MAKING VIRTUAL LEARNING ACCESSIBLE FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

BY SCOTT READY

Online learning presents an array of challenges to any student. Screen fatigue, technical glitches, and the many distractions that come with learning from home are all too familiar to parents, pupils, and instructors. But for students with disabilities, the difficulties associated with remote instruction are often even more acute, compounded by barriers to accessibility.

Online learning presents an array of challenges to any student. Screen fatigue, technical glitches, and the many distractions that come with learning from home are all too familiar to parents, pupils, and instructors. But for students with disabilities, the difficulties associated with remote instruction are often even more acute, compounded by barriers to accessibility. One poignant example is students with visual impairments. Adapting virtual learning to meet these students' needs starts with recognizing that - as is the case with in-classroom learning - one size does not fit all in remote settings.

FINDING A FIT: Adapting virtual learning to meet the needs of students with visual impairments starts with recognizing that one size does not fit all in remote settings.

REMOTE ACCESS : THREE WAYS TO IMPROVE THE DISTANCE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Here are three key paths to accessibility to consider when it comes to students with visual impairments and online learning:

ACCESSIBLE DOCUMENTS

In order to guarantee that lessons are user-friendly for students of every stripe, instructors should ensure that all documents they are sharing on online platforms are accessible. That starts with paying attention to documents' format. For example, many assignments are uploaded as PDFs. But if a PDF document is not saved properly, it is saved as an image, rather than as a text-based document. The downside to this is that a document saved as an image cannot be read by a screen reader, which is a vital accessibility tool for the blind and visually impaired. Taking the time to verify that each document is screen reader-compatible can mean the difference between an accessible learning experience and a deeply frustrating, inequitable one.

INTUITIVE WEBSITE NAVIGATION

Just as most of the sighted population can read a PDF image as easily as they can a Word document, navigating websites with a variety of interfaces is generally a straightforward experience. Whether it's knowing where to click to move on to the next page or identify ing where to enter a search query, website navigation is generally intuitive for those with full visual faculties. But for the visually impaired — particularly students with loss of central vision or peripheral vision loss ("tunnel vision") — it's another story. This was driven home for me in a profound way while helping my grandson with his distance learning assignments at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. One of his teachers had placed the class's homework assignments on no fewer than four different locations on the class webpage. I immediately thought of how difficult it would be for a visually impaired student to navigate the site — and how the same phenomenon could hinder academic progress for countless students with visual challenges. How can teachers make web pages user-friendly for students of all visual abilities? Student-centered design can go a long way. During my years as a university professor, when building online courses, I would ask students of varying abilities to review all online materials and to identify any potential barriers to accessibility. Before finalizing the course materials, I would do my best to eliminate those barriers. What's more, designing virtual course materials with the visually impaired in mind can help all students navigate better and succeed academically — and it can be a great exercise for spurring teachers to think more deeply about how else they can calibrate the learning experience to optimally serve diverse groups of students.

EXTENDED AUDIO DESCRIPTIONS FOR VISUAL MEDIA

Whether online or in person, whenever teachers incorporate visual media into their lesson plans, it should be accompanied by extended audio descriptions for visually impaired students to better understand, appreciate, and absorb the material. It's important to distinguish between standard and extended audio. Whereas the former involves things like voiceovers that describe what is taking place in a particular scene, extended audio goes much deeper. Take for example a teacher showing his/her students a video about proper conduct on the playground. The video shows a child pushing a classmate and then running away. An extended audio description would help clarify why this video is being used and what the learning objectives are. Students do not need to know what color shirt the children are wearing or what the playground looks like — the kinds of information we would expect from standard audio descriptions. Instead, what they need to know is, "Johnny pushed Becky and then ran away." With extended audio, the video is stopped, and the audio description is inserted with the proper amount of time to convey the behavioral message in a clear way, uninhibited or diluted by superfluous information.

A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

With many school districts moving toward a hyflex (hybrid and flexible) model for the foreseeable future, accessibility for students of all backgrounds and abilities must be at the forefront of how learning materials are designed for all modes of instruction. While moving between in-person, remote, and hybrid learning has come with no shortage of challenges, there's another way to look at COVID-19's impact on education: a rare opportunity to think critically about new ways schools can foster a supportive and inclusive environment where all students have the tools needed to thrive. •

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Scott Ready is the Accessibility Evangelist and Director of Customer Success at leading AI-powered transcription and captioning platform Verbit ( verbit.ai). Ready has worked in the education industry for over 20 years and in the accessibility sector for over 35, having served in executive positions at leading EdTech company Blackboard as well as Spartanburg Community College. Ready's parents are both hearing impaired, and his first language was American Sign Language. Ready holds a BA in Business Administration from Central Missouri State University and an MA from Columbia International University.