Context of Use
Materials within the VLE will have a wide range of uses and contexts. Some will be specifically designed to be delivered in an online environment, others will be materials from lectures or classrooms that have been put up for students to refer to later. Some audiences are highly specialised and their needs known (such as password-protected modules) and others are publicly available. There are essentially four scenarios with relation to how the accessibility of materials within a VLE needs to be viewed.
Scenario 1. Materials created specially for online purposes, audience unfamiliar (e.g. a basic 'introduction to maths' course utilised by several faculties for first year students, or an online key skills support course). Because you have no idea of the needs of your students and will not be able to interact with them face to face, the highest technical standards need to apply in this arena. It may well be worth procuring specialist assistance to ensure the materials are as inclusively designed as possible. In this instance the guidelines for web content accessibility will be a useful aide and benchmark.
Scenario 2. Materials created specifically for online purposes, audience familiar (e.g. resources created specifically to encourage online discussion between a known set of students, or resources delivered to support the write-up of fieldwork). Because of the online nature of the materials high technical standards need to be applied, but where you know your audience it is possible to utilise resources that are inaccessible to some groups if they add value for some users without detracting from the experience of others.
Scenario 3. Materials created for a face to face environment, audience unfamiliar (e.g. a visiting speaker's supporting resources). Basic accessibility concerns should be addressed but potentially more important is the presenter's skill in engaging with a broad audience with a variety of needs, for example in describing the content of a slide where visually impaired learners may be present.
Scenario 4. Materials crated for a face to face environment, audience familiar (e.g. supporting resources for lab or seminar activities, resources for use in a lesson with an interactive whiteboard). Basic good inclusive practice should be employed in conjunction with experimentation with new types of media and resources that will make the material more accessible to all learners. Resources that work well for some but not others should still be used if more appropriate alternatives are available for those who need them.
When you are thinking about creating materials for your course that will be placed within a VLE, it is worthwhile considering:
the extent of the accessibility features within the VLE;
the assistive facilities for students at your institution.
For example, if your students have network access to a screen reader such as JAWS, then it would be an obvious adjustment for you to make your materials as compatible with JAWS as possible, and to offer alternatives when this is not possible. Similarly it may be possible for students at your institution to apply their own 'roving profile' to whichever PC they are using at the time; this means they can apply their chosen colour scheme, font size and type and so on, to whatever material they are viewing (providing the materials has been created in a way that allows them to do this). Contact your IT or student support departments to determine what facilities are offered to students. You could ask support staff at your institution to give you a demonstration of a screen reader. You can experience what it is like to have a screen reading actually reading some material from your VLE; this will give you some idea of the difficulties that can occur if materials are not created with accessibility in mind. It is also possible for you to download an evaluation copy of JAWS onto your PC so that you can check your materials yourself before they go live.
When you have discovered what technologies are available for students at your institution, the TechDis Technology Database) can be used to discover more about the technologies.
