I have long been a fan of JISC TechDis (especially when working in a college Learning Centre) and the work they do providing resources, advice and support to learning providers, with regard to making learning and teaching more accessible and inclusive. We (JISC RSC Wales) work closely with JISC TechDis and those of you who attended any of our recent events, especially ‘Barrier Busters: Accessibility and Inclusion‘ roadshows or ‘Learning in a Digital Wales‘, will know this and you, your organisation and your learners will hopefully have benefitted in some way.

JISC TechDis have just launched their new website (beta) at ALT-C 2010 and all I wanted to do in this brief blog post was take the opportunity to highlight the new website, which I think is a great improvement on the original because things are much easier to find, especially all of the really good stuff like the Accessibility Essentials series (making Word documents, presentations and pdfs more accessible). I also have to say that I’m envious of the handy ‘Accessibility’ button at the top right of the page, which opens an ‘Accessibility Tool’ menu, making it really easy to make changes to the text and background of the website

JISC TechDis say that the new website ‘will radically improve the accessibility of advice and resources by freshening and strengthening our web presence. At the same time, it will incorporate new content that, integrated with other aspects of our Service delivery, will help us meet the needs of our various stakeholders in a more efficient and cost effective way‘.  Sounds like a a good thing to me, so definitely one to keep your eye on!

(If you would like this blog post as an audio file please click this link or right click the link and choose to save the mp3 file. Please note: the audio file was created quite simply by pasting the text into Balabolka (one of the tools available as part of My Study Bar/EduApps) and saving as an mp3 audio file).

The term ‘augmented reality’(AR) refers to information about the real world that our senses can’t give us. But we can receive it electronically in real-time, often using internet-enabled mobile phones: a Commoncraft video gives a simple introduction to the topic.

my e-mail address!

QR (Quick Response) codes are one example of AR technology. These 2D graphics work in much the same way as bar-codes in supermarkets, and can be attached to buildings, art-works etc to provide information that can be ‘read’ by internet-enabled mobile devices with appropriate software. More information about QR codes, particularly in the context of learning resources, can be found in an RSC Wales Moodle area put together by Sam Oakley, and also a blog by Karl Drinkwater. Andrew Ramsden from the University of Bath has also recently looked at educational uses of QR codes – both those that have worked, and those that haven’t. QR codes also have important accessibility potential, and have featured in JISC Techdis HEAT projects.

 QR codes were just one of the topics covered in the presentation given by Steve Rose from the University of Exeter at the recent JISC/Escalate HE in FE conference at Warwick. He also outlined a similar process of image recognition employing MagicSymbol™ technology, but more appropriate for large display screens and/or projection. As with QR codes, a simple monochrome graphic is viewed- eg. by web-cam – and the output is a 3D image or video-sequence that may give the illusion of reality. MagicSymbols have been used to add features to toys – for example buildings growing out of piles of Lego™, and spiders on Top Trumps™ cards! They have also been used to provide information about  cars – colours, components, how they look whizzing around bends!

Layar example from http://eyetour.com

Steve also highlighted the use of AR browsers during his presentation: these are generally designed for mobile devices and create the same sort of effect as a sports results ‘ticker-tape’ on a TV screen, or data on altitude, speed etc superimposed on a pilot’s screen. They often provide location-based information eg. about  museums, restaurants, businesses. Some AR browsers, such as Kooaba, rely on image recognition, but there are also examples like Layar  which employ GPS and community-generated content. 

 iPhone applications such as ‘Nearest Tube’ (devised by Acrossair) also employ GPS, and ‘mash’ inputs from the phone’s camera, GPS and digital compass to detect the nearest tube station – this is then shown on the phone’s display. 

thanks to markstechnologynews

Because all these examples of AR increase the amount of available information, they provide considerable opportunities for teaching and learning – subject areas such as geography and tourism immediately come to mind, but all areas of study and practice could benefit. This is a rapidly developing area of technology : have you come across any other examples, and/or have suggestions about their use in education?

I haven’t blogged for some time because I have been very much taken up with recent JISC RSC Wales roadshows, particularly ‘Barrier Busters – Accessibility and Inclusion’ and ‘Learner Voice, Learner Choice’, both of which have really focused me on the idea of being more inclusive as a matter of course, rather than thinking about ‘accessibility and inclusion’ as something we just bolt on to what we are already doing.

JISC TechDis, who aim to be the leading educational advisory service, working across the UK, in the fields of accessibility and inclusion, believe that with regard to accessibility and inclusion ‘There should be a shift from specific support for disabled people to help them over institutional barriers, to a focus on reducing the institutional barriers in the first place.‘ Having delved deeper into JISC TechDis website and resources I have come to understand this as, that by changing the way you do some straightforward things you can automatically exclude less people from accessing your information, resources and services or put another way, you can be more inclusive.

A few of the key resources that I have been talking about at our events and using more actively to help me change my own practice to become more inclusive are:

Accessibility Essentials – a series of publications (paper, CD and online) about how to make your Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and pdfs more accessible. They have been round for a few years but have been recently updated for Microsoft Office 2007  and the full series can be found online here: www.techdis.ac.uk/accessibilityessentials.

As a result of becoming familiar with the straightforward guidelines in these publications, one of the key things that I have changed is the way I produce Word documents, which (now it is relatively easy to convert a Word document to a pdf) has also affected how accessible my subsequent pdf documents are. The user personalisation of pdfs section of the Accessibility Essentials pdf guide is also very useful if you want to know more about how accessible pdfs really are with their built in text reader, option to change backgound colours and fonts and easy navigation using bookmarks.

The realisation that most of us (without being aware of it) usually create Word docs (and presentations) based on what we like (prefered font styles, sizes, colours etc) not on what will be more inclusive for more learners (as described in the Accessibility Essentials guidelines) has been the key for the changes I have made here.

Portable, open source, free applications (software) have also been around for some time but with the advent of tools like AccessApps (a USB bundle of portable, open source free apps that support learner’s writing, reading and planning, as well as sensory, cognitive and physical difficulties) and subsequently LearnApps (apps specifically designed for learners), TeachApps (apps specifically designed for teachers) and now My Study Bar (see below), which are all bundled together and branded as EduApps, knowing about and accessing these applications (software) is much easier. Two of the newer tools for accessing a range of selected applications are:

• My Study Bar, a floating toolbar that can be used with many applications,  is the latest tool which helps overcome problems that students commonly experience with studying, reading and writing. Amongst other things it incorporates a talking dictionary, a screen tinter, word prediction, a screen reader and mind mapping software.

• JISC TechDis  have also developed their web browser toolbar, which provides a range of productivity and accessibility tools and aids to help users customise the way they view and interact with web pages.

The Online Accessibility Self Evaluation Service (OASES) from JISC TechDis is a tool to help you (or your department or organisation) identify areas of current strength and weakness in your practice in terms of accessibility and inclusion. As part of this tool JISC TechDis have proposed a simple model of ‘accessibility maturity’ to enable you to work out how at risk your organisation is of not meeting learners needs, based on how you already approach accessibility and inclusion. The highest level of risk equates to the organisations that react to learners needs as they happen, whereas the lowest level of risk is associated with working flexibly with learners and others, being prepared and providing a more inclusive experience all of the time anyway, which is where I guess we would all aspire to be.

Finally, if you would like this blog post as an audio file please click this link or right click the link and choose to save the mp3 file. Please note: the audio file was created quite simply by pasting the text into DSpeech (one of the tools available as part of EduApps) and saving as an mp3 audio file.

We (at RSC Wales) have just completed the first four of our series of roadshows and, now that I have recovered from all of the planning, travelling and delivering that was involved, I am taking a moment to reflect briefly on ‘Barrier Busters – Accessibility and Inclusion’.

In my opinion (and many others I’m sure) accessibility and inclusion is something that should be of interest to anyone involved with learners and our partner JISC service, JISC TechDis, believe (having complete a number of accessibility self evaluation surveys with a range of education organisations last year) that ‘there should be a shift from specific support for disabled people (to help them over institutional barriers) to a focus on reducing the institutional barriers in the first place’. Following JISC TechDis’ advice there are many small (and free) things you can do in order to make the whole learning experience more inclusive for learners. There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution but by making small changes to the things you already do, you can probably make that ‘size’ fit more learners than it currently does. Things like the way you present your Word documents/PowerPoints/pdfs, the variety of formats you make your resources available in and the open source and free tools you make available to your learners will all help to ‘bust’ those barriers to learning that many face. Raising awareness of these potential solutions has been the focus of the series of 4 ‘BarrierBusters – Accessibility & Inclusion’ roadshows that we have been running for the last 4 weeks.

Those of you who didn’t make it but who would like to share the resources from the event can do so by visiting our online information and resources area at: http://moodle.rsc-wales.ac.uk/aandi2010

Those who did make it to the event (over 110 people from FE, HE, WBL, ACL and schools) have given us very positive and constructive feedback, some of which I’ll share here:

Feedback via the text wall on the day:

• Discussion of barriers very interesting. Plenty of food for thought.
• Accessible word a whole new way of thinking! Lot of training now has to be provided but hopefully won’t take long to become second nature
• Access apps will be a really useful tool. Good to practice this afternoon
• Barriers exercise has got me thinking that one of the biggest barriers to my learners might be me!

Feedback via the evaluation form after the event. The most useful part of the day was …

• Exploring the idea that accessibility issues are not just linked to disability
• Excellent awareness raising of the materials that are available
• Learning how to make document such as Word and Acrobat Reader more accessible to learners
• Learning about AccessApps
• Making a video in Windows MovieMaker
• The practical activities – the workshop approach
• The opportunity to discuss issues raised with colleagues from different sectors of education

Following on from this last comment … this was the first cross sector event we have run and I will admit that whilst we were planning these roadshows we did have a tiny question in our minds as to whether the different sectors would work together … but of course they did! We are all focussed on improving the learning experience for all learners, after all, aren’t we?

Making a document available electronically is the first step to making it more accessible, largely due to all of the handy bits of technology that are available today, which put the control in the hands of the user … text to speech readers, zoom functions, ability to change the contrast of text and background colour … etc, etc. But there is much more that you can easily do when you are creating these documents to further improve their accessibility.

I have know the theory about making Word documents more accessible for several years now (thanks to JISC TechDis’ excellent Accessibility Essentials series) and I have applied a number of these theories for some time but in preparation for a session on making documents more accessible and also to test out the relatively new Accessibility Essentials for Office 2007, I have spent an hour or so going through ‘Writing Accessible Electronic Documents with Microsoft Word 2007‘ and having a go at creating a more accessible document … and it really is much less complicated than I thought it might be, especially as I have been changing my Word defaults as I go, so that from now on a lot of the accessibility features will automatically happen when I use Word.

Rather than repeat here what I did and how I did it I have provided links below to both the Word and pdf version of the (more accessible) document I created as I went along. I think that aside from reinforcing the things I knew, like using a sans serif font in a minimum size 12, making sure there was contrast between font and background, keeping underlining and using italic to a minimum, spacing the letters and lines appropriately and using meaningful images, the main thing I have learnt is that the structure of the document is key. I admit that I knew about this before but that I have always been wary of trying it out because I thought it was complicated and difficult … but today has proved to me that it isn’t … and that the benefits to the end user of having a more accessible, easier to navigate Word (and pdf) document far outweigh my initial reticence to have a go.

Have a look at the documents below and at the excellent Accessibility Essentials resources from JISC TechDis, than have a go yourself (if you aren’t already doing so, of course!).

Creating a more accessible Word document

Creating a more accessible pdf from a Word document

AccessApps, the award winning collection of opensource and freeware portable applications, has been something that we at RSC Wales have been showing and talking about to learning providers for some months now. As with anything it is great when you can see how someone has taken on board an idea you have introduced and taken it forward to the benefit of others … as illustrated by June Bridgman (and many others) at Coleg Gwent.

Since June was first introduced to AccessApps, during a visit to the college from RSC Wales in December 2008,  she has worked hard to ensure that management, tutors and support staff are all aware of its potential. More importantly (IMHO) she has also been using a number of the applications to benefit her learners.

All the information, including audio comments from 3 of the college’s learners, can be found here on the AccessApps at Coleg Gwent page of the Accessibility information and resources area in our Moodle.

If there are any other Welsh learning providers who are using AccessApps with their learners or staff then please let us know.

One of our partner regional support centres, RSC Scotland North & East, has been hard at work following the success of AccessApps and has now made EduApps available for anyone to access and use. But what are EduApps? They are a large collection of free, portable applications that can be used to support teaching and learning. EduApps is the collective term for three smaller collections of applications. These three collections are:

• LearnApps – free software that learners can use straightaway to support their learning
• TeachApps – includes software from LearnApps but also has free software specifically for teachers
• AccessApps -includes software from the other 2 Apps collections but also has specialist software to improve access or enable inclusion

For more information about EduApps, including a full list of the software that is available to download (and then carry with you on a portable USB stick wherever you go), visit the RSC Scotland N&E EduApps website www.eduapps.org

With the launch of Amazon’s new Kindle (currently only available in the USA) and Google’s Book Search service designed to run on i-Phone and Android phones E-books are getting a lot of press at the moment. Speaking at the launch of the Kindle, Amazon Founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos said: “Our vision is every book, ever printed in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds.” This is quite a commitment!

Recently Nintendo released their 100 Classic Book Collection which Contains 100 classic books from authors such as Austen, Dickens, and Shakespeare. You might think that the DS screen is a little small for reading books but we’ve tried it and it’s surprisingly easy particularly as you can change the text size.

So how can you jump on the band wagon? Well you don’t need to go out and buy a dedicated e-book reader although they are an excellent solution (if a little expensive at present).

Most “modern” devices including laptops, mobile phones, portable games consoles and e-book readers can display PDF documents. Some devices are more convenient than others; reading a complete book on a 5cm screen might be a little difficult for some but being able to search for relevant text or information on the go could be invaluable. Bite sized revision notes here we come! PDFs are also very accessible so they cover a lot of bases in one technology.

Another format that many devices have no problem reading is plain old text (.txt) files. Project Gutenberg and their affiliates have over 127,000 texts are available for free on their website. To search their database go here: http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/

If you prefer to listen to a book or need to make it into a podcast then you can convert it using free software such as DSpeech.  DSpeech will read to you or convert the text into an mp3 which can be loaded onto a computer, portable mp3 player, uploaded into Moodle or embedded into learning materials. DSpeech does sound a bit robotic at first but you do get used to it after a while. Other voices can be purchased from various companies a quick search engine trawl will find them.

Windows Vista may not be installed on the majority of computers in FE and HE organistations at the moment but it’s likely that Windows based computers bought outside of an organistaion will be of the Vista variety.

Microsoft has included a suite of accessibility applications and tools in its  operating systems since Windows 95. Windows Vista incorporates all these tools and more in the “Ease of Access Centre” providing a valuable resource for those of us with additional support needs. RSC Scotland have put together a list of guides on their website, just click on their logo below.