Scaffolding the design of accessible eLearning content: a user-centered approach and cognitive perspective

Abstract

There exist various guidelines for facilitating the design, preparation, and deployment of accessible eLearning applications and contents. However, such guidelines prevalently address accessibility in a rather technical sense, without giving sufficient consideration to the cognitive aspects and issues related to the use of eLearning materials by learners with disabilities. In this paper we describe how a user-centered design process was applied to develop a method and set of guidelines for didactical experts to scaffold their creation of accessible eLearning content, based on a more sound approach to accessibility. The paper also discusses possible design solutions for tools supporting eLearning content authors in the adoption and application of the proposed approach.

Vis-A-Wis: Improving Visual Accessibility through Automatic Web Content Adaptation

“…• Deepening the challenging idea of adapting Web pages for blind people, analyzing and adapting the content of a Web page, extending the ideas presented in [2] and [19].…”

Adapting National-Level Textbooks for Students With Disabilities in South Korea

“…Furthermore, classroom materials can be developed for use as a class guidebook, minimizing difficult concepts or terms so that teachers in inclusive classrooms can use the content easily and conveniently. Accordingly, multiple means of visual, tangible, and auditory scaffolds can be provided for classroom materials to students with disabilities in class for each session (Catarci, De Giovanni, Gabrielli, Kimani, & Mirabella, 2008). These classroom materials can include web contents such as eLearning materials, CDs with auditory inputs, and mobile apps beyond traditional textbooks to supplement main lessons and activities (Rose, Meyer, & Hitchcock, 2005; Shelly, Cashman, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010).…”

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