Many significant advances in information technology were initially developed to address the needs of people with disabilities. These advances include email, voice recognition, and optical character recognition, to name just a few. Developers have found that by stretching the functional requirements of technologies and systems to accommodate people with disabilities, they create more usable systems for everyone.

If designed correctly, electronically delivered education can address many of the barriers to learning faced by individuals with disabilities. On-line instruction is easily adapted to varying learning styles, rates, and communication formats. Issues of distance, transportation, and physical access are reduced. Electronic text, unlike printed text, can be read by individuals who are blind, vision impaired, dyslexic and by individuals who cannot hold a book or turn pages. Multimedia can be delivered synchronously in multiple formats to accommodate individuals who require alternative modalities or who require more than one modality to learn. These design criteria benefit all learners.

Ignoring accessibility standards would serve to exclude a significant proportion of any target group. Potential learners with disabilities make up more than 18% of the North American population. This will increase in the next decade with the effects of an aging population. Given a growing awareness and respect for the human rights of people with disabilities worldwide, legislative steps have been taken to insure that information technology and e-learning is accessible to people with disabilities. Consequently, most educational institutions are compelled by law to offer accessible education.

This presentation will discuss how inclusive learning environments can be created. Emerging technology developments that hold promise for learners with and without disabilities will be highlighted. Technologies to support learner-centric curriculum and tool design will be reviewed.

BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:  

The goal of this presentation is to demonstrate to educators and curriculum producers how learning outcomes can be improved for all students when the needs of learners with disabilities are integrated into the educational design. Participants will be oriented to learner-centric design, transformable content and tools, and applicable accessibility standards. This will enable them to meet their legislative requirements for accessibility as well as their educational goals.

Jutta Treviranus
University of Toronto,
Robarts Library,
130 St. George St., 4th Floor
Toronto, Ont.
M5S 1A1
Phone: 416-978-5240
Fax: 416-971-2629
Email: jutta@utoronto.ca
Website: www.utoronto.ca/atrc