CAPDM is committed to making eLearning systems and materials accessible to as many people as possible. We can produce content conforming to the W3C Web Content Accessibility guidelines, IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications and U.S. Section 508 guidelines to ensure that as many people as possible can benefit from your eLearning resources.

The U.S. Department of Statistics estimate that between 10 and 20 percent of the population has some type of disability. In the U.K. alone there are 2 million blind and partially sighted people.

When designing accessible web pages, we must take into account the fact that different students may access the content using very different types of web browsers. For example, information may be displayed on screen using a visual web browser, read aloud with a synthesised speech screen reader, or presented using a dynamic braille display. We also do not know which method a particular student is using to communicate with the browser (mouse, keyboard, voice recognition, or another completely different method).

By carefully designing eLearning materials we can help non-visual browsers to understand the information and reduce the risk of excluding potential customers because they cannot access your information.

In recent years many countries have passed anti-disability discrimination legislation, which may place legal obligations on content providers to produce accessible materials. In the U.K. the legislation affecting accessibility includes the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001.

Legislation affecting eLearning

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 extends the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 and places new duties on further education institutions:

• not to treat disabled students less favourably, without justification, for a reason which relates to their disability; and
• to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that people who are disabled are not put at a substantial disadvantage compared to people who are not disabled in accessing education.

Both of these duties came into force on 1 September 2002 (with the exception of the duty to make reasonable adjustments regarding providing auxiliary aids, services and physical alterations).

The main section of the Act that applies to eLearning is new section 28R(2):"It is unlawful for the body responsible for an educational institution to discriminate against a disabled student in the student services it provides, or offers to provide", where 'Student Services' are "services of any description which are provided wholly or mainly for students" [s.28(11)].

'Student Services' is therefore likely to cover all areas of an institution website (not already covered by the DDA), all eLearning materials and virtual learning environments . Legal action can be brought against inaccessible websites for disability discrimination.

CAPDM solution

We produce learning materials using a single set of XML masters and can deliver to multiple output formats, including accessible web pages and text-only versions. Our approach enables you to:

• respond to legislative changes quickly and efficiently
• offer specialised versions of your learning materials cost-effectively

We closely monitor developments in the area of accessibility and encourage our team to follow interest groups such as the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative and the RNIB Campaign for Good Web Design.