do rather than dropping out and experiencing failure - and the college potentially facing a court case under the Disability Discrimination Act DDA

Personalised Hardware

Having a range of alternative keyboards and mice available for students to use is important. Students need to see what is available; this could be done with pictures on the Intranet or in the learning centre, or equipment on a display stand or by having them plugged into a workstation. Several colleges (eg Dumfries and Galloway and South Trafford) advertise on their websites what hardware and software is available. There may be scope for institutions collaborating with other providers or charities so that a wider range of options is available for students to trial.

Information on Assistive technologies

AbilityNet factsheets cover a range of disabilities and associated technologies http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/athome_factsheets

The JISC TechDis Database allows you to search on type of disability, type of environment to be used in or an alternative search. It includes product descriptions and supplier information http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=3_1.

See also the excellent database on the Open University inclusive teaching site http://www.open.ac.uk/inclusiveteaching/index.php.

Accessibility Tips:

Don‘t put all adaptive hardware and software on one machine; a blind screen reader user will almost certainly not need a big keys keyboard and won’t need a mouse let alone a trackball.

Make sure that computers with specialist hardware or software are labelled or indicated on the Intranet so staff and students know about them.

Discuss with disabled learners how adaptive hardware should be distributed around the site. Some prefer it all in one area (for example a learning support room) where they can guarantee access and help if required. Others see this approach as ghetto-isation and argue strongly for wider integration of alternative solutions into mainstream computer areas. There is no right answer for everyone but at least make sure users have been involved in whatever you end up with.

Consider allowing users with particular access needs to be able to utilise USB pen drives. This can be managed via group policies and strict in-house policies if security is you main reason for barring the use of USB pen drives.

Operating System changes

Very often changes can be made at the level of the operating system or individual applications. For example a student with photophobia who needs a dark background with white text on it in all applications would need to make the changes to system display properties. For this type of student a mandatory or roaming profile could be setup so that whenever they log on the screen colors are set for them. These are discussed more fully in the section on Integrating User Needs with Security. The user can make their own changes if there is access to the Control Panel or Accessibility wizard in Windows. For these changes and changes to Linux or the Mac operating systems see http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility.

Integrating user needs with security

For most technical teams, security is one of the biggest issues in their risk assessment; systems tend to be locked down to minimise security risks. Increasingly, though, the balance of risks is changing. A system that is locked down for security may be less personaliseable for a learner with specific access needs. Disability legislation has encouraged disabled people to raise their sights and be more ambitious about education and career choices, confident that they will get the support they need. Systems that lack flexibility may avoid security risks but may be more exposed to disability litigation. New risk assessments need to look broadly at both software and policy systems that balance learner’s right to reasonable adjustment with the learner’s right to secure, reliable IT services. More information – see JISC TechDis/AbilityNet article at www.techdis.ac.uk/gettechnical.

Sample user scenario – “I hate using the computer at college because the support worker has to log on for me using her login so we can change the screen settings and reinstall the magnification software. Then I have to save onto her network space and she emails me the work I did. By the time I’ve done this three times for three different lessons I’m ready to scream.”

From a learner’s point of view, a student with a physical disability who needs to adjust the keyboard repeat rate so as to make the system usable, will be unable to so if the control panel is locked down. Relying on a member of staff, who may have access rights, to do this takes away independence and relies on staff who may not be available or may not have the requisite knowledge.

Balancing the needs of the student and those of the security of the network can be an issue but one that needs to be resolved before the student gives up and either goes elsewhere or makes a complaint. It is important to tell students if the control panel is locked down and to clearly offer an alternative to both staff and students who require access for bona fide reasons.

One way to do this is to use software profiles. A profile specific to an individual can also be used to pre load any specialist software such as magnification or screen reading software as soon as windows starts. The former DRC Disability Rights Commission (DCR)now the Equality and Human Rights Commission consider the use of profiles an important accessibility tool.

Local user profiles

Local user profiles are used with computers not on a network and can be set up for a variety of users. Working in conjunction with learning support you could train them to set up profiles for users, associated with their logon. This could be for each person who uses the computer. Alternatively they can create a series of set logons with names like high visibility, large mouse pointer or slow keyboard and these can be used by users who need that feature. For more information on local user profiles see

Microsoft Help System.
User Data and Settings Management - Microsoft technical paper

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/xpusrdat.mspx.

Mandatory Profiles

These are sometimes called group or generic profiles and your students probably have one assigning them to a particular group with access rights to certain applications etc. They may also store Internet and email settings. AbilityNet created a set of profiles for Warwickshire libraries. These consisted 6 generic profiles including a High Visibility and low resolution one. If a user needed to access the library computer and they needed high visibility screen colors they typed in high visibility at the screen logon and the screen was automatically set up for them. This works well for a transient user group who do not need personalised file storage, if the student needs access to more resources then their access needs should be saved with their logon profile. In a Mandatory profile any changes the user is able to make via the control panel such as changing the screen colour or adjusting the keyboard response rate, will not be saved when they log off. If they need to make these changes they will either need to make the changes each time they log on (if possible) or talk to the Network administrator to get them to make the changes. This could be done by an email form on the intranet that is sent to both the technical team and learning support. See previous section “Inclusion and support team help request mechanisms” for further ideas on providing support. A more flexible approach would be to offer roaming profiles to those who need them.

Roaming Profiles

These save any changes the user makes such as window colour or slower keyboard response and they are loaded the next time the user logs on. Other items that are saved include:

Windows Explorer settings.
Taskbar settings.
Printer settings.
All network printer connections.
Control Panel.
All user-defined settings made in the Control Panel.
Accessories.
All user-specific application settings affecting the Windows environment, including: Calculator, Clock, Notepad, Paint, and HyperTerminal, among others.
Application Settings.

Roaming profiles can use up disk space but that is becoming cheaper and more plentiful as time passes. They can slow down the logon time BUT for some users they can make the difference between being able to use a computer or not, for example where the control panel has been locked down and the user cannot change the desktop to suit their needs. Where changes need to be made and require knowledge or dexterity to make them, having the changes loaded in a profile makes the computer usable. There are plenty of Internet based articles on how to set up and manage roaming profiles. To rule out roaming profiles could be denying users access to computer systems that everyone else easily accesses. Requesting a roaming profile could be done over the Intranet and monitored to make sure it is not being abused. One network administrator monitors how the roaming profiles are used on his network and if abused withdraws the privilege. There is also specialist software that allows you to monitor roaming profiles, their size etc.

For more information on Network Profiles