Addressing inclusion and accessibility in open online courses by Andy Lane & Rachel Slater, Open University, UK, 25 October 2018

1. Addressing inclusion and accessibility
in open online courses
Andy Lane - Professor of Environmental Systems
Rachel Slater – Senior Lecturer and Accessibility Coordinator
OpenupED webinar 25th October 2018

2. Need for inclusivity
Many potential barriers to online courses
• Cultural
• Language
• Previous education
• Deprivation index and socioeconomic status
• Perception and confidence
• Technical
• Disability and assistive technology

3. Need for inclusion and accessibility
• Over 11 million in UK with a limiting long term
illness, impairment or disability (UK Govt Stats, 2014)
• 7% UK undergraduate students in receipt of disabled
students allowance (DSA) (HESA, 2018)
• Disproportionate affect on health, education,
employment and poverty
• Around 15% of HE students come from
disadvantaged backgrounds suffering
multiple deprivations

4. Treaties and Laws
• The UK Equality Act 2010 and the UN Convention on Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (2006) help to enforce, protect and
promote rights of disabled persons.
• These rights cover most areas including:
– employment
– education
• In the UK an education provider has a duty to make ‘reasonable
adjustments’ to make sure disabled students are not
discriminated against. This could include providing extra support
and aids (like specialist teachers or equipment).
• 24th September 2018 saw new UK legislation called ‘The Public
Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility
Regulations arising from the from the EU Web Accessibility
Directive (2016/2102). Universities now have to meet an
accessibility requirement and publish an accessibility
statement on their websites and apps.

5. The OU and online courses
Two questions for you:
• What proportion of OU students declare a disability?
• How many open and free online courses does the OU
offer?

6. The OU and online courses
• Largest university in Europe with ~125,000 undergraduate and
postgraduate students studying at a distance in 2016-17
• Largest provider of HE for people with declared disabilities ~24,000
students in 2016-17
• ~14,000 students receiving help with fees in 2016-17
• ~23% live in 25% most deprived areas in 2016-17
• ~50% have low previous qualifications
• ~7,000 students studying outside the UK
• Provides open education resources (OER) as part of charter to
provide education to the public
• Range of open resources and online courses:
OpenLearn (~900 courses and ~6M visitors in 2016/17)
ibooks on iTunes U (0.9M downloads)
ebooks (Kindle) on Amazon
FutureLearn MOOCs (~100 course presentations
and ~400,000 enrolees (2017-18)

7. The OU, inclusion & accessibility
• Mission: Open to people, places, methods and ideas
• Student Accessibility Policy
– Social model of disability
– Promote an inclusive environment
– Ensure proactive, anticipatory and responsive processes
– Enable effective communication
• Long history of supporting disabled students
– Inclusivity everyone's responsibility
– Dedicated teams: advice, registration, course design,
production, delivery and student support
• Disability Standard awarded 2016

10. Technical context
• WCAG 2.0 & 2.1 (W3C recommendations)
• OU web accessibility guidelines (2014)
– Navigation
– Titles & structural headers
– Text based equivalent for understanding editorial content
(video, audio etc)
– Keyboard accessible
– Alternative formats
• Testing
– Responsive on mobile devices
– Screenreaders
– Colours and contrasts

13. Design challenges for online courses
• Working at a screen
• Greater use of interactive items
• Collaborative activities
• Online tuition
• Use of links / third party materials
• Online practical science / engineering
• Use of bespoke software
• Peer assessment

14. Tips for authors
• Consider inclusion & accessibility from the outset
(mindset is key!)
• Good practice in design
– Universal design, e.g. multiple means of representation
– Language and culture
– Study ‘chunks’
– Avoid media hopping
– Glossary of key words
• Consider all students, use best design for the majority
• Then if not accessible provide alternative to achieve
equivalent learning
• Inform students of potential challenges and
adjustments

15. In an ideal world…
• Authors fully understand the needs of
diverse learners
– And know how to address them
– And not feel accessibility stifled their openness
or innovation
• Institutions would have policies to guide
authors and technical developers
• Authoring tools would support authors in
considering accessibility
– E.g. create / prompt accessibility-related
metadata
• Delivery platforms would be fully accessible

16. References
• HESA (2018) https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/01-02-
2018/widening-participation-summary
• WonkHE (2018) https://wonkhe.com/blogs/creating-a-21st-
centurydyslexia-friendly-university/
• UK Govt Stats (2014)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-facts-
and-figures/disability-facts-and-figures#education
• OU student accessibility policy
https://help.open.ac.uk/documents/policies/accessibility
• OU Facts and Figures
http://www.open.ac.uk/about/main/strategy-and-
policies/facts-and-figures