Aspects Regarding the Need of Accessible Information Technology in Computer Assisted Learning for Persons with Disabilities

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1 Aspects Regarding the Need of Accessible Information Technology in Computer Assisted Learning for Persons with Disabilities Narcisa ISĂILĂ, PhD Lecturer Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University Abstract Information technology has become a key technology for persons with disabilities, offering capabilities to overcome the multiple problems facing this category of users. On the other hand, European legislation and the national one, through the proposed programs and projects, highlights the necessity to create an information society, an open and democratic society, where "e-accessibility", "einclusion" and "design for all " concepts are found. These concepts are closely related to education and require the intensifying of research and development in assistive technologies based on ICT (Information and Communication Technology) standards. Key words: ICT, e-accessibility, e-inclusion, design for all, disabilities, computer-assisted learning, assistive technologies. Learning in the context of information society The European institutions have formulated in several contexts the need to integrate all Europeans in information society. Thus, the European Commission has taken initiative for achieving a more accessible information society through the eeurope action plans. Removing barriers and technical difficulties faced by disabled people when trying to participate equally to the Information Society is known as "e- Accessibility". This is part of wider e- Inclusion concept, which also refers to other types of barriers, such as those of financial, geographical or educational. Today, among the medium-term objectives of the major producers, not only in Europe but also in other regions of the world, there are e-accessibility and the related assistive technology products and services. e-accessibility is addressed to the blind, people with low visual acuity, but also to people without access to education. EU through elearning Programme promotes the adoption of ICT, in various forms and Lifelong Learning Programme ( ) includes the electronic education. Starting from this strategy, education must adapt to the demands of society and every individual must be able to learn throughout his lives (Smeureanu & Isăilă, 2011). 20

2 The principle of lifelong learning allows the approach the individualized education in relation with the rhythm, needs and aspirations of each person. The design training introduces the Internet technologies in the learning process for to make it effective. ICT resources used in education are an important support in the learning process, but without eliminate the traditional methods of learning in the classroom with teacher or self-training (Vasilache, 2008). In the information technology, accessibility to the information society, so much expressed in action plans for people with disabilities, can be achieved using equipment and assistive devices or alternative. Assistive technology and accessibility of information The development new technologies has produced a series of profound changes in society, influencing education whose aim is the possibility of access to education, information and professional qualification for all categories of persons. Thus, through ICT (Information and Communication Technology) included in the basic curricula of educational institutions are ensured knowledge and skills acquisition in accordance with the principle of equal opportunities. In the last years, a series of adaptations to the needs of disabled people have been created as assistive products. A grouping of assistive technology can be: Alternative input devices, that allow users to control the computer by other means than standard keyboard; Reading programs and tools which include software and hardware designed to make the e-learning materials more accessible to people with reading difficulties. In this category there are the software for vocal rendering using voice synthesizers; Braille devices, which gives users the tactile production of information represented on the computer screen (eg Braille printer and Braille display); Screen magnifiers, with the role of image magnification on the computer screen. Screen readers, which audio render the graphics user interface, including the operating system controls and any action of the blind user; Voice recognition programs which allow people to give commands and enter data using their voice instead of the mouse or keyboard; Text-to-speech (TTS) or voice synthesizer, which receives information from the screen (in the form of letters, numbers and punctuation marks) and renders them vocal; Word processors for speech and print words as software programs that use voice synthesizers to provide user the feedback of what he wrote. All assistive devices, hardware and software must be viewed in terms of accessibility offered and are addressed to each category of disability. Among these, Revista Română de Statistică Trim III/2012- Supliment 21

3 for people with visual disabilities, the accessibility of information in the learning process is realized using as access technologies: screen readers, software magnifying, voice synthesizers, Braille equipment (Braille printer and Braille display), and applications for recognition text. The most common way of interacting with computer applications for the blind is through screen readers and voice synthesis. Due to relatively high price of screen readers and to help the blind persons, the screen readers with free and open source license were developed as part of research projects. The purpose of assistive technology is to provide access to many categories of users, at this contributing the software accessibility also. Speech recognition and speech synthesis, as technologies, are addressed to many types of disabilities and are integrated into assistive products which exist on market. However, there is a lack of applications that facilitate the access to information and training for people with disabilities. In view of the situation special schools and some universities I consider being necessary: - Computers equipped with voice electronic programs and Braille for Romanian; - Use of appropriate information technologies, such as the facilities offered by Windows or Linux operating systems; - Introduction of a system audio description at appropriate intervals of time in video materials; - the development applications which involve assistive technology and allow the accessibility of knowledge transmitted at each discipline of education; - accessing web services using an electronic voice system in Romanian. Accessible interfaces in computer assisted learning for people with visual disabilities For many people the Web is the most important source of information. People with disabilities often have difficulties in accessing this information, as well as in the case of services (interactive) that are offered online. The web sites visited by people with disabilities are not always adapted to assistive technology equipments, which they use or do not include any base facility on accessibility. From this point of view, in the design of assistive software is necessary to consider the following requirements: - Providing a user- interface standard for all applications, using standard settings for size, colors, fonts; - Ensuring compatibility with High Contrast option; - The access to applications options by using key combinations; - The use of Magnifier and Narrator facilities; - Existence of alternative solutions for content rendering. 22

4 The assistive software, once developed, allows the extension of its use in education, for acquiring specific skills people with disabilities as a category users, but also in other fields. Regarding to description languages of user interface, there are some difficulties for developers, and this is a consequence a lack of appropriate abstraction for the interaction or integration of new hardware. To simplify the process of creating interfaces were developed a number of languages for describing user interface, mostly based on XML (extensible Markup Language) using the high-level constructions. On the other hand, the design for all (universal design or inclusive design) covers both the notion of social inclusion and economic. For people with visual disabilities, the most appropriate interfaces in computer assisted learning are the text interfaces, voice interfaces and interfaces based on natural language used in web pages. The graphical user interfaces although allow to improve applications functionality are not accessible for blind or visually impaired, even if they use assistive devices. Because the use of assistive technologies do not provide full access to applications for blind it is necessary to build the applications interface which respect certain requirements to ensure their understanding by blind users and the information provided to be adapted to the peripheral devices which they use. The compliance these rules affects the human-computer interface, by creating different models for tasks, domains, dialogue, presentation, platform and user interface (Alexandru, A. & Alexandru,C., 2008). There are a number of problems when we try to adapt an existing application to the blind user requirements and a solution is the creation of applications with special interfaces for the blind called applications with dual interfaces. HAWK toolkit and UIMS (User Interface Management System) are the most popular tools for creating dual interfaces (Stephanidis & Savidis, 2001), (Savidis & Stephanidis, 2001). The accessibility and usability requirements that must be considered when designing an appropriate interface for blind users must be integrated with those for all users, according to design for all principle. An effective learning is accomplished through affordable design which takes in account the particularities of disabled person as user. Today are being made intensive efforts to develop accessible and usable user interfaces, which can be used by people with disabilities. At European Union level the applications for these users are promoted through various projects and recommendations. Multimodal interfaces have a high potential to improve universal access to software but is necessary to ensure their compatibility with the assistive technology used by blind people for the access to graphical user interfaces. Conclusions The new technologies is already providing support for people with disabilities, allowing them to independently perform activities that they could not achieve in the past without the assistance of another person. Despite industry Revista Română de Statistică Trim III/2012- Supliment 23

5 efforts, the disabled people still face with a number of problems when trying to use ICT products and services, primarily due to: The lack of interoperable solutions for accessible ICT; Software incompatibility with assistive devices: screen readers for the blind are often useless without installing the new operating systems; The lack of adequate services: many websites are too complicated for inexperienced users or with cognitive disabilities and for people with visual disabilities is difficult or impossible to read them; The lack of accessible content. Having regard the development of new technologies and the need of assistive software in the educational process, is necessary to develop accessible and usable interfaces to facilitate access of disabled persons to education, information and possibility of finding a job, a better integration into society. References Alexandru, A., Alexandru, C., Un cadru pentru interfeţele grafice destinate persoanelor nevăzătoare. In Volumul de lucrări al Conferinţe Naţionale de Interacţiune Om-Calculator - ROCHI Universitatea A.I. Cuza din Iaşi, Editura MATRIX ROM. Page Savidis, A., Stephanidis, C., The I-GET UIMS for Unified User interface Implementation. In C. S. (Ed.), User interfaces for all-concepts, methods and tools. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Smeureanu, I., Isăilă, N., Information technology, support for innovation in education sciences. In Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15. Elsevier Ltd. Page Stephanidis, C., Savidis, A., Universal Access in the Information Society: Methods, Tools and Interaction Technologies. In Springer International Journal for Universal Access in the Information Society, 1 (1). Page Vasilache, D., E-Government. An introduction. Cluj Napoca: Ed. Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă. *** eeurope, Accessibility of public Web sites and their content. Retrieved from *** eeurope, An information society for all. Retrieved from *** W3C The World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved from 24