Accessing Materials: making appropriate and effective ‘reasonable’ adjustments for print impaired students in higher education. Emma Jane Rowlett The University of Nottingham

PowerPoint Accessibility Off-white background and navy blue text Large sans serif font (Verdana, min. 28pt font) and increased line spacing Key points on slides and read aloud Not too much information on each slide

Main Research Question “Do Higher Education Institutions make appropriate and effective reasonable adjustments for print impaired students?” What I am getting at is that it may be necessary to go beyond compliance with the law to actually meet the real needs of students.

Additional Questions 1 1) What reasonable adjustments do universities make? 2) What constraints affect the ability of staff to make appropriate and effective reasonable adjustments? 3) What issues do students face?

Additional Questions 2 4) What can be done about the answers to questions 2 and 3? 5) What are staff and student attitudes to disability, reasonable adjustments and the idea of moving beyond simple compliance with the law?

Data Collection Interviews in Four Universities chosen as contacts already exist –29 staff –14 students questionnaire via Dis-Forum JiscMail –7 students

Sampling Initial contact with gatekeeper lead to being sent to students or poster put up in disability service Snowball sampling for staff – gatekeepers or participants suggested other people who might be helpful

Areas Covered… the disability service the alterative formats service academic departments libraries and IT other areas of the university mentioned by students or staff informal support from course mates, family and friends

Size of Universities University A (2006-7) - 32,000 University B (2005-6) - 26,000 University C (2006-7) - 15,500 University D (2007-8) - 13,000 (Taken from website but rounded to protect anonymity)

Structure of Universities a disability service disability service advisers disability support workers an alternative formats service at least one library

Alternative Formats Service 1 Two positioned within disability service, two within library All four universities have someone responsible for alternative formats, might be producing formats themselves or managing disability support workers

Alternative Formats Service 2 All four universities can produce audio, Braille and large print, as well as printing on colour paper Not all formats regularly used Three of four universities say they sometimes contract work out, especially large quantities of Braille

Alternative Formats Service 3 Editable text needed – either electronically, from hard copy or typed in Electronic versions may be available on the web, or staff/students may need to contact publishers or authors –Likely to get PDF which needs OCR-ing and proofreading/error checking

Alternative Formats Service 4 Scanning and OCR-ing hard copies is more error prone than OCR-ing PDFs and needs more careful checking In some cases it is necessary to type in the information to be accessed, particularly if not available electronically and cannot be scanned e.g. poor quality or mathematics

Alternative Formats Service 5 Those who used this method said it is prone to delays and complications, and often they got no response back at all Three of the universities start by contacting publishers/authors, the fourth found this too difficult and time consuming and argued scanning is likely to be quicker

AFS – Problems 1 Difficulties getting electronic documents from publishers –Delays –Then usually PDFs which need OCR-ing and proofreading/checking for errors

AFS – Problems 2 Issues of copyright, especially if published internationally or for students with dyslexia Sometimes necessary to scan in hardcopies of documents –Then must carry out OCR process and proofread/check for errors

AFS – Problems 3 Diagrams, graphs, and pictures –May be ok to just describe in words –May need simplifying down to produce as tactile versions using: swell paper and heat machine, Tiger Embosser, German paper, etc

AFS – Problems 4 Producing mathematics is especially problematic –Not always available electronically in a format that can be used –Non-standard characters and layout difficult to scan and OCR –May need typing in by someone who knows maths well

AFS – Problems 5 –Non-linear notation particularly difficult for Braille and audio –Large print needs retypesetting/reformatting –Various types of Braille output (e.g. 6 or 8 dot, human readable TeX, maths Braille, etc) –MathML may be way forward but needs work

AFS - Outcomes Outcomes Delays getting materials to students Errors in documents Lack of choice of materials No documents - for two students, maths text books could not be produced at all as all time and effort went into producing lecture notes instead

Libraries I interviewed at least one member of staff from the library at each university –subject librarians –library managers –library and IT managers Also asked all students about library access and facilities

Student Attitudes Not all students had problems with the library Very independent, often did not need staff help But did not see libraries as playing a large part in the adjustments made for them

Computer Problems 1 Accessing ebooks, ejournals, library catalogue etc… –Best if web-based then can use assistive technology at home –Need to be accessible to screenreaders –If in library, need to be able to adjust settings (e.g. colours)

Computer Problems 2 –Ebooks, ejournals etc need to be able to be printed. Does license allow this, are printers available? –What happens if a student wants large print, … or Braille? –Does alternative formats service need to deal with this?

Issues Raised by Staff 1 Staff had more to say than students, but had often been in the university longer than the average student and had been involved with a large number of students over the years Some raised issues outside my remit (e.g. relating to wheelchair users) but mentioned here

Issues Raised by Staff 2 Accessibility of literature (e.g. podcasting) The accessibility of self checkout facilities –Is there an alternative? The accessibility of security entrances –How easy to see, card access, separate entrances for wheelchairs, desk too high, staff available to help?

Issues Raised by Staff 3 Furniture - ergonomics and layout Provision of rooms/spaces for certain types of study Accessibility of cataloguing system and clarity of labels on books and journals Extended library loans –Three out of four have these

To Discuss… Have these issues arisen in your own transcription service or library? If so, how have they been resolved? What issues/adjustments would you add to this list from your own experience?

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