1. Workshop 5 Disabilities & Assistive Technology for the Web Web Content Accessibility Project Funded by BCcampus Natasha Boskic, Kirsten Bole, Nathan Hapke University of British Columbia

2. Workshop schedule Monday August 21 Basics of Web Accessibility Tuesday August 22 Coding an Accessible Website Wednesday August 23 Accessible Multimedia Thursday August 24 Creating Usable Content Friday August 25 Disabilities & Assistive Technology

3. The Plan Overview Types of disabilities Technologies that address them

4. What you’ll get out of this Understanding of disabilities and how they affect computer use Learn what technologies can be used to get around these obstacles Can take this knowledge into consideration when planning an online course or website… …and when accommodating a disabled student in a classroom course.

5. Types of disabilities Learning/Cognitive Visual Physical/Motor Hearing

6. Learning/Cognitive Learning & emotional disorders most common disability at UBC Learning disorders: dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD Cognitive disorders: brain injury, autism, dementia Most difficult to adapt for since there is so much variation

7. Difficulties experienced Attention & concentration Resolving written words Comprehension of written text Planning and time management Problem-solving

9. Everyday items Not all AT has to be high-tech Day planners Calculators Sticky notes & highlighters Spelling & grammar checkers

10. Assistive technology Similar to low-vision AT Screen reader reads text aloud Literacy software aids with pronunciation, highlights current line being read Predictive typing helps choose right word Time management software, palmtops Academic advice & consultation

12. Vision Most profoundly affected by Web Web is extremely visual Web developers need to accommodate needs more than for any other group

13. Vision Screen reader (JAWS) Screen magnifier (Zoomtext) Braille displays

14. Physical/motor Little or no control of hands Injury or condition Adaptive keyboards & pointing devices Built-in accessibility features for Windows and Mac Additional software

15. Adaptive keyboards Keyguards allow hands to rest on keys Mini-keyboards minimize hand motion Datahand uses finger movement only… orbitTouch needs no fine movement at all.

16. Adaptive pointing devices Many alternatives to the standard mouse Also can help prevent RSI Trackball Trackpad Graphics tablet

17. Hands-free computing Voice recognition software On-screen keyboard Head-tracking mouse Foot mouse

18. Accessibility features in OS Windows & Mac –Sticky keys / filter keys –Screen magnifiers –Mouse & cursor control –Keyboard navigation –Visual alert Windows –On-screen keyboard Mac –Speech recognition for specific commands

19. Hearing Web most beneficial to hearing-impaired Obstacles include videos, mp3s, podcasts Often not essential to course material Closed-captioning, transcripts Hearing aids

20. Try it yourself… Change the accessibility options in your OS. Can you navigate a web site by keyboard alone? Download & try a trial version of a screenreader. Can you understand a site read aloud without looking at the screen?

21. Thank you for coming! Natasha Boskic (natasha.boskic@ubc.ca)natasha.boskic@ubc.ca Kirsten Bole (kirsten.bole@ubc.ca)kirsten.bole@ubc.ca Nathan Hapke (nhapke@interchange.ubc.ca)nhapke@interchange.ubc.ca Thanks to the Neil Squire Foundation for introducing us to different types of assistive technology.