Assessing accessibility


	For Ryan Klomp, the disability is often not with the person but with the environment � for example, a building with a steep set of stairs.

When considering a building that can only be accessed by a steep set of stairs, it�s not difficult to understand that it is not accessible to some people with disabilities.

Ryan Klomp, coordinator of learning technologies for the Student Academic Success Service, takes this thinking a step further. He sees the building itself as having the disability.

�Now we�re moving away from a person with a disability to an environment with a disability,� he says.

For Klomp, this shift alters how we think about all the environments where we work, live, or play � including the virtual setting of the Web, where more and more people are spending a great deal of time

�Universal access has to be part of operating procedures,� says Klomp, noting that this approach has been one of the hallmarks of the Web since it emerged in the 1990s as a global communications medium.

Much of this medium�s dramatic growth has been driven by the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, an international body that looks at all manner of issues related to accessibility and efficiency of the network, and proposes standards accordingly.

At the University of Ottawa, a Web Accessibility Committee made up of representatives of Computing and Communications Services, Teaching and Learning Support Services, and the Student Academic Success Service addresses these matters being put forward by the W3C.

Most Web users are likely to think of standards only in terms of how well common software such as browsers or word processors work with one another. However, for anyone with a disability, such matters have an entirely different meaning, Klomp notes.

Users who are blind, for example, often run up against the limitations of software that identifies various items on a Web page and reads them aloud. However, if a picture or a chart is not tagged with a text reference that is recognized by the software, the additional information will not be relayed to the users.

To avoid these pitfalls, the Web Accessibility Committee has drafted a comprehensive list of guidelines for anyone putting together a Web page at the University of Ottawa. .[d2]

Klomp says this kind of thinking represents the latest stage in the evolution of the concept of accessibility since designers, legislators, and the public started taking it seriously about 30 years ago. Universities have consistently been at the forefront of this evolution, which has led to greater accessibility of postsecondary education for people with a wide range of disabilities.

The University is now participating in a major research project on this subject under the coordination of the Adaptech Research Network at Montreal�s Dawson College. This three-year study is examining the barriers that might confront many students using e-learning technologies, as well as identifying the best practices for overcoming those barriers.

�It�s all about making sure your learning objectives have been clearly delineated,� concludes Klomp, referring to objectives that may be part of a curriculum design, classroom infrastructure, or a Web page layout.