TO ADD: Weber and Abascal, Keith,Whitney
Weber and Abascal (2006) - related to ICDnet (2003) and Nicolle 2001.
Weber and Abascal (2006) not enough teaching material available to help teachers and learners in different disciplines such a business studies for designing eshops, design, electrical engineering or computer science.
Weber and Abascal (2006) digital accessibility is just as relevant to students studying degrees in special educational needs are expected to have a good overview of assistive technology devices as well as sign language and use of braile.
Weber and Abascal (2006) experts consider that future degrees should include the concept of digital accessibility especially those with any form of design component.
Weber and Abascal (2006) IDCnet was a network devoted to the development of a curriculum in Inclusive Design, supported by the Information Society Technologies Programme. The programme finished in 2005 but it’s activities continued under the European Design for All eAccessibility Network (EDeAN).
Weber and Abascal (2006) usually people planning to include design for all as a component in undergraduate courses have to develop their own materials from scratch, such as texts and practical activities (p.339). A good solution to save extra workload is for teachers to share their learning materials so each lecturer can profit from the tried and tested experiences developed by others and vice versa (# quote from another paper that this is happening and teachers are supporting each other).
Keith, Whitney and Petz (2009) although the concepts of design for all are getting known, they are not yet established as part of the mainstream computing and ICT curriculum.
Design for all supports the delivery and accessibility of services accessed through the internet through computers, TVs and handheld devices such as tablets and mobiles.
The essential goal of design for all (DFA) is one of human rights and equality of access so that goods and services are designed and can be accessed by as many potential users as possible without the need for modification, or failing that they should be easily adaptable according to different needs and use interfaces that are standardised so everyone can use them, including those on assistive technologies (Keith, Whitney and Petz, 2008; 2009).
Tim Berners-Lee quote -
ICT has great potential to enhance social inclusion and cohesion by empowering all Europeans to fully participate in a contribute to the economy and society (European Commission, 2006).
There are serious gaps in the provision of specialist skills training within university courses.
The IDCNet published a taxonomy of core skill sets and knowledge to help raise awareness for the design for all approach within the curriculum, including aspects of awareness, legislation and design guidelines for technical adoption (ICDnet D3.2, 2003).
Keith, Whitney and Petz (2009) conducted a survey with the EDeAN network to determine whether the work of IDCnet had been implemented into the curriculum. Responses provided a snapshot of practices in the core topics of design for all. Over 80% of courses were delivering general information on design awareness and principles as well as specialist user interaction.
Engaging students in practical applications or projects to design accessible materials was reported as being the most impactful and the most popular techniques involved the use of video and YouTube clips with talks from people with disabilities demonstrating the use of ICT to facilitate their everyday activities.
Students at the Czech technical university focused on user centred design and interaction for their module in a computer graphics course.
Kelly , Henka and Zimmermann (2015) MOOC on design for all
Kelly , Henka and Zimmermann (2015) MOOCs started life as advertising campaigns for universities to provide taster materials and their popularity turned them into a new way to teach online where learners can engage in courses without having to make any formal commitment. This lack of commitment means that on average only 13% of participants actively finish a MOOC.
Kelly , Henka and Zimmermann (2015) the MOOCAP project was a trans-European partnership of nine universities to jointly offer a series of MOOCs on the topic of digital accessibility, offering courses from introductory level to more advanced technical topics.
Kelly , Henka and Zimmermann (2015) The MOOCs adopted a persona-oriented approach to put the user into the centre of the learning by adopting a persona to experience first hand the accessibility of digital media. The personas could be used in various stages of a product development life cycle from finding ideas for a product to prioritising features, processes and artefacts.
Kelly , Henka and Zimmermann (2015) tools and criteria for testing the compliance of a product such as WCAG cannot fully determine the accessibility of a product. WCAG is just the technical properties of a product rather than taking into account the traits and behaviours of users, their personal devices and assistive technologies and is crucial to help develop and maintain accessible content.
Kelly , Henka and Zimmermann (2015) - Brajnik (2008) introduced the concept of the barrier walk through persona to test digital products, for example if users can achieve a particular aim or task on a website only using a keyboard. This way it focuses on the user which often results in raised awareness for designers and developers and the creation of more accessible products (Schulz and Skeide Fuglerud, 2012; Baily and Pearson, 2011).
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