Designing accessible multimedia educational materials Piotr Brzoza, MSc Silesian University of Technology

OUR ACTIVITY study of assistive technologies and education of persons with disabilities supporting education of disabled students at university

EUROPEAN ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION NETWORK (EUAIN) 1. Executed by: Dedicon – library service for the visually impaired in Holland Federation of European Publishers (FEP) 2. Universities 3. Organizations of visually impaired persons 4. Silesian University of Technology

visually impaired persons have limited access to traditional printed materials increasing numbers of publishers, schools and universities offer educational materials in a digital form computers with assistive software enable persons with disabilities to obtain independent access to information ACCESIBILITY OF MATERIALS FOR DISABLED PERSONS

MAIN AIMS OF THE EUAIN PROJECT: 1. Integrating the participants of the publishing process in order to establish the rules of developing accessible electronic publications within Europe; 2. Developing network infrastructure as a platform of cooperation with multimedia publishers; 3. Developing the rules, formats and standards of presenting information to be available electronically and used on the local, regional, national and European level; 4. Stimulating and supporting the implementation of new distribution channels and commercial project facilitating the publishing process.

COMPUTERS ADJUSTED TO THE NEEDS OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS screen reader screen magnifier speech synthesizer optical character recognition (OCR) multimedia browser

ACCESS TO DIGITAL MATERIALS

ADAPTATION OF PRINTED MATERIALS TO THE NEEDS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES scanning recognition of writing correction formatting structure creation and conversion to the format accessible for persons with disabilities

ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF PRESENTING INFORMATION enlarged font Braille tactile graphics audiobooks multimedia presentations

ACCESSIBILITY OF MATERIALS FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES alternative access to contents searching for information navigation in the document structure

DIGITAL MATERIALS AVAILABLE FOR DISABLED PERSONS 1. Materials prepared in popular formats may be accessible for persons with disabilities : Doc. HTML PDF MP3 DAISY 2. Films and interactive multimedia presentations 3. Recommendations for the development of accessible materials Web Content Accessibility Guidelines ( Section 508 ( 4. Courses and materials focusing on the development of accessible materials

DEVELOPING DIGITAL MATERIALS selection of fonts editing creating a logical structure preparing alternative descriptions of graphic elements preparing embossed drawings preparing audio descriptions for embossed drawings preparing a recording of a text by a reader or speech synthesizer preparing alternative subtitles for films and multimedia presentations for persons with hearing or visual impairments

DAISY - multimedia book standard Easy navigation in the book structure Simultaneous presentation of a text, illustrations, recording of a text by a reader Readers (software and hardware) adjusted to the needs of persons with disabilities Libraries all over the world offer titles in the Daisy format.

DAISY BOOK READERS Victor Stream Plextalk Pocket ClassMate

DAISY BOOK READERS FOR COMPUTERS AND MOBILE PHONES 1. Book readers DaisyReader EasyReader AMIS Mobile DaisyReader 2. Functions reading charts reading mathematical formulas reading footnotes reading embossed information making bookmarks with comments

PREPARING DAISY MULTIMEDIA BOOKS 1. Dolphin Publisher preparing the text and illustrations preparing a logical structure recording the text by a reader synchronizing the text with the recording

Preparing Daisy multimedia books using speech synthesizers 1. Dolphin Converter recognition of writing correction and formatting preparing materials with enlarged font, in the Braille system preparing a Daisy multimedia book using a speech synthesizer

PREPARING DAISY MULTIMEDIA BOOKS USING MS WORD preparing the text and graphics, developing a logical structure in the editor saving documents in the Daisy standard (using Save As Daisy plug-in free of charge in MS WORD) conversion to the Daisy standard using Daisy Pipeline and a speech synthesizer

CENTRES FOR ADAPTING EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

ACTIVITY OF CENTRES FOR ADAPTING EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS 1.Adapting materials to the needs of persons with disabilities 2. Storing adapted materials and making them available 3.Exchange of information on adapted materials among centres for adapting educational materials

COOPERATION AND OBTAINING MATERIALS 1. Cooperation with publishers obtaining digital versions of publications copyright protection 2. Cooperation with teachers and authors recommendations for developing materials accessible for everyone (including persons with disabilities) 3. Cooperation with libraries digitalization of library resources digital publications accessibility for persons with disabilities 4. Cooperation with libraries for disabled persons

COORDINATION OF ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY CENTRES FOR ADAPTING EDUCATIOPNAL MATERIALS 1.Agreements on cooperation between centres and publishers 2.Standards of accessibility for materials designed for disabled persons 3.National archives of digital materials Storing digital materials obtained from publishers Proposals of legal regulations

National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) United States

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF DIGITAL MATERIALS 1.Harmonizing copyright law 2.International library of digital materials

CONTACT mgr inż. Piotr Brzoza Tel Politechnika Śląska ul. Akademicka Gliwice, PL