Technology Strategies for supporting disabled students studying STEM subjects.

E.A. Draffan, University of Southampton

A Very Modern Lecture, reused courtesy of pjohnkeane Flickr photostream under a CC licence "Kent State Study Looks at Cell Phone Use and Fitness in College Students" by Kent State University

Thinking about …

•  Changing scenery

•  Information Technology /Assistive Technology

•  Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) technology support and guidance

•  Alternative Formats

•  Bring Your Own Device – Cloud and mobile technologies

•  Future hopes!

Key Trends Accelerating Higher Education Technology Adoption •  6

•  Growing Ubiquity of Social Media

•  Integration of Online, Hybrid, and Collaborative Learning

•  Rise of Data-Driven Learning and Assessment

•  Shift from Students as Consumers to Students as Creators

•  Agile Approaches to Change

•  Evolution of Online Learning - MOOCS

Horizon Report 2014 http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-he-EN-SC.pdf

2006 -8 Facebook Wikipedia, Netbooks, iPhones Internet access via mobiles

2009 - 2010 Twitter eBooks & Kindle Android smartphones The iPad!

2011-12 Tablets of all shapes Social Media meets collaborative learning Google Chrome book

2013 MOOCs 3D printing Wearable technology Flipped classroom

2014 + Technology –powered Education combining - online, - traditional - collaborative

learning - Learning

analytics - Personal

content

How are students and staff coping?

Horizon Report 2014 http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-he-EN-SC.pdf

IT knowledge •  Nearly all 12-15 yr. olds with an active online profile continue to use

Facebook (97%)

•  Use of tablets has tripled among the 5-15 age range since 2012 (42%, up from 14%)

(http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1214979/)

•  12-15yr. olds send

an average of 200

messages a week

•  UK teens using smartphones

could rise to as high as

96 per cent by 2017 (Pew Research)

AT Knowledge •  Mainstreaming

•  Personalised and portable

•  Agile and adaptable

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Comparing students by disability type Assistive Technology (AT) use vs. diagnosis before Further (FE) and Higher Education (HE)

Used AT before HE

Diagnosed before FE/HE

Proportion of disabled students in UK HEIs by subject area, 2012/13

0

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10000

15000

20000

25000

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10 12 14 16 18 20

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Disabled 2012/13 Number of disabled students

40.6% of disabled students studying STEM

subjects

STEM in HE related to the use of technologies •  STEM subjects often includes visualisation - white/black

boards, animation, video etc.

•  A lab environment, field work and placements

•  Alternative formats and making notes

http://projects.hestem-sw.org.uk/upload/Bath-VI-Event-Report.pdf

‘When I did physics I was making notes in Braille but was using different methods for the workshops as maths is a complex subject, you can use LaTeX […] but LaTeX and Braille doesn’t suit all’

Visual media •  Audio descriptions and Captioning – YouTube

•  Transcriptions – Panopto with Synote http://linkeddata.synote.org/ offering synchronised annotations. Paper covering ways of using automated speech recognition http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6529071

•  Use of note taking apps, image capture and OCR – e.g. Evernote + Prizmo https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/prizmo-scanning-ocr-speech/id366791896?mt=8

Student voices - LexDis “The [tablet] was invaluable in the field as it allowed me to take notes

and complete spreadsheets of field results …I managed ok typing

one handed.

(Speech recognition user)

“I don’t like pens and papers! Too much waste and extra cost. I’ve been using my iPad with a stylus and several note taking/drawing apps so far. I synchronise all my

notes with iCloud and I’m perfectly happy

(student struggling with pain and fatigue)

I find if I use the Live Scribe with the ear buds just hanging loosely

round my neck, then the microphone from the pen does not

pick up the scratching when writing, but still records the lecture

or meeting”

http://www.lexdis.org.uk/

Practicalities in the lab, field and workplace •  Communication

•  Knowledge about the technologies available – 3D printing, portable magnification, image capture for note taking – OneNote and the Cloud

•  FingerReader http://fluid.media.mit.edu/projects/fingerreader

Support for teaching staff related to STEM and AT use. Topics in Practical Methods for STEM Accessibility USA http://www.access2science.com/index.html and https://www.washington.edu/doit/Stem/index.html

Further guidance for Maths from UK http://www.bath.ac.uk/study/mash/maths-access/ and elearning http://stem.ecs.soton.ac.uk/

Conferences and papers – often provided for and by disability specialists http://www.icchp.org/ and the summer school for visually impaired students http://www.icchp-su.net/ We need more exceptions to the rule http://eaeeie2014.ube.ege.edu.tr/docs/proceeding.pdf !

Alternative formats •  Tactile – Touching Maths EU project - schools based for

blind students but useful ideas http://touchingmaths.net/

•  Scanning, screen reading and braille with InftyReader, ChattyInfty and InftyEditor

•  ViewPlus graphing, Mathtalk and Mathtype

•  MathML support within ePub3 readers: http://docs.mathjax.org/en/latest/misc/epub.html

•  Online – Robobraille for spoken Math - Daisy and MP3

•  Desktop – Central Access Reader http://www.cwu.edu/central-access/reader

Edupub - ePub3 support grid - http://www.epubtest.org/

But…

•  Few assistive technologies are able to read aloud equations with navigation

•  Ongoing project to create reading tool for reading maths notation with text-to-speech, highlighting and other tools to assist comprehension – www.stemreader.org

Bring Your Own Device… •  Some portable devices may look similar but provide very

different user experiences and personal preferences run deep! http://hub.eaccessplus.eu/wiki/Mobile/smart_devices

•  Recent studies have shown that while students find e-book and portable devices beneficial, they are still under-taking much of their studying on laptop or desktop computers.

•  Each update, device change and technology based strategy can take time to learn with options for personal preferences and use of assistive technologies being affected.

“I didn't have a laptop or PC and struggled with to use university comouters as it takes me a long time to work through assignments etc! Having my laptop means i can work in my own time anywhere i need and i can use the software that was given to help...” (Student with SpLD)

Future hopes for AT •  Some things are here to stay

We still need input hooks

•  Standardisation – format and content interoperability: Market place →hardware → app → format → content →AT

•  User-centric computing model – data access everywhere

•  Flexible screen displays and wearable technologies

•  Adapted from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-sanity-check/five-predictions-for-ces-2020/

Resources Publisher lookup: http://www.publisherlookup.org.uk/ - contact details for requesting alternative formats from publishers

Web2Access: http://www.web2access.org.uk/ - tests for evaluating accessibility of eLearning resources

ePub3 support grid: http://www.epubtest.org/ - evaluates ePub3 support in apps, devices and browse-based tools

MathML support within ePub3 readers: http://docs.mathjax.org/en/latest/misc/epub.html - extract of ePub3 support grid listing systems that will render maths equations accessibly.

Load2Learn https://load2learn.org.uk/ - accessible format repository (mainly school content but growing HE support)

Bookshare: https://www.bookshare.org/?c=en_GB – US repository of accessible formats. Contact Richard Orme about UK pilot

Thank You E.A. Draffan, ECS Accessibility Team

http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk

With thanks to

Abi James – Visiting Research

Fellow

Project Manager

StemReader

www.stemreader.org