1. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Accessible to All? Jo Greenwell – Head of Public Services AbilityNet Joe Chidzik – Usability and Accessibility Consultant Simon Sheldrake - NIACE

2. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Moodle Stands for "Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment." Moodle is an open source course management system, originally developed by Martin Dougiamas. It is used by thousands of educational institutions around the world to provide an organized interface for e-learning, or learning over the Internet. Moodle allows educators to create online courses, which students can access as a virtual classroom. A typical Moodle home page will include a list of participants (including the teacher and students) and a calendar with a course schedule and list of assignments. Other Moodle features include online quizzes, forums, where students can post comments and ask questions, glossaries of terms, and links to other Web resources

3. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Accessible for all? Accessibility and Digital Inclusion – the case for design for all VLEs and accessibility, a TechDis perspective – the case for design for the many

4. Adapting Technology Changing Lives How accessible is your moodle? Can you change screen colours? And font size? Is there clear and consistent Navigation? Can you navigate using just the keyboard? Is there an accessibility page with help for users ? Do links have clear names and images have descriptions?

5. Adapting Technology Changing Lives The Law 1995 DDA 2003 DDA Part 3 Access to goods and services Concept of Reasonable Adjustment Concept of anticipatory action 2003 DDA Part 4 for Post 16 Education 2006 Disability Equality Duty for Public Bodies have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons encourage participation by disabled persons in public life; and take steps to take account of disabled persons disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons.

6. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Disability Equality Duty Under the new legislation, public bodies are required to dismantle institutional barriers to disability equality. This means scrutinising all activities including teaching, training and learning activities, …. website design …. Most barriers experienced by disabled people are caused by the attitudes of others. The reason for this is that people in general do not ask disabled people what they require to be able to participate

7. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Site navigation With a consistent and intuitive navigation scheme in place users should easily be able to tell: Where they are currently Where they can go next – use a breadcrumb trail and sidebars Where they can go for help

8. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Fonts and Colours Font Style should be sans-serif this not this Users to be able to change font size See resources on CD Users to be able to change page colours See resources on CD Use external tools such as TechDis Toolbar

9. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Keyboard Only Access Check for keyboard only access Use Tab Shift Tab Space Enter Escape Alt + Tab Set up a skip links button

10. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Accessibility page and help

11. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Labelling links and images Ensure that all links make sense out of context e.g. link text should not be click here or similar. For instance, For more information on Spain, click here would be better than Find out more information about Spain. If pictures are used to convey information add Alt Text to them so visually impaired screen reader users can read a description of the picture Picture of reduced sized keyboard with no numberpad

12. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Voice Support Consider adding built in speech to support second language learners and those with literacy needs. It should be easy to use and easy to turn off See BrowseAloud in action on the NIACE website See ReadSpeak at http://www.readspeaker.com/default____219.as px http://www.readspeaker.com/default____219.as px

13. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Making Information Easier to Understand Some less obvious tips to think about when preparing learning material

14. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Keep using the same word – residence, home, property Active voice – The dog saw the cat not The cat was seen by the dog Avoid double negatives – Its not unusual … Its usual … Nominalisation – You should make an application You should apply Personal reference – I, we, you – but dont use too many Prefer numbers to words – 6 people rather than six people

15. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Use the 12 hour clock – maybe even show a clock face? For percentages consider 1 out of 10 – easier than 10% Punctuation – use less : ; -, - and miss out full stops sometimes Use examples – … transport, such as cars and buses, … Keep line length to less than 60 letters or spaces – jagged right edge, no hyphens Avoid using BLOCK CAPITALS, italics and underlining too often

16. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Clear fonts and sizes The write stuff- Comic Sans The write stuff - Verdana The write stuff - Palatino The write stuff - Arial The write stuff- Times New Roman

17. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Jargon Buster! With regard to As a consequence of Concerning Following Ascertain Documentation Beginning / Commencing About Because About After Find out Documents / Papers Starting

18. Adapting Technology Changing Lives http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/ – SMOG tool www.clearforall.co.ukwww.clearforall.co.uk – currently working on new site www.mencap.org.uk www.easyinfo.org.uk Plain English Guide By Martin Cutts Published by OUP in 1999 ISBN 0-19-866243-2 Some useful resources

19. Adapting Technology Changing Lives Resources on CD

20. Adapting Technology Changing Lives What Next? Look at NIACE website for developments Contact AbilityNet on 0800 269545 or at www.abilitynet.org.uk for information on: - Designing accessible E learning and Web Sites - Courses on Assistive Technology - Assessment of staff and learners with assistive technology needs - Service Level Agreements to support learners and staff - Assistive Technology Kitswww.abilitynet.org.uk