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Scope of Digital Learning
for Visually Impaired Learners in Distance Learning System |
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| Paper Id :
18009 Submission Date :
15/08/2023 Acceptance Date :
22/08/2023 Publication Date :
25/08/2023
This is an open-access research paper/article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.10057913 For verification of this paper, please visit on
http://www.socialresearchfoundation.com/remarking.php#8
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| Abstract |
University Grants Commission (UGC) gave the theme to National
Science Day of 2017as “Science and Technology for Specially abled Persons”,
which clearly indicates, there is wide acceptance that science and technology
can play a very important role in making persons with disabilities more
independent and dignified life. With the development of different technologies
or in other words, assistive technologies such as screen reading software
(JAWS, NVDAetc, Daisy Player, OCR and Scanner, Mobile with Text to Speech
Application and Screen Magnifier, visually impaired persons have been able to
pursue higher education quite smoothly today with less impediments. It has been
observed that, in recent years, many visually challenged persons are pursuing
higher education through distance education. The concept of Digital Learning
has become very popular, need of the hour and effective these days, due to
rapid development of information communication technologies (ICT).Similarly,
after COVID 19 pandemic,digital learning has become more significant because it
was the only way to impart education for all age of learner without any
discrimination and learning can be done from anywhere and anytime. During these
days almost all learning was largely depended on Digital learning (online
learning). These technologies are effective and of great use in
teaching-learning process due to their positive impact on large number of
people in very short time as they are accessible to all segments of the society.
It is generally a challenging task to prepare digital learning resources that
can be accessible to all type of people with disability, as the design needs
are different for different category of person with disabilities. Nevertheless,
today, it is possible to provide equivalent learning resources in alternative
formats to people with disabilities with the help of assistive technologies. |
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| Keywords | Digital Learning, Distance Education, Digital Learning, Visually Impaired Learners, Online Platform. | ||||||
| Introduction | In the field of education, the basic concept of “non
discrimination” refers the ability of all people to have “equal opportunity in
education, regardless of their social class, ethnicity background or physical
disabilities”. (Kliro nomos et al., 2005).Thus, learner with disabilities have
right to expect the same standard of education as their schoolmates andthey
also have the right to access and use mainstream educational tools, including
ICT based ones , which are generally refer to as (e-learning tools) (ICT
Educational Tools and Visually Impaired Students: Different Answers to
Different Accessibility Needs. Conference paper) Since the middle of the 1990s,
the number of colleges and universities which provide courses and degree
programmes via a distance education has been growing rapidly. However, many
studies have revealed that, the prospective promised digital era has not become
the reality for most people with disabilities, especially in educational
context. Further, the studies have also come out with the fact that, web pages
of many distance education institutions are still inaccessible for people with
disabilities especially for visually Impaired (VI) learners. In this situation,
when almost all universities which offer conventional programme have already
started or planning to offer distance education programme using the ICT tools,
it becomes very essential to redesign traditional pedagogical approaches by
integrating ICT into courses. (E-Learning and accessibility for blind) today,
due to advent of assistive technology and their constant development, Visually
Challenged persons can also become potential learners in digital era. They
would be able to participate equally as their counter parts in all the
activities like online counseling, preparing assignment and writing exams.
Further, they would be able to obtain information and instructions more
independently which would enable them to pursue all academic activities as
other peer groups and compete with them in inclusive atmosphere. If
universities or educational institutions take positive steps for providing
study materials, other related information and administrative support in
digital form in accessible format for all learners including VI learners, it
will have great impact on academic performance of universities and educational
institutions. |
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| Aim of study |
This paper has the following objectives: 1. To understand how digital learning provide inclusive
education particularly for visually impaired learners in distance education, 2. To obtain knowledge about different ICT tools used by
visually impaired persons for educational purpose, 3. Examine IGNOU’s initiatives and limitations for providing
ICT support for visually impaired learners , 4. To suggest some measures for creating congenial atmosphere
for digital learning to visually impaired learners. |
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| Review of Literature | 1.
Accessibility guidelines and standards for higher education institutions and
universities
https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/8572354_Final-Accessibility-Guidelines.pdf.
This
government document provides detail guidelines for ensuring accessible
atmosphere in higher educational institutions for independent learning for all
categories of PWDS covered under PWD Act
2016. 2.
Arrigo, M. (2005). E-learning accessibility for blind students. Recent
Research Developments in Learning Technologies, 8(2), 1-5. http://medialt.no/pub/utin/Blind%20students.pdf
This research article attempts to examine different E learning platform
available in US and address the issues of accessibility faced by VI persons. It
has pointed out some major issues related to accessibility existing in
different E learning platform. 3.
Bocconi, S., Dini, S., Ferlino, L., Martinoli, C., & Ott, M. (2007). ICT
educational tools and visually impaired students: different answers to
different accessibility needs. This paper tries explore solution for
accessibility problems for different categories VI persons such as low vision
people and people having high level of blindness in online learning. It also
suggest some measures for making ICT tools accessible for people having
different type of blindness. 4. Hadley, J., Kulier, R., Zamora, J., Coppus, S. F., Weinbrenner, S., Meyerrose, B., ... & Khan, K. S. (2010). Effectiveness of an e-learning course in evidence-based medicine for foundation (internship) training. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 103(7), 288-294. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1258/jrsm.2010.100036 This article describes success stories of VI learners in distance education system from Hadley School for the Blind in US. This is a case study which tells about how blind people can use different ICT tools and pursue Their study. |
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| Main Text | Visually
impaired persons need tools to enable them to use computer and Screen Reading
Software like JAWS and Kerzewel which are used to translate text to audio form
for those students who are totally blind, and Screen Magnifiers enlarge text
and option on the screen display for those students who have a small amount of
usable vision. In an
educational context, designing the content interaction is extremely important
in order to reach a learning goal and
in online learning the methodology is equally crucial. For example a
tool may meet technical accessibility requirements, but it may be unusable for
the blind and visually impairedbecause it is designed with a visual interface
in mind. (E-learning and the accessibility for Blind)Therefore, accessible E
content and learning interface must be compatible with the screen reading
software so that VI learner can easily pursue their study in any digital
platform. In the
field of online learning for VI persons, Hadley Institute has taken lead in
online learning. According to Senior
Vice President Dawn Turco Hadley Institutes in US has been able to stand as the
no. 1 of provider of online and distance education to the VI persons and the
only entity delivering its programme entirely through distance education. All
the courses taught by Institute’s are free to the legally VI persons and their
family members, with a curriculum that stands from high- school-level education
to job training to independent life skills, cooking dining or socializing”. (https://wwwinsidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/03/29/hadley-institute-leads-digital-learning-blind) E-learning
has great potential to help students with vision impairment in their studies
and also facilitate a more equitable representation of this group of people in
higher education. During
pandemic period, most of the teaching learning were conducted through virtual
platform such as Google Meet, Zoom, WebEx etc. IGNOU also conducted counseling
classes, induction meeting, some practical sessions through these popular
platforms. In this backdrop, few VI learners were also able to take advantage
and carry out their studies smoothly due to proactive and positive action of
some Regional Centres. In
recent years, some studies have attempted to address the issue of accessibility
of Online Distance Education for visually impaired person. As reported by Waits
and Lewis 33 percent of US Institutions that offered Distance Education courses
in 2000 and 2001 did not know if their websites followed accessibility guidelines,
28 percent followed the guideline to a moderate extentand 18 percent followed
the guidelines to minor extent.”. Furthermore, Schnetzke reveals, high
percentage of inaccessible pages for the major US organization for the Distance
learning”. These studies prove that, most online educational environment are
still not accessible to students with disabilities. If the information and
activities posted to internet sites are not appropriately accessible with
technology, the VI person will not benefit from these online
opportunities. e-learning for the vision impaired: a holistic perspective) For
example, visually impaired persons have to rely on screen readers, while the
low vision persons have to rely on magnifier and other optical aids. With this
assistive device, low vision person can access to wide variety of applications
including those with graphic interface. However, learner having very less
vision or no vision will be deprived from those information or knowledge. Visually
impaired person and low vision students encounter different types of problems
while accessing online platform such as small characters, crowded pages, popup windows,
iconic menu, complex forms to be filled in etc. (ICT Educational Tools and
Visually Impaired Students: Different Answers to Different Accessibility Needs) Dobransky
and Hargattai(2006) has outlined some key issues related to accessibility in
the field of online learning for the PWD and visually impaired persons in
particular. These include the accessibility of websites and Learning Management
system, the accessibility of audio-video content and alternative, inflexible
time limits built into online exams, the accessibility of power point
presentations and also course materials in inaccessible PDF formats and the
lack of access to needed adaptive technologies. Van de Bunt –Kokhuis and
Bolgers 2009 also highlighted problems with the inaccessibility of online chat
rooms and particularly the
incompatibility of Screen Readers with these forums for students with vision
impairments. Roverts, Crittenden and Crittenden (2011) also pointed out that
many online courses are not designed with accessibility in mind. (disability
and E-Learning: opportunities and Barriers) Taking
all these facts into consideration, all the online learning platform should be
made accessible following the Web Accessibility Guideline WCAG)., This
step would not only motivate many VI Learner to take advantage of digital learning but also It may provide great impetus in increasing gross
enrollment ratio (GER). Smart
Phone: Within
the multiliteracies paradigm, mobile literacy is an emerging and quickly-
growing area study for various reasons. One of them is the continuous and
steady growth of citizens who own a mobile phone. Therefore, a great number of
people are able to communicate and access toinformation. Another reason for
owning mobile phone is that they can be used anywhere and at any time.
(Visually-Impaired Brazilian Students Learning English ... - MDPI) A
comprehensive mobile learning guideline which came in 2013 also points out some
more advantages to mobile learning. It expands the reach and equity of
education to all segments of the society.
Many studies have revealed that mobile devices can help instructorsto use class time more effectively
because They support situated learning,
due to which, Learning is no longer
confined to the four walls of a
classrooms. Learning can be moved to settings that maximize understanding.
(Visually-Impaired Brazilian Students Learning English ... - MDPI) Another
advantage of mobile learning is that they enhance seamless learning. As
information is stored on remote servers, students can access various types of
material from a wide variety of devices including smart phones, tablets, PCs
and laptops. Mobile phone bridge formal and informal learning. Because of their
blurring boundaries between informal and formal education, students can easily
access to learning resources through various mobile learning applications which
has left behind the compulsion of going to formal classrooms. Dueto various
social networks like facebook, whatsapp, youtube channel and similar other
networks which also can be access through mobile phone, the distance between
teacher and the learners has reached to its minimum level specially in distance education system in
present time.Other virtual learning platforms such as Google Meet, Zoom,
virtual Lab etc. are also accessible through mobile. Therefore, “Learning from
any where and any time” has become reality today. VI Learner can also access to learning resources that are available, in mobile after installing some special Text to Speech mobile applications such as Insta Reader, Kibo,
NVision AI and many other similar type of applications. Recently IGNOU
provided mobile phones to VI learners
along with other assistive devices for learner with disabilities in
collaboration with NGO named LIMCO so that,they could use these mobile for the
learning purpose. Such type of initiatives will also help in promoting digital
learning among VI persons because most of the learners with disability come
from very low economic background in India, they are not able to afford mobile
or any E-learning tools which may be useful for them in educational pursuit. Another
significant challenge for VI learner in digital learning is that Most of the
academic counsellors or tutors are not aware about how to guide these learners
to attend classes using virtual platforms with the help of few short keys
commands which enables them to use these platforms as their other sighted peer
groups. Due to this reason, they are
not able to guide andmotivate VI learners in participating classes through any
virtual platforms, they are also not aware of the special needs of VI learners
while doing visual explanation of the content, because of this, these learners
are deprived from most of the information or knowledge which their counsellors
or tutors are giving. National
Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) has also acknowledged the role of technology
for providing quality and inclusive education to thediverse category of person
with disabilities. It clearly spells out the need of developing such technology
that are accessible and affordable for all segment of the society including for
those person having special needs. Accordingly University Grant Commission
(UGC) drafted the Accessibility Guidelines and Standard for Higher Education
Institutions. for this, the committee
was constituted by involving the members from all category of disability. The
draft of the policy was also circulated to stakeholders for obtaining feedbacks
and inputs so that comprehensive accessibility guideline could be drafted so
that online educational technologies could be made more accessible and disable
friendly specially in higher educational institutions. The guideline has also
measures for ensuring accessible
atmosphere environment which includes accessible infra-structure at HEIs premise,
accessible and disable friendly curriculum, flexible and quality evaluation
process, and all the facilities required for pursuing higher education without
any discrimination and impediments for
diverse category of person with disability that are identified in RPWD Act
2016. The final Guideline was issued in June 2022. Detail can be accessed
through https://www.ugc.ac.in › pdf news › 8572354_Final... This
guideline also should be implemented at those
institution who are imparting education through distance learning mode
in order to achieve its goal of reaching to the unreached. Some of
the provision for Facilitating Digital Learning in the Guide line described in
different sub sections which involves
all teaching learning process, evaluation process, and providing library
facility are listed below: 2.3
Special Needs: Admission and Promotional Activities 1. Ensure that the content on the website, email
and social media campaigns can be read by various assistive technologies;
enlarged; meets color and contrast ratio requirements; includes alternatives
for visual content; videos use closed captioning and description. 2.5
Specific Needs: Teaching and Learning 2. Digital accessibility Some
examples of support for Visual Disabilities (Blindness & Low-Vision) 3. Voice recorders, computers, digital slates,
styluses for note-taking. 4. Permission to audio/video record lectures. 2.7
Specific Needs: Student Activities 1. Access to online education 2. Accessible web/video conferencing platforms
that support assistive technologies etc. 3
Accessible Information, Communication and Learning Resources 3.2.1
Standards to be followed for digital content All
education institutions shall ensure thatfollowing the universal design
principles, all e-content (online or offline) adheres to the e-content
accessibility guidelines issued by the Department of Education, Government of
India[1] . For example, a scanned image of a document is not readable with
screen reading software. Similarly, if an Indian language digital document is
prepared using a font that does not comply with Unicode standards, then such
document is also not accessible with Assistive Technologies. Therefore, it is
essential that digital documents have editable text in fonts compliant to
Unicode standards. For ease of reference, the table below provides a list of
accessibility guidelines and their validation tools for different digital
content formats: 40 Table 3.1 Accessibility Guidelines and their Validation
Tools for Digital Content Content Type Standard Validator Microsoft Word
Document Office Accessibility Guidelines Word accessibility checker PDF PDF-UA
PDF Accessibility checker EPUB EPUB Accessibility Guidelines ACE (Accessibility
Checker for EPUB) Websites, Videos and apps WCAG (Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines) or GIGW AXE, WAVE, Etc. Audio DAISY DAISY Validator Fonts for
Indian languages in all above types Unicode --- 3.2.4.
Sugamya Pustakalaya- Sugamya Pustakalaya is a shared online library of accessible
format books created jointly by the Government of India and Non-government
organizations. It can be accessed online through www.sugamyapustakalaya.in. The
key objective of this online repository of accessible format books is to avoid
duplication of conversion of books in an accessible format. Conversion of
instructional materials in accessible format needs a lot of financial and human
resources. Instructional materials required in one institution would be useful
for many institutions all across the country. When there is a need for any book
in an accessible format, institutions need to search for the book on
SugamyaPustakalaya. If the book is not available there, then only the
conversion of the book in accessible format should be done and then uploaded on
SugamyaPustakalaya to add the same to the national collection.
SugamyaPustakalaya has been created as a secure distribution system of
accessible format materials produced under copyright exception for persons with
print disabilities. It is part of the Accessible Book Consortium (ABC), Global
Book Service hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
Partner libraries across the globe contribute their collections of accessible
digital books to the ABC catalogue under the framework set out in the Marrakesh
Treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind,
visually impaired or otherwise print disabled. Thus, institutions are required
to: · Subscribe to SugamyaPustakalaya · Upload instructional materials and
books converted to accessible format on it · Provide membership of it to all
students and faculty with print disabilities 43 6.3.2.
Choices for instruction materials need to be broadened. Reasonable efforts
should be made by the faculty and institutions to make resources available such
as course text books/e-books, audio/visual multimedia materials, online course
contents. Additional efforts need to be made to prepare class handouts, a list
of required and recommended reading, assignment information, grading rubrics,
test and examination-related materials. 6.9.1.
Content developers must leverage Assistive Technology to design accessible
courses. For example, videos should be available with captions for those who
have hearing disabilities and there should be audio support for the students
with visual disabilities. Students with visual disabilities should be able to
access content using screen reader technology. If the PDF is simply a scanned
image, the screen reader technology will not be able to read it. Then students
with reading difficulties (Dyslexia) have limited abilities to read the printed
word and need access to assistive technologies that allow them to view the word
and also hear it at the same time. 6.9.2. While designing accessible courses, the teachers must consider (i) easy-toread fonts, (ii) colour contrast for the text, (iii) simple formatting, (iv) adding of audio/video files. Avoid unnecessary use of bold and italics. The audio contents should be prepared to have no background noise. It is important to include transcripts of audio and video lectures which students can access with assistive technologies. 7.3.6. Examining body should also provide reading
materials in Braille or e-text or on a computer having suitable screen reading
software for open book examination. Similarly, online examination should be in
accessible format i.e., websites, question papers and all other study materials
should be accessible as per the international standards laid down in this
regard. 8.1.1
Integration of resources/services prior to the admission The
admission information must be displayed on the website with a full description
of the process in audio/video mode with a separate column along with contact
details of designated officials. 8.3.2 Library Services for
the persons with visual disabilities To cater to the needs of persons with
visual disabilities and person with print disabilities, libraries need to
provide the service of magnifiers, digital accessible information system,
digitized catalogue, web-braille system, screen readers and screen magnifiers
support with appropriate software such as JAWs, NVDA, Super OVA, Kurzweil etc.,
large-print books, scanners, converting documents via OCR reader, alternate
format services, talking notice boards, provision of tactile maps at
conspicuous places, accessible websites and digital libraries |
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| Conclusion |
Technology plays key role in fostering and promoting distance
education due to its reach to the larger population in a very short time. It
has ability to communicate and disseminate information with great transparency
and effectively, so that the end user of it can grasp the information in a
greater speed and there is no space of ambiguity in any operational procedures
even in teaching learning and evaluation process. The technology also can be
cost effective and time saving in any major task accomplishment. In this
context, Digital Learning has brought great revolution in the field of education.
For PWDs also Digital learning has become blessing because of it’s quality of
customization as per individual’s need. Hence small efforts in making Digital
Learning disable friendly, would also can bring great change in their lives.
Similarly, Digital learning will help to become VI learner more independent,
competent and competitive as their other sighted peer groups. Few steps such as
developing online portal such as Samarth Portal, Grievance Redressal portal and
similar type of other portal which provides online student support services
accessible following WCAG guideline, considering the need of VI learner. Making
IGNOUmain website and Regional Centre’s website accessible as per standard
suggested by UGC recent guideline can create great scope in Digital Learning
for VI learner in any education system in general and distance education in
particular. In this process feedbacks and inputs, obtained from the concerned
group would bring better and positive result which can become exemplar for
other education institutions as well. Similarly, time-to-time access audit
would also help to update Digital Learning mechanisms as per individual’s need. |
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| References | 1. Accessibility guidelines and standards for higher
education institutions and universities https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/8572354_Final-Accessibility-Guidelines.pdf(Accessed
on 19.02.2023) |
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