Fellowship report - OERs and accessibility issues

Anna Gruszczynska

Sheffield Hallam University

The story so far...- Started off with the aim of exploring the visual aspects of OERs - changed track and became much more interested in accessibility issues

- The revised project examines approaches to accessibility within UKOER programme as well as barriers and enablers to embedding accessibility within OERs

- Accessibility refers to the ability of web-based resources to be viewed, navigated and read by everyone, including learners with additional needs, which may be due to auditory, visual, mobility, and/or cognitive impairments

- The ethos of open education and open access emphasises the need to widen access and remove educational barriers, including any barriers related to accessibility

Good intentionsScoping exercise: review of UKOER1 (29 projects) and UKOER2 (23 projects) plans and final reports

– accessibility was rarely mentioned or incorporated within the project workflow, usually as an afterthought, resulting in costly retrofitting

– if addressed at all, accessibility was frequently positioned within the realm of good intentions which were frequently thwarted by lack of necessary resources in terms of staff time or project funding

Expert interviews- "perfectly accessible" resource does not exist - necessary to negotiate learner expectations and provide for user preferences as much as possible

- bottom-up approach preferable to the impossible task of controlling resources centrally

- there is a need to ensure that creators are using metadata accurately so that it is easy to locate accessible practices

- another solution would be to rely on social networking tools to flag up resources which are accessible

- "openness allows you to find something that isn't inaccessible"

Accessibility and OERs survey

- Targeted education professionals - 94 respondents

- Majority based in the UK and involved in teaching and research within higher education sector

- Approximately half have worked on an OER project in the past three years

- Full report available from http://oeraccessibility.pbworks.com

Embedding accessibility within OER initiatives (1)

project plan resource creation project evaluation project report0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%

Embedding of accessibility within in-dividual elements of the OER projects

YesNo

• Assumed rather than embedded may be more accurate.

• The more honest answer is "sort of", for the most part.

• Not explicitly• I've just realized I have

never really considered accessibility in OERs I am repurposing - just assumed they would be OK as they are from a reputable source.

Embedding accessibility within OER initiatives (2)

– Lack of tech support for faculty to make online content accessible

– Accessibility issues can be very differently prioritised in resource challenged environments such as sub Saharan Africa

– Our requests for a more accessible interface to the repository delayed the project significantly as despite having produced many repositories it appeared that the developers had not considered accessibility in any depth. Our original plans to include an audio-recorded commentary with each resource deposited were not taken up by the resource providers.

Importance of accessibility features

When searching for resources

1. easily available alternative file formats

2. ability to customise settings

3. transcript

When designing resources

4. transcript

5. ability to customise settings

6. easily available alternative file formats

Factors influencing the choice of resource

1. clear description which indicated accessibility features

2. recommendation from colleague

3. endorsement by a specialist body (such as JISC TechDis)

Conclusions (1)

- There are a number of relatively simple strategies that could greatly enhance the accessibility of OERs

- There is a need to address accessibility features of platforms where OERs are deposited

- Resource creators should use metadata accurately so that it is easy to locate accessible practices

Conclusions (2)

- Responsibility for ensuring the accessibility of OERs should not be seen solely as that of resource creators - there is a need to provide adequate support and resources

- Accessibility issues are complex and should not be discussed in isolation from other OER-related issues such as copyright or academic practices related to sharing resources

- Accessibility issues should be explicitly addressed within UKOER projects

Comments? Questions?- You can contact me at a.gruszczynska@shu.ac.uk

- For more information, please visit http://oeraccessibility.pbworks.com/

- And finally, watch out for the ACTOER (Accessibility Challenges and Techniques for Open Educational Resources) JISCTechDis project http://actoer.referata.com