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title: "Helping Moodle users with print disabilities"
outline_version: 2
auto_title_slide: false
auto_thanks_slide: false
---

## Helping Moodle users with print disabilities
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Dominik Lukeš, Dyslexia Action @techczech

![Load2Learn, delivered by Dyslexia Action and RNIB.](assets/media/image1.jpeg)

## Load2Learn
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- online catalogue of curriculum resources for print disabled learners
- provides access to digital books and images that can be used by learners with their own technology
- being developed by Dyslexia Action and RNIB, funded by DfE

## Problem: Print disability
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> “A print-disabled person is anyone for whom a **visual, cognitive or physical disability hinders the ability to read print**. This includes all **visual impairments**, **dyslexia**, and any **physical disabilities** that prevent the handling of a physical copy of a print publication.”
>
> CLA License,  
> [http://www.cla.co.uk/data/pdfs/print_disability/cla_guidelines_for_the_pdl_aug10.pdf](http://www.cla.co.uk/data/pdfs/print_disability/cla_guidelines_for_the_pdl_aug10.pdf)

### Print Disability: Perception Issues
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- Cannot see text
- Can only see text at a certain size
- Cannot see certain colours, colour combinations
- Prefers certain contrast

### Print Disability: Issues with Processing Text
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- Difficulties decoding written word
- Difficulties finding information in large chunks of text
- Needs special formatting (e.g. Sans Serif, not-justified, no all caps, no underline, no italics)

### Print Disability: Physical Difficulties
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- Can only use the keyboard
- Can only use a pointing device
- Can only use voice input

### Key legal provisions
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- Make an accessible copy of a document for a print disabled person under the CLA PD Licence
- Accessible document: large print, electronic copy, audio version (MP3), Braille
- Unless a suitable commercial alternative exists

## Conversation reminder
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Please tweet any questions, comments @techczech

## Solution: Making text accessible
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- **Structured documents** with easy navigation (Word, PDF)
- **Modification** of font colour, font type, font size, background colour (PDF, Word)
- Audio books
- **Text-to-speech**: PDF, Wordtalk, Balbolka, voices, screen reader
- Audio and text linked (DAISY, WordTalk)

### Solution 1: Structured documents
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- All sections have titles marked with Heading styles
- Word documents, PDFs, Web Pages

![Word document with a heading navigation pane beside a definition of print disability, showing how headings enable navigation.](assets/media/image2.png)

### Solution 2: Text and document modification
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- Change font size proportionally
- Change font colours and background colours

![Adobe Reader at 300% zoom, displaying large green text on black; an arrow points to the zoom control.](assets/media/image3.png)

![Adobe Reader accessibility preferences with Replace Document Colors checked and Use High-Contrast colors selected.](assets/media/image4.png)

### Solution 3: Audio books and other audio
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![VLC playlist of Animal Farm MP3 files with playback controls and individual track durations.](assets/media/image5.png)

#### Evidence for Audio Books
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- Boys found **audio-reading enjoyable** and their self-confidence as readers improved.
- ‘a marked reduction in the quantity of errors … when reading independently’
- The boys found audio reading was relatively effortless yet they perceived that they were reading books appropriate to their age and could read ‘hard words’ like their peers (Byrom, 1998, p.5)

#### Audio as spectacles
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> ‘some children require **spectacles** to enable them to read a book, others may require an **audio tape** to enable them to read the same book’ (Byrom, 1998, p. 6)

> ‘Today **some of these people with dyslexia even regard the computer as their equivalent to the glasses of the weak-sighted**’. (Tank & Frederikson, 2007, p.947)

#### Audio books at home
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- parents reported that audio-books appeared to have ‘a positive influence in reducing emotional– behavioural problems’
- and that the use of audio-books within the home environment appeared to **reduce their child’s sense of frustration** and distractibility attributed to **greater ease in studying**. (Milani et al, 2003, p.93)

### Solution 4: Text to speech
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- Synthetic voice (Anna, Jess, Brian)
- Reader software (Balabolka, WordTalk)

![Balabolka text-to-speech window with voice selection, rate and pitch controls above a document about WordTalk.](assets/media/image6.png)

#### Evidence for text to speech
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Students took their SQA standard grade examinations in ‘Accessible PDF’ format.

- Staff praised: “**independence** offered by the electronic format”
- Students “all found them easier to use than a scribe”
- “**mean score** was 8.93 compared with 8.00 for scribes” (Nisbet et al, 2005, p.1)

#### More evidence for text to speech
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- Text to speech can ‘**relieve the burden of decoding** for struggling readers, allowing them to **focus on comprehension**’ (Wise, Ring, and Olson, 2000).
- students ‘could **double or triple the time** that they could **sustain reading**’ (Elkind et al, 1996, p.160).

### Solution 5: Text and audio linked by DAISY
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- Structured document linking audio and text
- Text is highlighted in sync with audio

![AMIS DAISY reader with a navigable contents tree and a highlighted sentence in the What is DAISY? section.](assets/media/image7.png)

Solution 5: Speech recognition

![A headset with headphones and a boom microphone.](assets/media/image8.png)

![Windows speech recognition toolbar and numbered word alternatives, with instructions to say an item number followed by OK.](assets/media/image9.png)

Audio note taking

> ‘By using the note tool, they engaged in **new literacy practices** by envisioning **new ways to access their thought processes** to engage in **spontaneous, instantaneous response to the e-books**’ (Larson, 2009, p. 256)

#### Evidence for DAISY
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> ‘Research confirms that **highlighting text as it is spoken can help learners pay attention and remember more’** (cited in Silver-Pacuilla and Fleischman, 2006, p. 84)

#### DAISY for Dyslexia
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- DAISY is used by people with dyslexia in Denmark and other countries.
- ‘Today some of these people with dyslexia even regard the computer as their equivalent to the glasses of the weak-sighted’. (Tank & Frederikson, 2007, p.947)

## Conversation reminder
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Please tweet any questions, comments @techczech

## What it means for Moodle
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Present information in accessible formats.

Think about:

- Document creation
- Course page formatting
- User training

### Presenting information on Moodle
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- Make sure uploaded documents are accessible. I.e. can be converted into multiple formats
- Make your PDFs accessible
- Consider using Xerte for interactive content
- Train users how to access information

### Moodle Course Page Formatting
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- Use proper structure – **H1** for title, **H2** for topic headings, **H3** – **H5** for subheadings
- Don’t use Headings for anything that is not a section title (e.g. not **~~`<h2>Welcome!</h2>`~~**)
- Chunk information into small sections
- Provide clickable table of contents

### User training: Mini curriculum
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- Structured documents (save yourself time and use headings styles!!!!!)
- Modification of font size, colour (PDF, Word)
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Text to speech: how to create MP3 files from documents with software and voices

#### Tools for Print Accessibility
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- Structured word processing and accessible PDFs
- Portable Apps (**MyStudyBar**)
- Text to speech
- Balabolka
- WordTalk
- Amis

#### Why Xerte
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- Fully keyboard navigable
- Easy online collaboration on editing
- Many ways to embed

![Xerte PICO search exercise with Patient, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome boxes; arrows mark navigation, colour scheme, text font, text size and volume controls.](assets/media/image10.png)

#### Keyboard Shortcuts
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Do you know how to type keyboard shortcuts correctly?

How many keyboard shortcuts do you know?

##### Text size
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- Ctrl - Shift - `<` or `>`
- Ctrl - [ or ]

##### Styles
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- Ctrl - Alt - 1, 2, 3
- Alt - Shift - arrow keys
- Ctrl - PgUp / PgDn

## Key new terms to remember
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- **Print disability**: New term covering existing disabilities and reflected in copyright regulation.
- **Accessible documents**: Can be modified to suit learners’ needs and can be converted into alternative formats.

## Where to go next?
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![Load2Learn, delivered by Dyslexia Action and RNIB.](assets/media/image11.jpeg)

- Information forthcoming. Go to [http://trainingpilot.load2learn.com](http://trainingpilot.load2learn.com) to register for updates.
- Tweet @techczech for questions