ICT4IAL European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education Marcella Turner-Cmuchal and Klára Somogyi

Disability and the Digital Divide People with disabilities are at risk of being doubly disadvantaged if their access to appropriate ICT is not supported They risk becoming one of the main groups experiencing the growing digital divide In addition, if some of their basic needs that could be addressed through the use of adaptive technology are not met, they risk further social exclusion

ICT in education for learners with disabilities and SEN UN figures – one billion people with disabilities worldwide 10% (a conservative estimate) of European population has some form of disability 2% - 18% of the total school population (temporary or permanent educational needs) ICT is increasingly seen as a major tool in meeting all learners’ individual learning needs Knowledge Society for All is far from a reality for all European school pupils

Why is accessibility of information relevant for learning? Learners with disabilities and special needs must be able to access information relevant for learning in order to be present in a learning environment, participate in learning and to achieve. In meeting the specific needs of this learner group, a wider access for ALL learners is provided.

ICT as an opportunity... There are two strong arguments for providing accessible information for learning – 1. Access to information is a human right 2. Providing accessible information is more economic Accessible ICT has the potential to create synergies, which may equally benefit people with disabilities and special needs, the ageing population as well as all members of society.

ICT for Information Accessibility in Learning Network of partners including: 1. European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education 2. DAISY 3. European Schoolnet 4. Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs 5. International Association of Universities 6. UNESCO

ICT4IAL objectives 1. Knowledge exchange and networking 2. Developing and trialing of practical guidelines 3. Reflection and evaluation upon implementation 4. Validation of guidelines 5. Dissemination and exploitation of results

ICT4IAL Guidelines Elements of Information: Text accessibility Video accessibility Image accessibility Audio accessibility How information is rendered and delivered: Mixed elements Web based accessibility Printed material

Implementation within the Agency To implement the guidelines the EA will be focusing on the project outputs of a previous Agency project: ICT for Inclusion. Some of the project materials to be made accessible are: 1.A project web area with country reports and resources 2.A synthesis report in English and translated into 21 other languages 3.A policy monitoring framework tool Some of these project outputs will be produced in EPUB format

Efforts to improve accessibility Setting up Word and Power Point templates to be used by all staff Creating a Style Guide which is continuously updated, containing formatting and accessibility requirements Providing guidance at trainings or individually for specific issues Ensuring the accessibility of the physical environment and materials at meetings

Implication for production processes The necessity for continuous staff training, learning and keeping up to date, acquiring software and learning how to use it Solving the issue of translation of alt text into all Agency languages Taking accessibility into account at the initial (graphic) design phase Extensive accessibility checking procedures for all public files (PDFs, PPTs, Word)

‘Equity Impact’ For the potential equity impact of open education initiatives to be realised, one key requirement must be fulfilled – that of ensuring a genuinely inclusive ICT infrastructure that is based upon universal design principles at all levels Open access educational resources will only be truly open if they are designed to be accessible and inclusive for all learners

A end-user’s perspective Inclusive education must become ‘normal’, but special skills must be learned by a lot of people to make that happen (Francesco, European Hearing, 2011).

More information European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education Østre Stationsvej 33 DK-5000 Odense C Denmark Marcella Turner-Cmuchal Klára Somogyi