Both Sides of the Fence: A Student and Professors Perspectives on Accessible Textbook

Both Sides of the Fence: A Student and Professors Perspectives on Accessible Textbook Kyle Slough Sloughk09@ecu.edu Melissa Engleman englemanm@ecu.edu Irene Howell Assistive Technology Center http://www.ecu.edu/cs-educ/ci/sped/at/atlab.cfm Greenville, NC

Presentation Overview • What is Accessible Digital Text? • Different Digital Text Formats • Strengths and Weakness of Digital Text Formats • How can a partnership between students, professors and Offices of Disability Support (ODS) help? • Information about our pilot study which examines the accessibility of course documents provided in university courses

Accessible Digital Text • How do you define Accessible Digital Text? • What is your role (e.g., student, professor, parent, service provider)?

Accessible Digital Text • The National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials (NIMAS) referrers to Accessible Digital Text as E-Text, which can be • “instantly increased in size, preferential color schemes can be applied, and letters, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and sections can be sequentially highlighted as text is read aloud.”

Accessible Digital Text • Congress refers to Accessible Digital Text as “e-book” format. • “Literary works distributed in e-book format when all existing e-book editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.” ((17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1); Exemption 4)

Accessible Digital Text • We envision Accessible Digital Text as a flexible form of digital text which allows the students to access the information in their preferred method without requiring additional steps. The text should allow for logical reading of paragraphs and should maintain the original form of the text.

Scenario: Student Carries All Responsibility for Accessibility • A first-year student with a print disability goes onto a BlackboardTM course and is able to navigate to their reading assignment using their assistive technology (AT) device. They download a PDF file of the reading but they cannot select the text in the file. Due to this they are not able to use their AT to access their reading. • What resources are available to the student? • What can the professor do help the student? • How can an office of disability services (ODS) assist the student?

Scenario • A professor posts a PowerPointTM slide presentation to a BlackboardTM course for students to read. The presentation has many different diagrams and images to help students understand the subject. • What access issues might this raise for students? • How can the professor help students access the information? • How can ODS assist the professors and students?

Scenario • It is late at night and a student is conducting research at the library. The student finds a journal article which is posted as an image file in the libraries digital holdings. • Why is this a problem? • What resources are available at your institution for the student to access the article? • How can ODS assist the student?

Scenario • A professor posts a digital copy of a reading assignment to BlackboardTM for their students to read. The file has digital text imbedded. The professor believes they have posted an accessible assignment. • What’s the problem? • What can the student do to help the professor? • What resources are available to professor? • How can ODS assist the professor in understanding what is accessible?

Scenario • A professor finds that one of the books which was assigned reading for a class is no longer available and chooses a different book. The student only has two weeks to get the reading assignment done. • What hurdles will the student face? • What can be done to prevent this sort of situation?

Scenario • A professor passes out a reading for an class exercise. The students are divided into groups by topic. In each group the students are assigned a different reading. The students were not informed that this exercise would occur. • What hurdles would a student face if the professor only provides a hard copy of the reading? • What if the professor post a digital copy ahead of time?

Different Formats • There are many different digital text formats and their level of accessibility varies • What formats do you think are accessible?

Common Digital Text formats • rtf -Rich Text Format File • txt- Plain Text File • Daisy- Digital Accessible Information System • Doc, docx, ppt or pptx- Microsoft Office Files • E-book formats- vary by provider (some proprietary) • PDF- Portable Document Format • HTML- HyperText Markup Language

Scenario • What format do you think is the most accessible? • What format is the least?

Strengths and Weakness of Digital Text Formats • rtf and txt- • files can be easily transferred to different computers and devices; but • they do not preserve the appearance of the print version • Daisy- • the structure and features are great, but • books are not widely available at this time • Microsoft OfficeTM files- • They have a common file format with some structure, but they don’t consistently maintain the structure of the print version

Strengths and Weakness of Digital Text Formats • E-Book- • Great digital representation of print version of text; but • accessibility is not always taken into account • PDF- • can recreate the exact format of the printed text; but • some versions don’t allow for the text to be transferred • HTML- • formats of web pages have some structure; but • accessibility is not always built in and readability by AT is not consistent

Partnership • A Partnership would help professors, students and ODS Professors ODS Digitally Accessible Campus Students

Responsibilities: Offices of Disability Services (ODS) • provide training to both the professors and students • provide information campus-wide about what resources are available • assist students ordering accessible text and scanning material when needed • constantly seek training for themselves, as technologies change so quickly

Responsibilities: Professors • pressure publishers to put texts in accessible formats by selecting books from publishers who provide accessible versions quickly and list books on digital book archives • ensure posted material is in an accessible format • seek continued training as technology and availability of accessible options change

Responsibilities: Students • Advocate for course material to be in accessible formats • Inform their professor and ODS when material is not accessible and of their struggles and needs • Seek training as technologies change

What could a partnership produce? • Increased access to digital text provided by publishers • Students with immediate access to all needed materials in classes, whether disabled or not • Responsibility shared across many instead of much being on the shoulders of entering freshmen, who may not be in a position to advocate for these needs. • Improved retention of students with disabilities in degree programs and grades

Current Research The pilot is currently in progress, at our campus. Course documents are examined from a stratified random sample of instructors’ course websites. The sample represents the entire university. The study will • describe accessibility of reading assignments posted in online course management systems for distance education courses; and • assess the accessibility of the reading assignments by using the copy and paste functions.

Current Research • The study will assess the accessibility of reading assignments by using the copy and paste functions. Reading assignments will be rated as: • not accessible (if the text is not selectable or cannot be copied and pasted), • accessible (if the text can be copied and pasted) or • ideally accessible (if the text can be selected using the control function to select sections of text and copied and pasted).

Current Research Our rationale for using the copy and paste functions is that for many of the free text to speech and screen reader programs this is the underlining function which text can be imported. While many programs can read and convert many different formats we believe that students and ODS should not have to incur the cost of buying programs. We will also track the formats of the files which are posted.

Current Research Results will lead to further study on a larger scale as well as recommendations for in-service training for professors, ODS and students on our home campus.

References and Resources • National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials (NIMAS) http://aim.cast.org/ • Canadian Council on Learning (CCL)http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/Home/index.html

Resources • Athens • Access Technologists Higher Education Network • http://www.athenpro.org/member • AHEAD • Association on Higher Education and Disability • http://www.ahead.org/resources • East Carolina University Graduate Certificate in Assistive Technology http://www.ecu.edu/educ/ci/sped/at/ • PEPNet • www.pepnet.org

Resources cont. • Link an spreadsheet detailing different Assistive Technology, Funding Sources and other resources. • http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AomYaPFK5E4QdFNCdG5MakZ1dzZZOGpzbzJ6dEQwX1E&hl=en

Both Sides of the Fence: A Student and Professors Perspectives on Accessible Textbook