To know the difficulties of impaired students when carrying out their e-learning studies

Contextual interviews and observations [1]

Personas method [2]

Conclusion: User dissatisfaction :( mainly due to:

lack of knowledgeabout universal design solutions

lack of awarenessof what visual impairment means and involves

STUDENT SAMPLE ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES USED

Screen readerReads the screen content

Screen magnifierEnlarges everything displayed on the screen

Browser zoom functionEnlarges site content of teachers, developers and designers

The first time in which the Persona method has been used to describe visually impaired students in an e-learning university

[1] Beyer, H. & Holtzblatt, K. (1998) Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 1-55860-411-1 [2] Cooper, A. (1999) The Inmates Are Running the Asylum. SAMS. ISBN 0-672-31649-8[3] Norman, D.A., Draper, S.W. (1986) User Centered System Design; New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah

Personas method to describe visually impaired students using an online learning environment: a UOC case studyPablo Rebaque-Rivas, Eva Patricia Gil-Rodríguez, Llorenç Sabaté-Jardí. Community Initiatives, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Inaccessible PDF files; she has to convert them to Word or ask her parents to read them aloud

Delayed access to the learning content affects her participation in student debates and forums

Evaluation activities based on video, and without an accessible alternative, impedes her from carrying it out

Anna, Screen magnifier user

25 years old

Lives with her parents

Part-time receptionist in a local authority building in Terrassa

Has begun studying humanities at the UOC this year

Personal features

Screen reader

Assistive technologies

Problems highlighted

Poor quality of some of the PDF file images, so he has to ask his wife to describe them to him

Unavailable content in audio format forces him to spend a lot of time reading in front of the computer

Problems highlighted

Screen magnifier

Inverted screen colours

DAISY and audio files

Assistive technologies

Carles, Screen magnifier user

35 years old

Married, with a son

Sells ONCE lottery products for a living

Studies Psychology at the UOC

Tries to devote a few hours to the UOC every day

Personal features

Making subject content accessible, particularly PDF files

Making content available in various formats (e.g. PDF, Braille)

Organising training and awareness-raising sessions on accessibility issues and inclusive design for those responsible for preparing subject content and evaluation activities

Preparing alternatives to evaluation activities that involve viewing images and/or videos in advance

Making content and evaluation activities more accessible in the first place, without previously having to mention her visual impairment

To improve Anna’s experience To improve Carles’ experience

Making subject content accessible, particularly PDF files and images

Avoiding the use of scanned images in PDF files

Improving image quality (e.g. greater size, sharper definition, images in colour, etc.)

Making content available in various formats (e.g. PDF, Word, audio)

Organising training and awareness-raising sessions on accessibility issues and inclusive design for those responsible for preparing subject content

User-centered design methodology [3] Archetypes that express behaviors, goals and difficulties of a particular user GroupUseful for teachers, developers and designers to approach a reality, so making it easier for them to imagine, think and take this into account

Gaining insight into knowing the characteristics of UOC visually impaired students!