Accessibility of NLN Materials Andrew Dudfield Technical Officer NLN Materials Team “NLN Round 4 materials aim to reach as many learners as possible in as an engaging a way as possible”

Introduction What is Becta? Who am I? What is the NLN Materials Project? How we addressed accessibility issues.

What is Becta? Becta is the Government's key partner in the strategic development and delivery of its information and communications technology (ICT) and e- learning strategy for the schools and the learning and skills sectors. Our strategic aims: improve learning and teaching through the effective and embedded use of ICT; increase the number of educational organisations making effective, innovative and sustainable use of ICT; improve the availability and use of high quality educational content; develop a coherent, sustainable and dependable ICT infrastructure for education.

Who Am I? Andy Dudfield. Technical Officer. 18 Months at Becta.

What are The NLN Materials? 800 hours of engaging on line learning. Over 1500 Standards compliant Learning Objects. Delivered to the FE and ACL sectors.

NLN Materials. small units of online learning, practice & assessment, using suitable media, interactive, engaging, motivating, and fun. fit for purpose, interoperable and accessible, flexible and reusable.

The Standards. IMS Content Packages; SCORM; QTI; IMS Metadata. Aim “To work in ALL standards compliant VLE’s”.

Discussion. Are VLE’s accessible?

A Virtual Learning Environment

Crazy about the CAT. Heavily customised version of Granada Learning’s LearnWise. Working on making it more accessible, simple steps have been taken.

Appropriate Interactive Media. e-Learning. Interactive Learning Objects. Web delivered.

The Technologies The NLN Materials Use. HTML Java Script Shockwave Video Flash

Discussion. Is Flash accessible?

Flash Requirements. “The aim of implementing new technologies is to push forward the standards used in the industry in order to reach more learners. These technologies occasionally fail and in this situation we may have no option but to fall back to the ‘text equivalent’ solution. However, the NLN Round 4 materials aim to reach as many learners as possible in as an engaging a way as possible. Therefore all Flash employed in the NLN Round 4 materials must be produced using Flash MX2004 for the Flash 7 plug-in.”

FE Focused Materials. Office Admin Levels 1 and 2. Catering Levels 3 and 4. Construction Levels 2 and 3. General Art & Design Levels 1-4. Biology with Sports Science Levels 2 and 3. Hair & Beauty Levels 2 and 3 Maths Level 3 (AS/A2). Psychology Level 3 (AS/A2). Geography Level 3 (AS/A2). Physics Level 3 (AS/A2). English Level 3 (AS/A2). Sociology Level 3 (AS/A2). History Level 3 (AS/A2). Key Skills Level 3. Basic Skills: Numeracy Level 1 and Entry level 3. Basic Skills: Literacy Level 1.

ACL focused materials. ESOL Entry levels 1, 2, 3. ESOL Levels 1 and 2. Family Learning with pre-school children with opportunities for adults to progress to level 2. Family learning with school age children with opportunities for adults to progress level 2. Learning to learn Entry levels 1, 2 and 3. Making learning work for you Levels 1 and 2. Modern foreign languages (generic materials) Levels 1 and 2.

Fit for purpose. Wide range of subject areas. All ages of learners. Many levels of learning. Range of ICT expertise. Learning materials loaded.Learning materials loaded The CAT.The CAT

Our Learners. Visually impaired learners. Hearing impaired learners. Motor impaired learners. Learners with cognitive difficulties. Requirements seek to ensure that an equal learning experience is available to all.

How did we do it? We worked with expert partners: RNC, TechDis. to develop a framework or requirements based upon user experiences, including the use of assistive technologies.

Navigation Specification

Preferences

Specification. Text within the Preferences page must be 12pt black text in the standard font from the parent Learning Object. Menu Items and Navigation Items should be easy to identify and not merge with the graphic design of the screen. Do not use the iframe, floating Div or other layering techniques to imitate a pop-up window. All users must be able to access the materials using only a keyboard. Materials should be keyboard accessible to learners using a screenreader or Text-To-Speech software.

Discussion. We believe a prescriptive accessibility specification promotes innovation…

Web Standards. Materials must meet W3C WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines priority 1 and should consider priority 2. Comply to and validate all material’s HTML, CSS, XML, SMIL or any other media against the appropriate W3C standard.

Discussion. Are web standards suitable for the learning object model?

Testing. How would you test this?

How we tested this. Users. Automated.

Automated Testing. Windows XP / Internet Explorer 6 / Flash 7 plug-in. Jaws version Supernova version 6.01 HAL and LUNA elements. How did we do it? 35 individual, process driven tests, that each object must pass.

Test Criteria.

Discussion We believe we are moving in the right direction… What do you think? How would you have done it?

Any Questions? Contact: Materials website: Documents Available: Technical and Accessibility Specification; Accessibility Testing Script. Thanks for listening.