Beck Maguire

Transcript

1. Alternative Formats Beck Maguire Librarian (Accessibility Support)
2. Alternative Formats
3. University of Nottingham
4. What are alternative formats
5. How do you feel?
6. What’s the focus? Providing information resources in non- standard or alternative formats for disabled users • The context • How the University of Nottingham approaches this • What the future holds in this area
7. The background Medical Model – where we were • separate/individual issue • add on • can be made ‘better’ Social Model – where we want to be • inclusive curriculum • inclusive teaching • participation • the environment/society enables Half way between the two!
8. The background The Law The Equality Act 2010 • Consolidating and simplifying existing legislation around disability • Giving clear definitions of disability, discrimination and so on • Reinforcing the fact that institutions are legally obliged to make reasonable adjustments – this has impacted upon student funding (Disabled Students’ Allowance)
9. The background The Human Perspective • All students should have the opportunity to participate, to fulfil their potential and become who, and what, they aspire to be.
10. Moving forwards – what are we aiming for? Interaction Institute for Social Change (Artist: Angus Maguire [used with permission])
11. Moving forwards – what are we aiming for? Accessible materials provide an equitable experience, enabling participation
12. The University of Nottingham What do we do at the University of Nottingham? • Champion good practice to move towards a social model • Provide the Alternative Formats Service to ensure that disabled students have a comparable experience to their peers when accessing resources for their course
13. The Alternative Formats Service A bespoke service (internally funded) supporting a small number of disabled individuals who cannot access standard text for whatever reason. They may not be able to: • See the text • Hear the audio • Hold the resource
14. What does the Law say? Providing accessible resources – the Law ‘If an authorised body has lawful possession of a copy of the whole or part of a published work, the body may, without infringing copyright, make and supply accessible copies of the work for the personal use of disabled persons.’ Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/part/I/chapter/III/crossheading/visual-impairment - Accessed 22.5.17
15. What’s the process? • Students are assessed and referred to the service if alternative formats are deemed appropriate • We meet with the student to confirm and agree their requirements • The AFS liaises with the School to obtain reading lists for all modules and begins to source essential reading to reformat, as agreed with the student • Any further reading, relevant to the course, is agreed with the student and reformatted as needed
16. The basics Resources Course materials • School handouts and so on • Video/AV materials Information resources • Journals • Ebooks • Print
17. What formats can the AFS provide? • Screen reader compatible files/structured Word docs • Electronic files • Braille/tactile diagrams • Audio • Large print • Transcripts for videos
18. Hard copy only What if the original is only available in standard print? 1. Legally we have to see if an accessible version is out there. 2. Possibly obtain an electronic file from the publisher How does this work? • BookShare or Direct requests • Licence agreements – Institutional and individual
19. Hard copy only What if we can’t get an accessible electronic version? Visual/Physical (zoom, mobile device) • Scan only Higher Need Visual/Audio – text to speech • Scan • Scan and reformat • Structured Word documents
20. Inaccessible Electronic Resources The resource is already available electronically but isn’t accessible… In-house scans, Journals, E-books • Font quality • Image only • Inaccessible platform
21. Here’s an example Agata Cienciala Second year Humanities student
22. Here’s an example Agata Cienciala Second year Humanities student
23. What just happened? • Agata tried to use this e-book via our Library catalogue with no additional support • The platform has no headings and is therefore difficult to navigate around • Agata could eventually make it read the contents page – the navigation pane on the left, but couldn’t make it read the text of the book
24. Inaccessible Electronic Resources What can we do with inaccessible electronic resources? OCR – clean up or reformat Print and scan • Difficulties with DRM – locked PDFs, copying etc. • Download limitations
25. Sector Wide Developments Ebook audit The lis-accessibility virtual “group”, and JISC, worked together to trial some shared auditing of interfaces (info on slides 25-28 taken from the following webpages: https://sites.google.com/site/ebookaudit2016/home) Focus Key areas of practical user experience to measure basic accessibility functionality (Non-technical checked by a non-specialist) • change colours • magnify text • reflow to fit the page. • navigate easily and orientate themselves within the context of the content. • use assistive technologies to read the text out loud with or without being able to see the screen.
26. Ebook audit Who took part? • 33 universities • 5 suppliers • 44 platforms tested covering 65 publishers and testing nearly 280 ebooks (education sector as opposed to e.g. popular fiction) https://sites.google.com/site/ebookaudit2016/home
27. Ebook audit Why this matters to learners • Learners want to be able to consistently and easily access content and customise that content to meet their varied needs – this is the same for all users Why this matters to learning providers • Learning providers are legally obliged to make all core content accessible to learners • Proactive procurement and reading list creation can make core content accessible to print impaired learners providing a much more positive experience for them and positive side effects for the provider in e.g. reduced support costs • Accessible procurement policies also reduce an organisation's risk of litigation under the Equality Act 2010.
28. Ebook audit Why this matters to the publishing industry • Learning providers have a legal obligation to provide resources in accessible formats and this needs to be supported from the publishing side. • They need to be clear what accessibility benefits a user can expect to find so that academic institutions can make positive choices about their products. • Good accessibility makes good business sense. The features that make e-texts flexible enough to meet the needs of disabled readers also make them flexible enough for different platforms, different display devices and even different business models.
29. Ebook audit Limitations • This was a survey done with only minimal influence on e.g. sampling, quality assurance on testers • The testing was simplified and the final data display simplified to ensure that people could participate but this has an impact on the results… • It’s only part of the accessibility picture https://accessibility.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2017/02/07/ebookaudit-useabuse/ - Alistair McNaught (Accessed 23.5.17)
30. Other sector wide initiatives English and Welsh Consortia Joint Consortia agreement for Books and Ebooks Core accessibility features are included within requirements to evaluate for the Joint Consortia agreement (HE supply, England and Wales, 2017-) • Basic accessibility checks are included • This should be available to member organisations from July/August 2017.
31. Actions – what’s next? • Publishers making texts available in an alternative format consistently, easily and quickly - preferably via e.g. BookShare • Ebooks and platforms which are accessible • This doesn’t just mean screen reader compatible, it means that people can customise texts to meet their specific needs • Acquisitions Teams asking questions of providers, actively selecting accessible options when available, being mindful of people with different needs
32. Actions – what next? • Build accessibility into the process • Accessibility fits with great usability – it adds value! • Useful for everyone!! • Think about what you’re buying and if there’s a better option out there – be aware • Powerful – ‘The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new’ – Socrates
33. Questions How do I reference an ebook? Please see the webpages below from our University of Nottingham website. This is our recommendation for referencing so may be different to other institutions http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studyingeffectively/writing/referencing/books/i ndex.aspx
34. Questions Marrakesh Treaty What is it? Very basically, this is an agreement to permit the exchange of accessible formats of documents across borders by permitted organisations – this will obviously be a very positive step forwards, once it’s in place For a detailed analysis please see the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) website http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/marrakesh/summary_marrakesh.html
35. . Thank you for listening – any questions? Beck Maguire Librarian (Accessibility Support) beck.Maguire@nottingham.ac.uk Please note that the content of this presentation either references the original source or is my own viewpoint and may not be reflective of the wider opinion of colleagues at the University of Nottingham