Accessible Web Conferencing Tools

Amy Salmon,

Hadley School for the Blind

Korey Singleton,

GMU Assistive Technology Initiative AER Virginia Conference March 2 nd -4 th , 2011

Agenda

 Introductions – Amy & Korey  Distance Learning    What is distance learning?

What is driving its growth?

Why should this concern us?

 Review of Accessible Web Conferencing Tools    

Accessible Event tc Conference ™ and tc VirtualServer ™ Elluminate Live!® Jaws Tandem



Online Training Resources



What’s new at Hadley?

 Q & A

What is Distance Learning?

 Distance learning is the

process of transferring knowledge to learners(students) who are separated from the instructor(teacher) by time and/or physical distance and are making use of technology components

, such as the Internet, video, CD's, tapes, and other forms of technology to accomplish learning.

[1]  Distance education courses that require a physical on-site presence for any reason (including taking examinations) have been referred to as hybrid [2] or blended [3] courses of study.

What is driving growth of DL?

 Over 75% (230 million+ people) of the US population has internet access.

[4]  In terms of the actual number of users, we are second only to China.

 In terms of saturation, we are on par with Germany, France, South Korea, Japan, and the UK

What is driving growth of DL? cont…

 Totalling the populations of the Top 20 countries and the number of actual internet users, there is only a penetration rate of just over 33%.

What is driving growth of DL? cont…

 Other factors contributing…   Greater demand for education and training from individuals in the workplace who need to balance family and work obligations in addition to school Costs – colleges and universities can streamline certain costs due to reduced personnel and lack of need for a lot of physical spaces (i.e., buildings)  Internet usage continues to grow rapidly 

Advantages

for students…convenience, self-paced learning, accessibility (i.e., physical)

Why should this concern us?

 The list of colleges and universities offering distance learning is growing – In 2004, over 87% of colleges and universities in the US offered some of their courses online.

[5] 

Disadvantages

for students  Lack of immediate feedback in certain programs (i.e., asynchronous)    Not all face-to-face courses are offered online Does not promote building of social skills Accessibility – same issues that some students encounter in the classroom can be carried out online (i.e., course materials)

Accessible Web Conferencing Tools

Accessible Event

 Available from Serotek, http://www.serotek.com/accessible-event-sr  Allows blind, deaf, and deaf/blind individuals to view, hear, or feel content in an online meeting or ‘event’ presented verbally, in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and/or standard web pages (i.e., HTML).

 Works concurrently with software used by other virtual meeting services (i.e., GoToMeeting or GoToWebinar, WebEx, LiveMeeting, Adobe Connect, etc). Can also be used as a stand-alone service.

Accessible Event cont.…

 Renders a presenter’s content accessible in HTML format through an attendee’s web browser.

    System requirements: Windows XP or later Adobe Flash Player 9 or later installed Whatever assistive technology the individual uses     Supported content IE 7 or higher Serotek SAMNet browser Word, Excel, PowerPoint 03/07 

Accessible Event Online Demo

tc Conference

and

tc VirtualServer

 Available from Talking Communities LLC, http://www.talkingcommunities.com



tc Conference

™– Personal virtual meeting room of 25 or 50 participants.       Uses built-in text-to-speech, as well as variety of settings to control size and color of text and background. Provides captioning support for individuals with hearing impairments.

Includes voice recognition support for individuals that have difficulty using a keyboard or mouse.

Allows blind, deaf, and deaf/blind individuals to view, hear, or feel content in an online meeting or ‘event’ presented verbally, in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and/or standard web pages (i.e., HTML).

Record and publish sessions for those who are unable to attend (no special software needed to view a recording).

Works with PC and/or Mac

tc Conference

and

tc VirtualServer cont.…



tc

VirtualServer

™– Allows for creation of multiple online

tc Conference ™

sessions. Example would be to run a virtual conference or run simultaneous virtual classrooms.



Seminars@Hadley Demo

Elluminate

Live!®

 Available from Elluminate Inc., http://www.elluminate.com

 “No User Left Behind” philosophy…designed to be accessible from ground up.    Completely Cross-Platform (Works with Mac, PC, Linux, or Solaris) Java Accessibility bridge enables access for screen reader users (Verbal cues for menus, participants, chat, and audio windows; Activity Window presentation content (including text from PPT and OpenOffice slides, raising hands, using emoticons, etc) is accessible to screen readers; Keyboard accessible menus and dialogs

Elluminate

Live!® cont…

      Ability to customize content (e.g., user can turn off text messaging component, live webcam video, or mute the audio Support for inheriting user-defined OS color schemes Ability for user to scale visual content up or down depending on individual need (i.e., text messaging, whiteboard content, Application Sharing facility, live video) Auditory notifications Live sessions can be recorded and played back using the same interface.

Elluminate Online Demo

Jaws Tandem



Jaws Tandem

, http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/ja ws/JAWS-Tandem-QSG.asp



Jaws Tandem

allows remote access to another computer running Jaws to provide hands on technical support, write scripts from a distance, or perform remote Jaws training.

Jaws Tandem cont…

 Can be a very useful tool for troubleshooting or training purposes. Tech support/trainer accesses target computer remotely while communicating with target user (i.e., student) using telephone, Skype, chat, etc.  Very simple to use!

 • • • System Requirements : Jaws v10 or later Host computer must have full version of Jaws installed on computer Target computer can run demo or USB version 

Jaws Tandem Demo

Web-Based Learning Resources

Web-Based Learning Resources

 • Freedom Scientific e-Learning (Free and fee-based) Learn to use JAWS® screen reading software, MAGic® screen magnification software, PAC Mate Omni™ accessible Pocket PC, and more from the convenience of your home or office.

 • GW Micro Audio-Video Archive (Free) Offers a collection of interviews, announcements, tutorials, and other multimedia presentations dealing with Window-Eyes, the Braille Sense, and all things GW Micro, including the GW Micro "Did You Know?" podcast series  • AiSquared New User Online Learning (Free) Free “getting started” online learning sessions every week. They’re offered every Monday at 3:00 PM EST and every Wednesday at 12:00 PM EST. They run for a half hour and then 15 more minutes for questions.

It’s free to participate, but you must register.

What’s New at Hadley?



Seminars@Hadley (Free)

• A number of archived seminars on a host of topics, including ‘Accessibility and Technology’, are available.



New Online Offerings

Questions

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

References

http://www.distance-learning-college-guide.com/what-is-distance-learning.html

Tabor, Sharon W. (Spring 2007).

"Narrowing the Distance: Implementing a Hybrid Learning Model" .

Quarterly Review of Distance Education

23 January 2011.

(IAP)

8

(1): 48-49.

ISSN 1528-3518 . Retrieved Vaughan, Dr Norman D. (2010).

"Blended Learning" . In Cleveland-Innes, M.F.; Garrison, D.R..

An Introduction to Distance Education: Understanding Teaching and Learning in a New Era

. Taylor & Francis. p. 165.

ISBN 0415995981 . Retrieved 23 January 2011.

http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/23/comscore-internet-population-passes-one-billion-top-15 countries/ http://www.distance-learning-college-guide.com/advantage-and-disadvantage-of-distance learning.html