Usability for all: Towards improving the e-learning experience for visually impaired users Eva Patrํcia Gil Rodrํguez egilrod@uoc.edu Muriel Garreta Domingo murielgd@uoc.edu Jordi Planella Ribera jplanella@uoc.edu Magํ Almirall Hill malmirall@uoc.edu Lloren็ Sabat้ Jardํ lsabate@uoc.edu Agenda • Introduction • The Open University of Catalonia (UOC) • Our experience on accessibility and usability • Accessibility at UOC • The importance of the user experience • Theoretical conceptions of disabilities • Usability for all • Methodological design • Expected results 1. Introduction • New ICT provide us with the key elements to facilitate social inclusion. • However, if we cannot guarantee universal access and adapted designs to the needs of all different groups, we incur the risk of running into new kinds of social exclusion, known as the digital gap. • Of these groups, those with disabilities can easily find themselves excluded from the access to new technologies. This is especially true for people with visual impairment given the great importance images have in this Information Society. 2. The Open University of Catalonia • Created in 1995, the Open University of Catalonia is the first university based uniquely in virtual learning (e-learning). • UOC offers 19 official degrees, several graduate programs and post-graduate studies, and a PhD program. • UOC has more than 35,000 students and more than 1,500 people including instructional designers, teachers, tutors, academic and technical staff. • One of the goals of the university is to provide learning to groups traditionally excluded from formal education, such as long life learners and people with disabilities. 3. Our experience on accessibility and usability • Virtual Campus: We began our work in accessibility with an analysis to check that the virtual campus complied with accessibility standards. Currently our platform is compliant with these standards • Learning Materials: We are working on our learning materials by defining different output formats. We have developed output formats for classroom learning materials (audio, braille, etc.), specifically designed for students with visual disabilities. 4. The importance of the user experience • Both projects are extremely successful and helped us realize that the use of standards and devices does not guarantee by itself a satisfactory experience for users with a visual impairment. • Since compliance with accessibility standards together with the usage of adequate devices are not enough, we decided to move a step further: towards the improvement of the user experience 4. The importance of the user experience (II) • User experience is a term used to describe the overall experience and satisfaction a user has when using a product, service or system. • Accessibility standards do not guarantee that the navigating experience is going to be satisfactory (Lawton & Grossnickle, 2005). • Besides, the processing of the information depends on the way the information is accessed. 5. Theoretical conceptions of disabilities • Traditionally, studies have regarded disabilities from a medical perspective, from which they are understood to be individual pathologies. • However, various voices have started to opt for a new environmental model (Slatin, 2005) in which disabilities correspond with determined interactions that lead individuals to certain situations. • The environmental model considers disability a conjunction of restrictive conditions that emerge because society is not capable of satisfying the needs of those affected by a disability. 6. Proposal To enable access to virtual learning platforms and ensure a good user experience for the visually impaired, it is necessary to recognize : • The contexts in which these type of students carry out their learning and teaching. • The cognitive process that intervenes in their strategies at the time of learning the subject. • The appropriation that they have of technology. This allows us to better their experiences as users! 7. Usability for all • Our project aims to use ethnomethodological skills to obtain basic knowledge about the use of ICT and the requirements of visually impaired users, and to analyze the processes and contexts in different learning scenarios. • Such information can be translated into requirements of the functionalities of devices and into strong recommendations for the design of multimodal interfaces that take into account both the usability and the pedagogical objectives of the educative contents and tools. 7. Usability for all (II) • Through ethnographic methodologies we are able to obtain information about the learning experience for the visually impaired and therefore about their learning and technology requirements. • This information is then used to guide the design of an e-learning course material prototype, allowing us to take into account both usability and psycho-pedagogical aspects. 8. Methodological design • Analysis of the technological requirements and user profiles of visually impaired people in the different learning scenarios. • We will design a prototype of a learning material designed specifically for this collective. • This prototype will be assessed in a usability and accessibility laboratory specific to evaluate technological applications destined for visually impaired people. 9. Expected results • Analyze whether a universal design is possible or if the applications have to be designed specifically for the characteristics of the specific groups of users. • Obtain a theoretical basis to advance in e-inclusion and digital literacy without barriers.