=Paper= {{Paper |id=Vol-143/paper-8 |storemode=property |title=Learner-centred Accessibility for Interoperable Web-based Educational Systems |pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-143/paper08.pdf |volume=Vol-143 |authors=Liddy Nevile,Martyn Cooper,Andy Heath,Madeleine Rothberg,Jutta Treviranus }} ==Learner-centred Accessibility for Interoperable Web-based Educational Systems== https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-143/paper08.pdf
             Learner-centred Accessibility for Interoperable
                   Web-based Educational Systems

              Liddy Nevile                                Martyn Cooper                                Andy Heath
           La Trobe University                            Open University                      Sheffield-Hallam University
                Bundoora                                   Walton House                              Howard Street,
            Victoria, Australia                            Milton Keynes                              Sheffield, UK
            +61 3 9479 1111                             +44 (0) 1908 274066                      + 44 (0) 114 2 255555
   liddy@sunriseresearch.org                        m.cooper@open.ac.uk                          ak.heath@shu.ac.uk

        Madeleine Rothberg                               Jutta Treviranus
           CPB/WGBH NCAM                                University of Toronto
          125 Western Avenue                             130 St. George St
            Boston, MA 02134                                  Toronto
            +1 617 300 3400                              +1 416 978-5240
madeleine_rothberg@wgbh.org jutta.treviranus@utoronto.ca

ABSTRACT                                                              Keywords
This paper describes the need for an information model and            E-learning systems, accessibility, learner profiles, AccessForAll
specifications that support a new strategy for delivering
accessible computer-based resources to learners based on their        1. INTRODUCTION
specific needs and preferences in the circumstances in which
                                                                      This paper describes the requirements, model and specifications
they are operating. The strategy augments the universal
                                                                      for a new strategy for delivering accessible computer-based
accessibility of resources model to enable systems to focus on
                                                                      resources to learners based on their immediate specific needs
individual learners and their particular accessibility needs and
                                                                      and preferences. There are many reasons why learners have
preferences. A set of specifications known as the AccessForAll
                                                                      different needs and preferences with respect to their use of a
specifications is proposed.
                                                                      computer, including because they have disabilities. Instead of
Categories and Subject Descriptors                                    classifying people by their disabilities, this new approach
                                                                      emphasizes the resulting needs in an information model for
H.1.2 (User/Machine Systems): Human factors, human
information processing                                                formal structured descriptions of them. It then provides a
                                                                      complementary formal, structured information model for
H.3.7 (Digital Libraries): collection, dissemination, standards,      describing the characteristics of resources required for the
user issues                                                           matching process. The aim is to make it easy to record this
                                                                      information and to have it in a form that will make it the most
H.3.3 (Information Search and Retrieval): retrieval models,           useful and interoperable.
selection process
                                                                      This work builds on work being done primarily by the World
H.3.5 (Online Information Services): data sharing, Web-based          Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative
services                                                              (W3C/WAI) [1] to determine how to make resources as
                                                                      accessible as possible. The focus of the new work is how to
General Terms                                                         make sure that accessibility is learner-centered and supportive of
Management, Human Factors, Standardization.                           good educational practices. The distinguishing feature of the
                                                                      current work is that it provides an approach that assembles
                                                                      distributed content into accessible resources and so is not
                                                                      dependent upon the universal accessibility of the original
                                                                      resource.
                                                                      The specifications for a common description language, while
                                                                      initiated in the educational community, are suitable for any user
                                                                      in any computer-mediated context. These contexts may include
                                                                      e-government, e-commerce, e-health and more. Their use in
                                                                      education will be enhanced if there are accessibility descriptions
                                                                      of resources available to be used in education even if that was
not their initial purpose. The specifications can be used in a         The third approach differs from the first two in a number of
number of ways, including: to provide information about how to         ways. Accessibility requirements are met not by a single
configure workstations or software applications, to configure the      resource but by a resource system. Rather than a single resource
display and control of on-line resources, to search for and            or a choice between two resource configurations, there can be as
retrieve appropriate resources, to help evaluate the suitability of    many configurations as there are learners. The ability of the
resources for a learner, and in the aggregation of resources.          computer mediated environment to transform the presentation,
An extra value of the specifications described will be in what is      change the method of control, to disaggregate and re-aggregate
known as the network effects: the more people use the                  resources and to supplement resources is capitalized upon to
specifications, the more there will be opportunities for               match resource presentation, organization, control and content to
interchange of resources or resource components, and the more          the needs of each individual learner. This is known as the
opportunities there are, the more accessibility there will be for      AccessForAll approach.
learners.                                                              For a network delivery system to match learner needs with the
                                                                       appropriate configuration of a resource, two kinds of
2. OVERVIEW                                                            descriptions are required: a description of the learner’s
Virtually any student, irrespective of any disability, can be          preferences or needs and a description of the resource’s relevant
enabled to effectively interact with a computer. Some students         characteristics. These two descriptions are the subject of the
with disabilities require alternative access systems, usually          AccessForAll specifications [4]. The Accessibility for Learner
referred to as “assistive technology,” to enable them to do this       Information Profiles specification (AccLIP) is a specification for
and others need the way content is presented to them by the            describing a learner’s needs and preferences and the
computer to be appropriate or they may need to interact with the       AccessForAll Meta-data specification (AccMD) is a
computer using methods other than the conventional keyboard            corresponding specification for description of the resource.
and mouse. There are well-established principles for how to            The AccessForAll specifications were developed by IMS Global
promote accessibility in software design and electronic content        Learning Consortium; the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
[2]. These promote compatibility with assistive technology and         Accessibility Working Group, and others.
ensure that different ways of interacting with the computer can
be accommodated.                                                       2.1 Accessibility for people with disabilities
There are a number of approaches to making networked                   It is not the purpose of this paper to give an introduction to
resources accessible, whether on the Internet or on an Intranet.       accessibility. The authors and numerous others have done that
                                                                       many times. In order to understand the rationale for this work,
The first and most common approach is to create a single               however, it is important to realize that virtually anyone,
resource (Web site, Web application) that meets all the                irrespective of disability can be enabled to use computers. They
accessibility requirements. Such a resource is known as a              just require one sense (visual, aural, or tactile) that they can use
universally accessible resource. While this approach would work        to interpret the output from the computer and control input to the
well in many situations,, it is not often that the resource is fully   computer. Most people with disabilities are able to employ
‘universally accessible’, especially if it contains interactive        technical aids usually referred to as assistive technology. These
components. Worse, so-called universally accessible resources          include screen readers that can transform well-formatted text
are so judged by conformance to W3C accessibility                      into synthesized speech; screen magnifiers that enlarge the
conformance and this approach is not infallible, as the guidelines     display in a well-managed way; and alternative input devices
are not ‘perfect’. There are examples of when the guidelines can       that replace or augment the conventional keyboard and mouse.
be followed without the resource actually being accessible as          Other people require content on the computer to be presented to
expected and there are many vagaries due to lack of attention to       them in a particular way. For example, they may find text much
usability principles that also account for lack of satisfactory        easier to read if it is presented in a high contrast as yellow on
access [3]. Indeed, the resource may be accessible to everyone,        black and in a particular font. Others will, of course, prefer
but optimal for no one. Often, resource components that are very       alternative fonts and color schemes. Sometimes only a part of
effective, entertaining or efficient for some but not all learners     the content is not accessible to a learner and they require the
are rejected or not displayed. New technologies and techniques         same information to be presented in an alternative way. For
are often not used for fear that they will not meet the                example, a blind person may not be able to access video material
requirements.                                                          but can benefit from an audio description of the same material or
The second approach used by a number of educational content            a deaf person can benefit from captions (sub-titles) that replace
providers is to create two versions of the resource: a media rich      the dialogue. It should be stressed that not all such requirements
version and an “accessible version,” which is stripped of all          arise from a disability but can also be because of the
media that may cause accessibility problems. While this solves         circumstances the computer is being used in. For example,
some of the problems with the first approach, it can also cause        when working in a large lecture theatre, a noisy environment,
other problems. In some cases, the accessible version is not           hands free, or on a small screen PDA.
maintained as well as the default version, giving learners with
disabilities an out-of-date, different view of the information.        2.2 The value of the accessibility agenda
More often, students who perhaps need more assistance get less         There are many well-documented arguments for why web
because they are using the impoverished version of the resource.       content and service providers in general, should be concerned
The notion that learners with disabilities are a homogenous            about accessibility [5]. Major arguments are often cited; social
group that is well served by a single bland version of a resource      responsibility, market-share, financial benefits and legal
is also flawed.                                                        liability. By not dealing with accessibility issues a provider
                                                                       excludes a large number of people from using their site.
Recent research in the US for Microsoft has shown that 60%             Most resources consist of multiple objects combined
  of the working community would benefit from accessible               into what are commonly known as pages.
  content. Of these, perhaps 10% have no access unless the             Sometimes this is done once and there is a static
   content and services are fully accessible. The moral and            version available and sometimes it is done
    market arguments are obvious. Those who do provide                 dynamically for the learner. What is unusual about
accessible resources will have exclusive access to a significant       the new accessibility approach is that the objects that
sector of the market. In Australia in 2004, a large publishing            Figure 1: The AccessForAll profile criteria
 house re-built their website to make it fully accessible. They
have reported that they now save $1,000,000 in transmission
    costs per year [6]. Finally, in many countries there is
increasingly strict legislation requiring access for all citizens
and in education, the standard is often quite demanding and
      the consequences of failing can be expensive anti-
                   discrimination penalties.
In education, where the requirements are usually more
demanding, many countries are now practicing what is
sometimes called ‘inclusive’ education that aims to include and
provide equally for all potential students. Lack of accessibility is
a serious problem.

2.3 Describing Learner Needs and
Preferences
The AccessForAll approach involves specifications for
describing learner preferences and needs that define a functional
description of how a learner prefers to have information
presented, how they wish to control any function in the
application and what supplementary or alternative content they
wish to have available. This requirement for functional
specifications is based on the philosophy that disability is a
mismatch between a learner’s needs and preferences and what
they are presented with. It is an artifact of the relationship
between a learner and an interface or application. Thus a learner
who is blind does not have a disability in an audio environment
but a learner who is using a computer without speakers or a
headphone does.
This description should be created by learners or by their
assistants, usually with a simple preference wizard. It should be
of needs and preferences that are essential to a learner’s
functioning as a consequence of their having a disability or it
may be that the circumstances, devices, or other factors have led
to the mismatch between them and the resources they wish to
use. Each learner may need more than one description of needs
and preferences or accessibility profiles to accommodate their
changing needs within different contexts. A learner may have
one profile for work and another for home if the bandwidth is
different, for example. In addition, these profiles should be able
to be changed to suit immediate needs and preferences, to
accommodate changes in circumstances or context.

2.4 Describing Resource Characteristics:
The Content Model
The AccessForAll approach requires finer than usual details
with respect to embedded objects and for the replacement of
objects within resources where the originals are not suitable on a
case-by-case basis. This is made possible by describing the
resources in terms of their modalities – auditory, visual, tactile,
and text. In addition, the separation between primary and
equivalent resources is necessary to permit flexible dis-
aggregation and re-aggregation to meet the individual needs.
 comprise the version of the resource that is sent to the learner     time of a request from a learner. Static content publishing, the
need not be located in the same place, that is, they may be           former, requires the content to be in a universally accessible
distributed. In fact, the original composite resource may contain     form, replete with all the alternatives that may be needed within
objects that need to be transformed, replaced or augmented; the       the single resource. Dynamic publishing allows for the
equivalent objects used for replacing or augmenting may have          customization of the resource, with objects being selected as
been created in the original authoring process, or in response to     they are combined. This form of publishing is easier to adapt to
some other learner’s difficulties with the original resource.         the new approach. It is also a more common form of publishing
Resources and objects within resources should be classified into      for larger educational institutions.
two categories: primary and equivalent. Most resources are            2.5.4 Transforming, Supplementing and Replacing
primary resources and require a simple set of statements: how         The process of selection of objects for combination into
transformable is this resource, what access modality is used          resources according to learner profiles can take three forms:
(vision, hearing, text literacy or touch) and what is the location    transforming, supplementing and replacing. When there is no
of any known equivalent alternative. The workload of the              visual ability, images need to be replaced by either audible or
creator of the primary materials’ metadata should be kept as          tactile equivalents. Where there is a need for intellectual
light as possible. The accessibility characteristics of equivalent    support, a dictionary may be needed as a supplement to a
alternatives such as caption files or image description files also    resource or an object. Where transformation of objects occurs
need to be described
                                                                      most frequently is with text. Well-formed text can be rendered
2.5 The Process of Matching                                           visually, as characters, or a sign language, or aurally, perhaps by
                                                                      a screen reader, or transformed into a tactile form as Braille or
2.5.1 Authors and Authoring Tools                                     simply changed in color, size and other display features.
The authoring requirements for the content creator using the
AccessForAll approach are different and sometimes easier than         2.5.5 Metadata interoperability
in other approaches to creating accessible materials. Objects are     The AccessForAll descriptions of learner needs and resources
treated in a more modular fashion, and universal accessibility is     for them are metadata. Metadata is information, usually
not expected of each object, just the combination of objects. The     structured, about an object, be it physical or digital. It can be
responsibility is, as always, with the author to provide as many      thought of as similar to a library catalog record of a book. As
accessible pieces as possible but mainly on the resource server       with a catalog record, metadata does not have to be part of a
to combine them appropriately for the learner. For this approach,     resource, although it should be associated with it, and it does not
there are the usual basic authoring principles, requiring that each   have to be made at the same time as the resource or even by the
part of the resource be created following the standards for           resource's author or owner. A good general description of
accessibility, but when there is an object that may not be            metadata is available in "Metadata Principles and Practicalities"
accessible, it can be described as inaccessible and the location of   [8].
an alternative identified. This means that the author does not        Metadata is most commonly associated with the resource
have full responsibility for creating accessible content and also     discovery process. In the case of AccessForAll metadata,
that a second or later author can make an inaccessible resource       resources and objects can be filtered according to needs and
or object accessible, by providing or identifying an equivalent       preferences identified in a learner’s profile, or metadata. Thus,
alternative and contributing its accessibility profile.               in the new strategy, the matching of metadata enables the
The W3C/WAI guidelines offer specifications for accessible            matching of resources to needs and hence accessibility.
authoring tool [7]. Accessible authoring tools provide authors        The difference between what is commonly done with metadata
with guidance in the authoring process as well as making it           and what is described here is perhaps in the way in which the
possible for people with special needs and preferences to             resource is often seen both as a composite resource and as a set
participate in the authoring process. Many of these assume little     of objects, as described above. A resource, whether a service or
‘accessibility’ expertise on the part of the author. Some tools are   content of another kind, often has components that are in
specifically for the production of content but others help in the     different modalities; such as a Web page with some text and a
process of making content accessible. Some of these tools are         picture. The text, if properly formed, can be transformed into
already able to help in the production of content profiles.           speech but the image will need to be replaced by text that can
                                                                      then be rendered as speech. This means that not only is it
2.5.2 Cumulative and Collaborative Authoring                          important to note that the resource as a whole has some text and
The AccessForAll approach supports cumulative and
                                                                      an image, but it may also be necessary to have some detail about
collaborative authoring by allowing new equivalent resources to
                                                                      those items that together form the resource. Metadata is most
be added to a collection independently of the original resource
                                                                      useful if it confines its scope to the thing it is describing but
authors. Subject matter experts can create primary content, while
                                                                      those descriptions, if correctly written, can often be combined to
organizations or educators with experience in alternative access
                                                                      provide a description of the whole. In the approach described in
strategies can create the equivalents. Over time, a resource
                                                                      this paper, the objects that will eventually comprise the whole
collection can grow richer with alternatives and thereby provide
                                                                      resource are most easily discovered and used if they have their
more complete access.
                                                                      own metadata, as well as if the composite has its own metadata.
2.5.3 Dynamic and Static Content Publishing                           This is considered quite reasonable practice in the metadata
Where content is to be stored ready for presentation to learners,     world.
it may be in complete resource form or it may be held as objects      Two metadata sets, the IEEE LOM and the Dublin Core
that will be accumulated and presented within a template at the       Metadata Set (described below) together account for a vast
amount of metadata used in education worldwide. It is essential      specifications. The other specifications necessary for the
that interoperability be maintained among the different              AccessForAll approach are for the description of the
communities using metadata but also across sectors such as           accessibility characteristics of resources and components.
education, e-government, e-commerce, e-health and other              The specifications developed by the IMS/DCMI collaboration
activities that want to share resources. The approach described      contain an information model that can be implemented in a
in this paper was explicitly developed to be compatible with         variety of ways. A typical implementation at the time of writing
both IEEE LOM and DCMI metadata.                                     is likely to be in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and so
     •    IEEE LOM [9]                                               there is an XML binding and schema to accompany the model.
          The IEEE LOM (Institute of Electrical and Electronics      The metadata specification for describing content has specific
          Engineers' Learning Object Metadata Standard) is a         data structures within it that directly map to the data structures
          profile for learning object metadata. It contains a        in the specification for describing preferences for how content
          description of semantics, vocabulary, and extensions.      should be presented to the learner. Understanding the learner
          An encoding of accessibility metadata that harmonizes      profile model, the AccLIP makes understanding the resource
          with AccessForAll metadata and is suitable for use in      profile model, the AccMD, a lot easier as the latter is derived
          an IEEE LOM Application is under construction by           from the former.
          CEN-ISSS Learning Technologies Workshop [10].
                                                                     2.6.1 The AccLIP Model
     •    Dublin Core Metadata Element Set [11]
                                                                     The AccLIP information model is for a detailed machine-
          The Simple Dublin Core Metadata Element Set is the
                                                                     readable description of a learner’s needs and preferences in the
          ISO 15836 standard for core metadata. There is also a
                                                                     way they interact with the computer. This includes information
          Qualified Dublin Core Metadata Element Set with
                                                                     about any accommodations the learner may need in the way that
          additional terms and extensions. Dublin Core metadata
                                                                     content is presented to them and display and control approaches
          is not domain specific. Dublin Core elements include a
                                                                     they may adopt when using the computer.
          new special one for accessibility to be used for
          AccessForAll metadata.                                     The AccLIP model includes accommodations and approaches
                                                                     needed or adopted by learners with disabilities but is more
2.5.6 Accessibility and eLearning systems                            general than that. There are no elements that enable a
A key challenge in accessibility is the diversity of need;           description of a learner’s disability by medical classification to
different people require different accommodations. Established       be declared, nor should there be. The description is of the
approaches towards addressing this are to allow customization        preferred human computer interaction approaches and preferred
by the end learner (e.g. text size and color) and to offer           content characteristics needed to enable the envisaged
alternative presentations of the same content where automatic        automated functions of the system to be implemented. It is in
customization is not possible (e.g. text description of diagrams     line with the philosophical stance that moves away from a
or audio descriptions of video content).                             medical model of disability to a social one.
Integrated eLearning systems potentially offer an efficient way
of managing and even extending this. They can personalize the
                                                                     2.6.1.1 The AccMD Model
way the interface and the content are presented to the learner       The AccMD model is for metadata that expresses a resource’s
and further, which content is presented to the learner can be        ability to match the needs and preferences of a learner’s AccLIP
determined by the system on the basis of stored information          profile. It is intended to assist with resource discovery and also
about the individual learner and their preferences.                  provides an interoperable framework that supports the
                                                                     substitution and augmentation of a resource or resource
Such eLearning systems offer the educational institutions the        component with equivalent or supplementary components as
opportunity to efficiently manage their requirement to meet the      required by the accessibility needs and preferences in a learner’s
needs of their disabled students. If they implement student          AccLIP profile. For example, a text caption could be added to a
profiles and adopt the AccessForAll approach, the system will        video when required by a learner with a hearing impairment or
“know” how best to present content and interfaces to each            in a noisy environment.
individual learner. If they implement the approach for the
metadata of the content stored in their repositories, then the       In general, metadata can be used for two main accessibility
system can automatically offer the learning content, and other       related purposes: to record compliance to an accessibility
information, in the most appropriate format to meet individual       specification or standard (e.g., for adherence to legislated
learner needs. Furthermore, disabled students and their faculty      procurement policies) or to enable the delivery of resources that
or advisors will be able to instigate automated searches of the      meet a learner’s needs and preferences. The AccMD
content associated with any particular course or module, and         specification addresses the latter purpose. Metadata to assert
determine if any of it presents particular accessibility problems    compliance to an accessibility specification or standard is not
for that student. With this information, they will be able to        within the scope of this specification. It may be useful, however,
commission alternative formats of the same content or locate an      if it is in a form that allows it to be transformed and re-purposed
alternative learning activity ahead of time if that is more          as AccMD metadata.
appropriate.                                                         2.6.1.2 Overview of the AccMD Information Model
2.6 The Information Models                                           The AccMD specification is defined in terms of two basic
                                                                     classes that are then further refined and detailed. A description
A detailed description of use of cascading learner profiles and of
                                                                     is either of a  resource or an . This
the preferences and requirements that can be recorded in a
                                                                     mirrors a common practice in the accessibility world for an
learner’s profile is a necessary part of the AccessForAll
                                                                     equivalent to be produced not by the original author of the
resource but by someone else, that person or organization having        object, the process of matching the resource to the learner’s
expert knowledge of how to make that resource accessible in the         needs and preferences can begin.
specific context.                                                       A typical diagram showing the behaviors of systems using the
A resource could contain its own equivalents (such as an image          metadata specified in the AccessForAll model is below (Figure
with alternative text description) and therefore could have a           2).
primary and one or more equivalent resource descriptions.
A primary description is very simple and consists of a simple
                                                                        2.8 Pilot Projects
                                                                        Three projects described briefly here illustrate the diversity of
classification of the access modalities of the resource with terms
                                                                        application where the approach offers real benefit to both the
selected from hasVisual, hasAuditory, hasText and hasTactile.
                                                                        end-learners and the service providers.
For each modality a simple binary judgment can be made as to
whether that access modality is required for the resource to be         2.8.1 TILE
useful.                                                                 The Inclusive Learning Exchange [15] (TILE) is a learning
A primary resource description can also have links to EARL              object repository developed by the Adaptive Technology
[12] statements recording machine-readable adaptability                 Resource Centre at the University of Toronto that implements
properties that describe the transformability and flexibility for       both AccMD and AccLIP. When authors (educators) use the
interface control of the resource. EARL is the Evaluation And           TILE authoring tool to aggregate and publish learning objects,
Report Language, a Resource Description Framework (RDF)                 they are supported in creating and appropriately labeling
language developed by W3C that can express the outputs of               transformable aggregate lessons (codified by the TILE system
evaluation and repair processes in machine-readable form.               using AccMD). Learners of the system define their learner
Typically, EARL statements contain the results of evaluation            preferences, which are stored as IMS-AccLIP records. TILE
processes operated or managed by tools that can execute tests,          then matches the stated preferences of the learner with the
possibly with some human intervention and guidance. The                 desired resource configuration by transforming or re-aggregating
AccMD specification references EARL statements, to describe             the lesson.
the display transformability and control flexibility of a primary
resource. Such EARL statements are metadata with the                    2.8.2 Web-4-All
constraint that they make it clear when the statements were             The Web-4-All [16] project is a collaboration between the
made and by whom.                                                       Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of
                                                                        Toronto and the Web Accessibility Office of Industry Canada to
A primary resource description can contain a pointer to an              help meet the public Internet access needs of Canadians with
equivalent for the resource or for a part of it. Equivalent             disabilities and literacy issues. Web-4-All allows learners to
resource descriptions provide a mechanism whereby an                    quickly and automatically configure a public access computer
alternative (i.e. replacement for) or supplementary for a resource      using a learner preferences profile implemented with the AccLIP
or part of a resource can be provided. The distinction between          and stored on a smartcard that the learner keeps and can take
these is made with a Boolean field “supplementary”, the                 from one public workstation to the next. When the smart card is
interpretation being that if this is false then it is an alternative.   read by the workstation, the Web4All software automatically
An equivalent resource description will have a link to the object       configures the operating system, browser and necessary assistive
and part for which it is an equivalent. For the case where an           technology according to the learner’s AccLIP. These settings are
object contains its own alternatives this will be a link to itself.     returned to their default values and applications terminated once
An equivalent or supplementary object may need to be                    the card is removed in preparation for the next learner. This
synchronized with the primary or other objects and so there may         significantly reduces the technical support required for the
also be a synchronization file.                                         public workstations, avoids conflict between the assistive
The final part of a resource description according to the AccMD         technologies used by consecutive learners and allows the learner
specifications is data drawn from the range of values in AccLIP         to begin using the workstation without lengthy manual
fields. For example, the  elements defined in           reconfiguration. If the assistive technology requested by a
the  class match the              learner is not available on a workstation, the program will
values defined in the AccLIP specification.                             launch and configure the closest approximation.

The AccMD specification [13] provides guidance on how to                2.8.3 PEARL
match accessibility metadata (i.e. a resource profile) to the           The PEARL project (Practical Experimentation by Accessible
properties defined in the AccLIP specification (i.e., a learner         Remote Learning [17]) was an early European Commission
profile). It also defines the behavior applications should exhibit      funded project led by the Open University, UK. It developed a
in some specific contexts; see the Best Practice Guide [14] for         technical framework teaching laboratories for science and
more information. While AccLIP and AccMD are designed to                engineering to be offered to students remotely. One motivations
work together, there is no prescription about how they should be        for this was to increase the participation of disabled students in
implemented beyond necessary behaviors that should be                   these subjects by offering enhanced access to practical work.
standardized for the sake of interoperability.                          Hence accessibility was a priority for the project.
                                                                        The project implemented a learner interface approach in which
2.7 The Process of Matching Learners with                               interfaces were generated “on the fly” from XML descriptions
Resources                                                               of all the interface elements and the type of interaction they
Given metadata about the learner’s needs and preferences and            supported. The project explored an extension to this approach
metadata about the accessibility characteristics of the resource or     where, as well as XML descriptions of the activity and its
Figure 2. Behaviours for AccessForAll interoperability.
control and display elements, the “interface generator” was
presented as an XML description of the learner and how they          5. REFERENCES
preferred to use their computer. This learner description was        [1] WAI Content Guidelines for creating accessible Web
based on the then current draft IMS LIP                    pages: http://www.w3.og/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
elements. It was possible to optimize the interface for individual   [2] Cooper M., Communications and Information Technology
learners taking into account, as examples, assistive technology          (C&IT) for Disabled Students, in: Powell S. (ed.), Special
requirements or the fact that students might be working hands-           Teaching in Higher Education- Successful Strategies for
free.                                                                    Access and Inclusion, (Kogan Page) London 2003
                                                                     [3] http://www.drc-gb.org/publicationsandreports/report.asp
3. FUTURE WORK AND CONCLUSION
The AccessforAll specifications show how the AccessForAll            [4] http://www.imsglobal.org/accessibility/
strategy can be implemented. They are not prescriptive about the     [5]   (see W3C/WAI ER).
encoding that should be used. Significantly, they are not
                                                                     [6] http://www.microsoft.com/enable/research/ and
prescriptive about what constitutes accessibility. There are
                                                                         http://webstandardsgroup.org/resources/documents/doc_31
endless opportunities, given the model and strategy, to take
                                                                         7_brettjacksontransitiontoxhtmlcss.doc
further advantage of new technologies.
                                                                     [7]   http://www.w3c.org/TR/ATAG10/
The Semantic Web offers one obvious technology that will be
enabled by the AccesForAll approach. Already the                     [8] Metadata Principles and Practicalities, available at:
AccessForAll specifications recommend using EARL so that the             http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april02/weibel/04weibel.html
metadata will be as flexible and rich as possible. The range of      [9] IEEE 14.84.12.1 - 2002 Standard for Learning Object
other extensions includes opportunities for valuable cross-              Metadata: http://ltsc.ieee.org
lingual exchanges to suit learner needs as well as cross-
disciplinary changes of emphasis. Applications and Web               [10] http://www.cen-aplr.org
services that transform resources or resource components to suit     [11] Dublin Core Metadata Initiative: http://dublincore.org/
the needs of users with cognitive disabilities is a huge area that
                                                                     [12] See: http://www.w3.org/TR/EARL10/
has hitherto not received the attention it deserves.
                                                                     [13] IMS AccessForAll Meta-data Information Model Version
The authors wish to contribute to the valuable work being done
                                                                          1.0 Final Specification, available at:
by others and welcome involvement in their work.
                                                                          http://www.imsglobal.org/accessibility/accmdv1p0/imsacc
                                                                          md_infov1p0.html
4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
                                                                     [14] IMS AccessForAll Meta-data Best Practice and
Our thanks to Anastasia Cheetham and David Weinkauf for their
                                                                          Implementation Guide Version 1.0 Final Specification,
wonderful work on the information model and associated
                                                                          available at:
documentation that has made everyone’s work so easy.
                                                                          http://www.imsglobal.org/accessibility/accmdv1p0/imsacc
                                                                          md_bestv1p0.html
                                                                     [15] http://www.inclusivelearning.ca/
                                                                     [16] http://web4all.ca
                                                                     [17] http://iet.open.ac.uk/pearl