ICT for Information Accessibility in Learning Marcella Turner-Cmuchal European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education

The Agency ● National networks in 28 European countries: Austria, Belgium (Flemish and French speaking communities), Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) ● Secretariat based in Odense, Denmark and Centre of Activity in Brussels, Belgium ● 17th year of operations

The Agency’s Mission ● Member countries’ platform for collaboration between professionals and decision-makers at both national and European levels, on policy and practice for inclusive education ● The ultimate aim is to improve educational policy and practice for learners with special educational needs ● This aim takes into account issues such as equal opportunities, accessibility, diversity education, the promotion of quality of education and respect of differences, whilst recognising that countries’ policies, practices and educational contexts also differ

Defining Terms ● Special Needs: (ISCED) individuals who for a wide variety of reasons, require additional support and adaptive pedagogical methods in order to participate… ● Accessibility: (UNESCO, 2006) to enable people with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life… access on an equal basis with others to the physical environment, transportation, information and communication technologies…

ICT in education for people with disabilities ● UN figures – half a billion people with disabilities worldwide ● 10% (a conservative estimate) of European population has some form of disability ● 2% - 18% of the total school population (temporary or permanent educational problems) ● ICT is increasingly seen as a major tool in meeting individual learning needs ● Information Society for All is far from a reality for all European school pupils

Disability and the Digital Divide ● People with disabilities are at risk of being doubly disadvantaged if their access to appropriate ICT is not supported ● They risk becoming one of the main groups experiencing the growing digital divide ● In addition, if some of their basic needs that could be addressed through the use of accessible information and adaptive technology are not be met, they risk further social exclusion

International Policy, Standards and Guidelines ● UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) ● WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) – Tunis Commitment (2005) ● WAI/W3C ● DAISY

European Policy ● Digital Agenda for Europe (2010) ● Action 63 (2012) ● Action 65 (2012) ● European Commission Conclusions on Accessible Information Society (2009) ● Standardisation Mandate 376 (2005) These policies refer mainly to web, public services, digital TV. They do not include electronic documents, audio and video material sofar.

Current policy ● ET 2020 Framework: – Strategic objective 2: Improving the quality and efficiency of education and training and – Strategic objective 3: Promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship. ● Opening up Education – Key transformative actions: – High-quality European OER must become more visible and accessible to all citizens – Connecting every school, ideally including connectivity to individual broadband, upgrade ICT equipment, and develop accessible, open learning repositories...

Agency ICT related work ● i-access: Accessible Information Provision for Lifelong learning: ● ● ICT in Education for People with Disabilities – Practice Review: ● in-Education-for-People-With-Disabilities/Review-of- Innovative-Practice ● ICT for Inclusion All take an educational not technological focus

i-access Project Aims: ● Raising awareness of the importance of providing information for learning which is accessible for all ● Develop recommendations for implementing accessibility policy for information provided for learning

i-access recommendations 7 key areas for recommendations agreed by experts across Europe: 1.Raising awareness and sensitising all stakeholders of the importance of i-access 2.Multi-stakeholder approach and International co-operation; 3.Accessibility issues covered in education and training for professionals in lifelong learning; 4.Accessibility issues covered in education and training for professionals in ICT; 5.Procurement; 6.Promoting research and developing an evidence base for future policy design, implementation and evaluation; 7.Monitoring of compliance to accessibility policy

Development of Guidelines Build on i-access recommendations

ICT for Information Accessibility in Learning - Follow up of the Accessible Information Provision for Lifelong Learning (i-access) project (2011) - January 2013 – December Supported under the Lifelong Learning Transversal Programme, Key Activity 3: Information and Communication Technologies - Network of partners

ICT for Information Accessibility in Learning Network of partners including: 1. European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education 2. DAISY 3. European Schoolnet 4. Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs 5. International Association of Universities 6. UNESCO

ICT4IAL Aims 1. To raise awareness and increase the visibility of the issue of accessible information provision and its relevance for equitable lifelong learning opportunities,

ICT4IAL Aims 2. Support accessible information provision within organisations through the: – Development of guidelines building on the recommendations for accessible information provision of the i-access project – Trialing of the guidelines within 3 organisations (EUN, IAU and the Agency) – Evaluating these guidelines and their implementation

ICT4IAL objectives 1. Knowledge exchange and networking 2. Developing and trialing of practical guidelines 3. Reflection and evaluation upon implementation 4. Validation of guidelines 5. Dissemination and exploitation of results

ICT4IAL Guidelines Elements of Information: ● Text accessibility ● Video accessibility ● Image accessibility ● Audio accessibility How information is rendered and delivered: – Mixed elements – Web based accessibility – Printed material

ICT4IAL Guidelines For each category the guidelines describe: ● What are the main challenges? ● What is needed for this element to be accessible? ● What resources can support making this information accessible? ● Exemplars of accessible information

Implementation Phase in 2014 European Schoolnet: ● Phase 1: accessibility of documents, video clips and images, supplying meta-data ● Phase 2: aiming to become a more accessible organisation The International Association of Universities: ● Accessibility of video, audio and texts ● University of Porto and Open University of Catalonia The Agency: ● All dissemination material of an Agency project will be produced as accessible material. Including web area, video material, publications and events ● A change management tool will be produced as EPUB3

A end-users perspective Inclusive education must become ‘normal’, but special skills must be learned by a lot of people to make that happen (Francesco).

More information European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education Østre Stationsvej 33 DK-5000 Odense C Denmark Marcella Turner-Cmuchal – agency.org This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.