Workshop 5Disabilities & Assistive

Technology for the Web

Web Content Accessibility Project

Funded by BCcampus

Natasha Boskic, Kirsten Bole, Nathan Hapke

University of British Columbia

Workshop schedule

• Monday August 21Basics of Web Accessibility

• Tuesday August 22Coding an Accessible Website

• Wednesday August 23Accessible Multimedia

• Thursday August 24Creating Usable Content

• Friday August 25Disabilities & Assistive Technology

The Plan

• Overview

• Types of disabilities

• Technologies that address them

What you’ll get out of this

• Understanding of disabilities and how they affect computer use

• Learn what technologies can be used to get around these obstacles

• Can take this knowledge into consideration when planning an online course or website…

• …and when accommodating a disabled student in a classroom course.

Types of disabilities

• Learning/Cognitive

• Visual

• Physical/Motor

• Hearing

Learning/Cognitive

• Learning & emotional disorders most common disability at UBC

• Learning disorders: dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD

• Cognitive disorders: brain injury, autism, dementia

• Most difficult to adapt for since there is so much variation

Difficulties experienced

• Attention & concentration

• Resolving written words

• Comprehension of written text

• Planning and time management

• Problem-solving

Everyday items

• Not all AT has to be high-tech

• Day planners

• Calculators

• Sticky notes & highlighters

• Spelling & grammar checkers

Assistive technology

• Similar to low-vision AT

• Screen reader reads text aloud

• Literacy software aids with pronunciation, highlights current line being read

• Predictive typing helps choose right word

• Time management software, palmtops

• Academic advice & consultation

Vision

• Most profoundly affected by Web

• Web is extremely visual

• Web developers need to accommodate needs more than for any other group

Vision

• Screen reader(JAWS)

• Screen magnifier(Zoomtext)

• Braille displays

Physical/motor

• Little or no control of hands

• Injury or condition

• Adaptive keyboards & pointing devices

• Built-in accessibility features for Windows and Mac

• Additional software

Adaptive keyboards

• Keyguards allow hands to rest on keys

• Mini-keyboards minimize hand motion

• Datahand uses finger movement only…

• orbitTouch needsno fine movementat all.

Adaptive pointing devices

• Many alternatives to the standard mouse

• Also can help prevent RSI

• Trackball

• Trackpad

• Graphics tablet

Hands-free computing

• Voice recognition software

• On-screen keyboard

• Head-tracking mouse

• Foot mouse

Accessibility features in OS

• Windows & Mac– Sticky keys / filter keys– Screen magnifiers– Mouse & cursor control– Keyboard navigation– Visual alert

• Windows– On-screen keyboard

• Mac– Speech recognition for specific commands

Hearing

• Web most beneficial to hearing-impaired

• Obstacles include videos, mp3s, podcasts

• Often not essential to course material

• Closed-captioning, transcripts

• Hearing aids

Try it yourself…

• Change the accessibility options in your OS.

• Can you navigate a web site by keyboard alone?

• Download & try a trial version of a screenreader. Can you understand a site read aloud without looking at the screen?

Thank you for coming!

• Natasha Boskic (natasha.boskic@ubc.ca)• Kirsten Bole (kirsten.bole@ubc.ca)• Nathan Hapke (nhapke@interchange.ubc.ca)

• Thanks to the Neil Squire Foundation for introducing us to different types of assistive technology.