Garry Cleere Head of Certification Programmes ECDL Foundation Dublin “Meeting Individual Needs” e-Assessment Conference

ECDL - Computer Skills For Life The ECDL certifies that the holder has knowledge of the essential concepts of IT and is able to use a personal computer and common computer applications at a recognised level of competence. What is ECDL? Test of practical skills and competencies ECDL is a recognised standard for computer literacy Single agreed vendor independent / generic syllabus International Support - computer societies, international bodies, governments Computer society ethos - CEPIS

A not-for-profit global governing body of the world’s leading computer skills certification programme Members - computer societies in Europe Established in January 1997 by CEPIS (Council of European Professional Informatics Societies) ECDL Foundation Overview

Help raise the general level of computer skills in society Establish a global benchmark for core computer skills competency and ICT knowledge Raise the level of ICT skills in the workplace Provide an essential qualification that allows all people to participate in the Information Society Be an inclusive programme, “Open to everyone” The Mission ECDL Foundation

Τhe ECDL-F Validation Process CEPIS (250,000 IT Professionals) National Computing Societies Practicing Computing Professionals National Licensees Test Centres / Courseware & Test Providers Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) Specialist Expert Groups ECDL Candidates Levels of Input

The ECDL Programme Map Levels of Certification

Community Snapshot Success & Development 140 Countries 42 Languages > 5,500,000 Candidates > 20,000,000 Tests > 20,000 Test Centres Multiple Products –Entry Level –Core V4.0 –Advanced –Specialised 1% of EUROPEAN CITIZENS ARE ECDL CANDIDATES (Eurobarometer)

ECDL Foundation CDL Concept – Finland, launched 1994 ECDL Task Force established 1995 Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS) Pilot studies using the translated Finnish questions in 4 countries in early 1996 The outcome of these pilots was to create an internationally agreed syllabus - version zero An international Working Group was set up to develop the syllabus, based on expert opinion and input from organisations- academic and business ECDL Launch – Sweden 1996 ECDL Foundation (10 European countries) Background

ECDL Background  To raise the level of competence in computing for all European citizens  To increase the productivity of all employees who need to use the computer in their work and to enable better returns from investments in Information Technology  To ensure all computer users understand the “Best Practices” and advantages of using a computer Objectives 1995

ECDL Foundation eEurope Action Plan ‘02 highlighted the need for Digital Literacy ESDIS Committee Oct ’02 recommended that ECDL: “be accepted as a Europe-wide basic IT accreditation scheme” High Level Task Force on Skills and Mobility objective: “that by ‘06 all 16 year olds in Member States will have acquire ICT skills” European eLearning Summit May ‘02 “the EC should build on successful current initiatives (including ECDL) in order to develop and update core digital literacy competence (including higher order skills) for Europe” ICT Literacy in Europe

The Need ICT Literacy is necessary for full participation in the Information Society ICT Literacy is necessary as a foundation to participate in eLearning ICT Literacy is the corner stone of Life Long Learning Measure and Mandate

ECDL for people with disabilities ECDL as computer literacy "for all" Is this true ?? What implications : Influence on Syllabus definition Influence on testing Influence on Standards and Procedures Challenge

Context Who does disability affect?  Vision impairment  Hearing impairment  Motor difficulties  Cognitive impairments and literacy Many have more than one disability 9.8 million people in the UK have a disability under the DDA. The groups that have specific Issues with web and intranet accessibility are: David Baines – Ability Net

The Future At least one in four adults is either disabled or close to someone who is. –Source: extrapolated from 2000 UK Population Estimates, Office for National Statistics. There are over 6.9 million disabled people of working age in Great Britain. They account for a fifth of the working population. Of these, just 3.3 million are in work (approximately12% of the workforce). –Source: Labour Force Survey – using DDA definition of disability and Fewer than 8% of disabled people use wheelchairs. –Source: Extrapolation from ONS Report 1995 quoted in NHS Executive Scale of the Issue

The Future “Accessibility is about designing so as many people as possible can access effectively and easily, independent of who they are or how they access” Accessibility

The Need “The basic philosophy of ECDL-PD is to keep the level of the certificate untouched. The focus is on better tools for training, teaching and learning and optimising the work environment” Four target Groups  Blind and visually impaired  Deaf and hard of hearing  Cognitive disabilities/ learning difficulties  Mobility/physical disabilities ECDL PD Project

( P1) Austrian Computer Society OCG (P2) University of Linz (P3) MediaLT (P4)Berufsbildungswerk Paulinenpflege (P5) Asphi Onlus (P6) bfi Steiermark (P7) ECDL Foundation (P8) European Disability Forum WP0: Management, Organisation WP1: Syllabus and Questions WP2: Teaching and Learning materials WP3: Accompanying Materials WP4: Centre assessment WP5: Evaluation WP6: Information, Dissemination campaign T1 Blind and Visually impaired T2 Deaf and hard of hearing T3 Cognitive disabilities T4 Physical disabilities ECDL PD Project

Project Partners

ECDL – PD deliverables Syllabus and Test evaluation Sample training materials target groups Information materials, check lists, Test Centre assessment Dissemination, awareness raising Project Deliverables

Syllabus For each target group each knowledge item of Syllabus 4 will be analysed and where is a need an additional information given Syllabus

Launch of Syllabus Version 4.0 Syllabus Version 4.0

Speech/ Braille display Training Materials

TELL-IT Multimedia, flexible and continuing training program for on-the-job training People with mobility and/or visual impairment Employment in the service provision sector and in helpdesk operations Course Materials

TELL-IT For the Individual –Enhancement of work opportunities, employability and professional satisfaction. For the training organisations –Enhancement of quality of training, opportunity for new training services, customer satisfaction and a closer link to the relevant business sector needs. For the service providers –Enhancement of their social profile by employing properly skilled and productive PSN. For society –Enhancement of equal opportunities for the disadvantaged citizens and, through it, reduction in the required social funds for their support and rehabilitation. Course Materials

Accessibility and ATES A special ATES is not desirable True “in application” systems could use the accessibility modes of the underlying software Questions must allow for all answers to be accepted The software must allow for pauses - stop and start the test The software must allow changing the time for tests, by the test supervisor Testing

Questions for ATES providers Does the ATES work with assistive technologies? (and if so - which ones ?) Where graphical / image components are part of the question items are alt labels applied in the item so that screen readers will work ? Are all the common short cut keys programmed in the ATES? Does tabbing functionality work in the ATES? Has an appropriate font style and sufficiently large size been used for question item stems in the tests? Is the language easy to understand? ATES Providers

Awareness Raising Papers Crete – HCI - International Conference on Human - Computer Interaction Dublin – AAATE - Assistive Technology – shaping the future Linz – ICCHP - International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs Glasgow - International Conference on Information and IT Literacy Belfast – CAL - CAL03: 21st Century Learning USA International Society for Technology in Education Academic Papers

Co-ordinate the activities to ensure that ECDL/ICDL can accommodate people with disabilities Work with the Syllabus and QTB groups Ensure Characterisation Test Template (CTT) addresses issues for all methods of testing Ensure the Quality Assurance is maintained while accommodating the requirements Work with specific projects, for example the ECDL- PD Project group ECDL-F PD Working Group

The Future Future Solutions Action to avoid discomfort Personal Needs and Computing Alternatives to standard keyboard and mouse Understanding accessibility options Inclusive systems

The Future Magnification Software

The Future Screen Readers

The Future Motor Disability Tools People with motor difficulties face challenges when navigating and interacting with web pages. Dexterity, fine motor and coordination difficulties can make using a standard keyboard or mouse difficult. Keyboard and mouse alternatives or voice recognition can be used to navigate and interact with web pages

The Future Alternative Pointing Devices Hand/Arm Adaptive technology

The Future Alternative Keyboards

ATES Courseware Disability Agencies ECDL-F PD Working Group - Meeting the Challenge of Computer Skills for All Committment

Design for All is more than design for disability. It recognises the rights of all people to barrier-free environments, products, services and systems. People who actively work with Design for All know that the future will prove the wisdom of the decisions they are taking today. Extracted from: and Design for All

Garry Cleere Head of Certification Programmes ECDL Foundation Contact Details