AccessISL

A touch screen is a computer display screen that is sensitive to human touch, allowing a user to interact with the computer by touching pictures or words on the screen.

Multimedia can be an engaging instructional tool. Multimedia is increasingly delivered to students through CDs, DVDs, and streaming videos on the web. Multimedia, however, must be captioned and audio-described in order to avoid creating accessibility barriers for some individuals, including those with hearing impairments and those with blindness.

No. In a study conducted by Diane Cordry Golden of Missouri Assistive Technology in 2001, twenty-five "award winning" companies who produce instructional software for K-12 students (preschool through high school) were surveyed regarding the accessibility of their software to students with disabilities. Nineteen companies responded. Two reported that they were aware of accessibility issues and specifically Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. One of these two was beginning work on accessibility issues; the other had developed a planning committee.

Videotapes, DVDs, and streaming videos on the web can be engaging instructional tools. However, the audio portions of these media are inaccessible to individuals with hearing impairments, and visual information that is not otherwise communicated through audio is inaccessible to individuals with visual impairments.

Educators are becoming increasingly aware of the power of video to engage students in this multimedia world. Video content, however, can create barriers for some individuals with disabilities, including people with hearing impairments. The solution is to caption the video, so that content that is available via audio is simultaneously accessible via text to those who can't hear the audio.

AccessComputing's Promising Practices tell how to deliver a variety of activities that serve to increase the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields. Activities include capacity-building institutes for faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders; strategies for creating or including accessible technology and materials, and outreach activities such as camps and workshops that fully include participants with disabilities.

Audio description is a term used to describe the descriptive narration of key visual elements in a video or multimedia product. This process allows individuals who are blind to access content that is not otherwise accessible simply by listening to the audio. In audio description, narrators typically describe actions, gestures, scene changes, and other visual information. They also describe titles, speaker names, and other text that may appear on the screen.

One of the more challenging tasks facing web developers is creating accessible online forms, particularly forms that are accessible to screen reader users. This is partly because there are a variety of form control types—text, checkboxes, radio buttons, menus, and others—each with its own distinct accessibility challenges. It is also because different screen readers handle these form control types in different and somewhat unpredictable ways.

The audio content of multimedia presentations is inaccessible to people who are unable to hear. If there is content presented auditorially, the accessibility solution is captioning that provides a synchronized text alternative to the audio track. For additional general information about captioning, see How do I make multimedia accessible?

Hosting a panel of students with disabilities is a great way to help faculty, staff, or other stakeholders learn more about the issues that students with disabilities face in education.  These panels can be held as part of a larger workshop on disability, as a standalone meeting, or as a part of a regularly-held departmental meeting.