Born Accessible SSP June 6, 2013
Page 2 Challenge: The Need 30 million Americans with print disabilities 15-20% in U.S. have language-based disability 285 million people with vision impairment worldwide 115% Increase in request for alternative materials at UC Berkeley in 4 years
Page 3 Challenge: Everyone’s a Content Creator $1.1 billion in new edtech financing in million Potential authors & publishers in the US 2500% more expensive to retrofit for accessibility from print (or print equivalents)
Page 4 A Critical Strategy All materials Born Digital Must be Born Accessible
Page 5 Benetech Global Literacy Initiatives Bookshare Service Accessible online library Scale, efficiency Getting books into students’ hands DIAGRAM Center: R&D Tools for accessible image creation Technical standards Research, training and best practice guidelines Reading Tools & Training Professional dev workshops Cloud-based bookshelf MP3 download Web Reader Born Accessible Content Tools Discovery Services
Page 6 Taking Steps Toward Born Accessible What can you do?
Page 7 What can you do? Production Make sure production practices enable accessibility.
Page 8 Accessible Content Highlights Structure Navigation Sections Text Reflowable Style/Content Formatting Tables & Lists Headers Ordering Math MathML Description Images Longdesc DIAGRAM Content Model Video Track: subtitles, description, etc. Accessible EPUB 3 Guidelines:
Page 9 The “Easy” Stuff: Structure & Textual Elements Use Real: Navigation Style sheets (separate from content) Text (not “fixed layout” pictures) Lists Tables with logical headers
Page 10 Images are Challenging (especially STEM)
Page 11 What is an Accessible Image? ● Provides different mode of access to visual information contained in an image ● Beyond just alt text!
Page 12 Accessible Image Example About this description Author: John Doe, Ph.D. in Water Engineering Target Age: 9-12 Target Grade: 4-7 Summary The image depicts the cycle of water evaporating, turning into clouds, falling back to earth in the form of precipitation and being filtered through sediment. Long Description The image depicts the natural process of evaporation and precipitation and how rain water gets filtered and cleansed through the earth's sediment. On the left-hand side of the image is a lake... A weather event such as a rainstorm eventually returns the precipitation to the ground... The natural filtering agents in the soil... Annotation added by teacher In the winter we get snow instead of rain. Simplified Language Description The image shows how water becomes clouds, then rain, and then gets cleaned by the soil. Tactile Image [Tactile image] In the upper left corner of the tactile… Simplified Image [Simplified image] Moving front the top left corner of the image You can add long descriptions to HTML 5!
Page 13 Poet: Navigate, Contextualize, Describe
Page 14 The Case for MathML ● Standard for math gaining traction globally ● National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standards Center recommends:...MathML be used to improve the accessibility of mathematical and scientific content in core instructional materials...as the most effective method of providing accessible print instructional materials involving mathematical and scientific content to students who are blind or who have print disabilities. ● Tools for accessible MathML rendering getting better
Page 15 Consider Your Authoring Environment ● Build or Borrow Checklists in the process –EPUB 3 Accessibility Guidelines: –Top 10 Tips for Accessible Content: for-creating-accessible-epub-3-files.html for-creating-accessible-epub-3-files.html ● W3C’s Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG): ● OER Publishing Tools are building in accessibility
Page 16 What can you do? Education Empower and educate your content creators.
Page 17 DIAGRAM Training and Research ● DIAGRAM webinars: practices/training.html practices/training.html ● Best Practice Guidelines –NCAM’s Effective Practices for Description of Science Content –Additional guidelines links on DIAGRAM site ● Provide guidance to authors so they know why and how!
Page 18 What can you do? Discovery Make sure your accessible content is discoverable. And vice versa.
Page 19 Discovery of Accessible Resources ● Accessibility Metadata Project
Page 20 Accessibility Metadata ● Metadata that tells users about accessibility features in content ● Helps users find content that works for them ● Early adopters in place now
Page 21 Metadata in Action: Educational Videos
Page 22 Discoverability Benefits of Accessibility ● Detailed image descriptions can be indexed and searched ● Registry or repository of accessible materials can be shared ● More upfront accessibility means easier and more widespread distribution ● Different modalities benefit everyone!
Page 23 What can you do? Make sure your production processes enable accessibility. ●Are you describing complex images? Are you using MathML? ●Check out our Top 10 Tips on Empower and educate your authors. ●Add accessibility tips to your authoring guidelines! Make your accessible content discoverable. ●Check out
Page 24 Thank You ● For more information: Anh Bui Director, Product Strategy for Global Literacy Director, DIAGRAM Center Benetech