UNIVERSAL DESIGN &WEB ACCESSIBILITY

Web-based Instruction for College Students

Designer: Teresa SundholmAdvisor: Bude Su

CAPSTONE FALL 2010

Masters of Instructional Science and Technology

School of Information Technology and Communication Design, California State University Monterey Bay

ABOUT ME

• Graduate of ITCD – Website Design

• Teaching assistant ITCD at CSUMB (2008-10)

• Passionate interest in accessible/universal design

• My project – website and tutorials

PROBLEM STATEMENT

• Importance of creating websites that are accessible:

• ethical reasons

• legal reasons

• Current instruction: resource driven, too advanced

IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM

• The American Disabilities Act (ADA) applied to websites

• Future designers cannot ignore need to create:

• websites accessed by users of all abilities

• universally designed websites

Engaging

Instruction

Feedback

Inspire

positive

attitudes

MY SOLUTION

WHAT THIS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHES

• Instructional media engages and informs

• Primer for further study

• Confidence checks and feedback

• Cognitive and Affective learning strategies

• ADA compliant

MAIN MATERIALS USED

• Adobe Dreamweaver, HTML, CSS

• Adobe Captivate

• Adobe Photoshop

• Mac iMovie

• Internet Browsers

http://myspace.csumb.edu/~teresa_sundholm/Mist_capstone_site/

PROJECT DEMONSTRATION

EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT - TESTING

• Sample size: 17 students (target audience)

• Post-test paired sample one-tail p-value: 0.000335979

• Pre-set alpha: 0.05

• Well below 0.05 - testing shows significant

improvement

QUIZRESULTS

EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT - USABILITY

• Positive student response including:

• ease of use of the project

• engagement from graphics and media

STUDENTCOMMENT

“Very clean and pleasing.

Actually explained the

mechanics – a visually

impaired person can’t read the

text…Good module!”

FUTURE OF THE PROJECT

• Project to be completed

• Use in curriculum

• Use in portfolio

• Saleable

CONCLUSION

• New skills learned:

• technical, coding, testing, instructional design

• Advice for future students:

• Scale project or have partner

• Aware of skillset

• Positive experience

THANKS

• Faculty and staff of ITCD and MIST

• Mentors in design and web accessibility :

• Kevin Cahill, Design Faculty

• Chip Lenno, CIO

• Cindy Compean, Assistive Technology

• Friends