30 April 2005
Written by Jessica Jarvis, CIPD Learning, Training and Development Adviser.
This feature originally appeared in Training Journal, in April 2005.
Advances in the design of e-learning are opening up huge possibilities for disabled people to gain better access to education and training. E-learning offers disabled learners new ways to learn because it is capable of placing learners at the centre of the process, giving them full control over the pace and structure of the learning. People can repeat sections until they are confident in their understanding and, if they get something wrong, people around them won't judge or laugh. E-learning is also flexible regarding time and place of learning, is scaleable for large numbers and is consistent - the computer never has a 'bad day'! Given these huge possibilities, it seems that the critical question is: Can e-learning actually deliver on its potential.
Year on year, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) research has shown that use of e-learning is steadily growing but in many ways it seems to have demonstrated more potential than reality. Progress has often been disappointing and, too often, e-learning is seen as an easy way of cutting training costs. Despite e-learning being covered by the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), there are still only low levels of compliance with accessibility standards. Much e-learning is therefore currently difficult for disabled people to use and access. A recent study by City University (London) provides a damning view of the situation. It found that, on average, only a quarter of e-learning content was properly tested.1 A recent survey by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) confirms this picture, finding that as many as 45 per cent of accessibility problems would not have been detected without user testing (that is, testing with 'real' people).
Why is e-learning not being designed in an accessible format? Well, the chief reason appears to be a lack of awareness among developers and buyers. Too little information is available to help organisations ensure that the content they develop or buy meets adequate accessibility standards. Furthermore, when budgets are tight and deadlines are looming, people may be tempted to drop parts of the design process such as user testing, which are critical to ensuring it is usable and accessible. Too often it is simply not seen as a priority.
Unhelpful negative attitudes are also pervasive. Many designers think (wrongly) that designing e-learning to be accessible hampers creativity. Valerie Almira, group e-learning manager at Centrica, says: 'Suppliers are not up to speed on how to develop e-learning that is both engaging and accessible. There should not be any compromise between creativity and compliance with accessibility standards.' This attitude may be due to a lack of awareness of what accessibility actually means in practice, as most issues can be addressed without any negative impact on creativity.
So although e-learning offers great possibilities for disabled learners, significant work needs to take place to raise the profile of the issue in the minds of developers, trainers and organisations in general. Awareness and knowledge must be built about what accessibility actually means in practice in order to allay fears that accessibility has to mean boring, non-creative design and extra expense.
Relevance
So why is this issue of growing relevance to the training community? The greatest driver for trainers to start thinking about it is that, quite simply, it is a legal obligation to ensure that any training being offered is equally accessible to disabled people. In the UK, e-learning is considered to be a service and is therefore covered by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995.2 To put it simply, according to UK law all education and training must now be designed with issues such as impaired vision, hearing and mobility in mind.
But aside from the legal obligations, organisations are missing a trick if they don't consider accessibility and usability issues. There is widespread agreement that adapting e-learning content for disabled learners is likely to benefit everyone. We all have different ways that we prefer to learn, so an inclusive strategy incorporating learning resources provided in different formats to suit different needs or preferences will help everyone. By making a little extra effort, benefits will be realised for a large number of employees, not just those with disabilities.
For employers, offering accessible e-learning opens up the possibility of providing more effective training to disabled (and non-disabled) staff to heighten their contribution to the organisation and make better use of talent within the current workforce. Being proactive in regard to accessibility issues also protects organisations from accusations of discrimination and demonstrates a commitment to acting in an inclusive and socially responsible manner.
Furthermore, media headlines frequently warn about looming talent shortages associated with demographic changes creating a shrinking talent pool and an ageing workforce. The vast majority of organisations are overlooking the fact that disabled people (of which, according to figures from the Office of the E-envoy, there are approximately 8.5 million in the UK) offer a vast untapped talent pool from which they can recruit, which could go a long way towards meeting the skills gaps that many industries are suffering. Many employers are beginning to realise that disabled people are an under-utilised resource of skills, which with a little extra support can offer a much broader talent pool from which to recruit. But for this to happen, employment services such as training and recruitment need to be designed to be adaptable to the needs of disabled people.
Inevitably, over time, legislation will enforce the accessibility of e-learning, but this is likely to be piecemeal and take some years. Since it is an issue that affects us all, a more sustainable approach would be for organisations to exploit an accessible e-learning strategy now, to ensure their practices comply with legislation to gain competitive advantage by retaining and having access to a larger talent pool as well as behaving in a socially responsible and equitable manner.
Hints and tips
Making e-learning accessible can seem like a complicated and daunting task. So where should you start? The good news is it need not always involve a large amount of money and resources; many common accessibility problems are easy to avoid (see the box entitled 'Impeding accessibility' on page 39) and often just require learning a bit more about the issue.
Pragmatism has a major part to play when thinking about the steps you are going to take. For example, a blind person is unlikely to insist that all e-learning is stripped of images and video because of his or her own impairment. And most people would not think it 'a reasonable adjustment' for organisations to make their entire e-learning back catalogue accessible immediately due to the significant costs and resources involved. But some thought needs to be given to helping people with disabilities enjoy a similar learning experience.
To kick off your thinking on these issues, take a look at the following basic tips, which attempt to offer some simple and practical steps.
Tip 1: Adopt an accessibility policy
Adopt an overall accessibility policy to cover all of your organisation's webbased information. Then, with all e-learning content, provide a prominent accessibility statement explaining what accessibility features are available. This will save a disabled user hunting for things that might not exist, and shows you are facing up to the issue. The vast majority of organisations are overlooking the fact that disabled people offer a vast untapped talent pool from which they can recruit giving greater
Tip 2: Tackle accessibility head on
The issue of accessibility needs to be confronted from the outset, as it is difficult and expensive to try to tack it onto a finished programme. Whenever possible, involve disabled learners in the process, identify where they have most problems and provide alternative solutions.
Tip 3: Use what's already in place
Help people to use the accessibility settings that are already in place. Not all users will know how to change settings (for example, font size) on their browsers, so consider providing these controls within your e-learning programme or provide a list of the available accessibility provisions in a prominent place on your intranet to guide people. Visit the DRC website (www.drc.org.uk) for a good example. Here, you'll find a prominent button, 'Access options', on the homepage that describes all the accessibility functionality offered on the website. The DRC website can be adapted to meet a variety of needs. For example, you can change the text size and colour scheme, use software to enable you to listen to the text, and choose options to navigate around the site using drop-down menus and access keys. The settings an individual selects are saved for future visits. Most importantly, the information about the accessibility features is placed so it can clearly be seen and where users will easily be able to find it.
Tip 4: Be an educated buyer of e-learning
There is no substitute for experience, so talk to colleagues or peers who have previously commissioned e-learning. Try to avoid using ambiguous blanket terms like 'accessible' when briefing suppliers; instead, define what you require from the point of view of proving compliance. For example, you might request WCAG AA3 compliance, which can be measured by checking off each checkpoint individually.
Tip 5: Think about other software systems
E-learning is often accessed through another software system (for example, a learner management system or an internal intranet) and supported by collaborative tools. Don't forget that all these peripheral systems will need to follow the same requirements as the e-learning, otherwise it will still fail as an accessible learning experience.
Tip 6: Involve learners
Learner-centred design, as the name suggests, means providing a suitable and effective learning experience, so it¡¯s crucial to include end users in the process. This doesn¡¯t have to entail regular formal user trials, though this would clearly be ideal. But it is surprising how many informal opportunities exist to check elements of a design, which can often lead to enormous accessibility and usability benefits.
Tip 7: Make the case for usable and accessible e-learning
Finally, HRD practitioners need to make the case to senior decision makers in their organisation about prioritising the issue of the accessibility of learning and training (with a particular emphasis on e-learning). This will be necessary for practitioners to receive time and resources to dedicate to this area. The information in the new CIPD report can help you to make the case for designing accessible, e-learning that will hopefully allow you to persuade senior decision makers about the importance of this issue. Surely it makes sense for organisations to spend a little extra time and money ensuring that the training you offer is usable, accessible and provides an effective learning experience for your whole workforce.
Conclusion
Overall, e-learning has been shown to have enormous potential, not least to those learners with disabilities. But it is widely accepted that this potential has so far rarely been realised. Increasingly, there are excellent examples of well designed accessible e-learning but, as it stands, these are exceptions.
Making e-learning accessible is not inherently difficult or expensive; it just requires a little forethought. Small adjustments can make an enormous difference, and if the issue is considered at the outset of the design of an e-learning programme then it can simply form a basic part of the design. Trainers and e-learning developers are critical to raising awareness of this issue. They can exert pressure on developers by insisting on minimum expected standards in accessibility during the procurement stage. If enough organisations do this, then it will become the standard approach across the industry. Interestingly, products designed for people with disabilities often become best of class. Two recent examples are mobile phones with large buttons, which have become a best seller for BT, and the Tesco website built for accessibility that has frequently proved very popular with non-disabled users. This is because these products are often easier to use because they include fewer unnecessary features. So, although perhaps driven by the threat of legislation, it's clear that ensuring e-learning is accessible to disabled learners is not a minority issue and will ultimately help everyone to receive a more user-friendly learning experience.
Testing for accessibility
Any person can test the basic accessibility of e-learning programmes, so why not have a go yourself. By acting as a test user, you can learn valuable information about the usability and accessibility of your e-learning. Remember that modest actions can make a massive difference!
To run your test, consider the following questions.
- Does keyboard input work throughout?
This is easy to test. Simply unplug the mouse and see if you can still get through all of the e-learning content.
- Can people customise the e-learning with their preferred screen settings such as font type and size or background colours? And are users allowed to override screen settings with their own customised settings?
Try changing the settings and see how you get on.
- Is your e-learning content accessible?
Check this by actually trying to use it with a screen-reader and zoom software.
- Does the e-learning follow widely available best-practice guidelines? In essence do you find the design simple, clear and consistent?
- Are all the visual media (pictures, diagrams, and so on) correctly marked up so a screenreader can provide audio descriptions? And are these descriptions meaningful?
- To test this close your eyes, listen and see if they make sense.
- Is all audio media available in transcript?
- How many different learning options to similar content do you offer your learners? Can you feasibly add alternatives within the budget?
- This is important as it allows users to pick the options best suited to their needs.
- Does the e-learning put users under time pressure to complete e-learning activities or tasks? This can cause stress in disabled learners and is best avoided or alternative provisions made so that it doesn't present an unfair disadvantage.
Key learning points
- Making e-learning accessible will improve the learning experience for everyone.
- Aside from moral and legal obligations to provide effective training to disabled people, there is a clear business case for making all training, including e-learning, accessible.
- One of the best accessibility tools is a human being; asking a disabled user is the most effective approach to ensuring accessibility.
- Trainers can play an important role in raising awareness and exerting pressure in terms of minimum expected standards of accessibility during procurement.
For more information, guidance and practical help, visit the CIPD website at www.cipd.co.uk/changeagendas to obtain a free download of 'Inclusive learning for all'.
Impeding accessibility: Top 10 things to avoid.
1. Avoid using colour or context to define links – for example, 'Click on the red box', 'Click here'. Instructions such as these are likely to be useless to someone using a screen-reader or who is colour-blind.
2. Avoid meaningless (or, indeed, missing) ALT tags on graphics for example, 'man and woman'. Clearly explain the purpose of each graphic. If graphics have no purpose, then consider removing them.
3. Avoid fixed font size and positioning that prevents users from adjusting the presentation to suit their needs.
4. Avoid omitting punctuation on bullet lists. The absence of a full stop or other appropriate punctuation can mean that a screenreader might read the bullets as one long, confusing sentence.
5. Avoid blinking, scrolling or animated text. These can be hard to read, distracting and disturbing to some individuals.
6. Avoid time-limited responses. If they are felt to be essential, make provision for all those to whom they will present an unfair disadvantage – for example, people with cognitive disabilities such as dyslexia.
7. Avoid inserting text inside a graphic. It is inaccessible to people using screen readers.
8. Avoid mouse-only navigation. Ensure that all interactions can equally be achieved using the keyboard.
9. Avoid including features offered by the latest technology. While it may be tempting to include these features, remember that they might make the content inaccessible to those using older IT systems.
10. Avoid inconsistent navigation and/or layout. Try to make navigation and layout simple, clear and consistent so that users quickly become familiar with moving around the e-learning programme.