Abstract
In order to guarantee equal opportunities to all students, the accessibility of ICT educational tools is worldwide considered a major issue. Nowadays, visually impaired students can take advantage of a large number of effective assistive technologies but, while using electronic material for learning purposes, they often encounter a number of different accessibility and usability problems. The variety of obstacles they may find on their way is quite large mainly because the term “visually impaired” encompasses a wide range of deficits, ranging from blindness to a number of other multifaceted, although less severe, visual impairments. The accessibility requirements for e-learning products established by the laws in force in the different European and non-European countries can be considered an important step onwards; further measures, nevertheless, are still needed to foster the actual “usability” of such products by sight impaired people.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union Article 21-1 Non-discrimination (accessed February 2007), http://ec.europa.eu/comm/external_relations/human_rights/doc/charter_364_01en.pdf
Klironomos, I., Antona, M., Basdekis, I., Stephanidis, C.: EDeAN Secretariat for 2005 White Paper: promoting Design for All and e-Accessibility in Europe Universal Access in the Information Society International Journal 5(1) (June 2006)
Hitchcock, C., Stahl, S.: Assistive Technology, Universal Design, Universal Design for Learning: Improved Learning Opportunities Journal of Special Education Technology 18(4) (2003)
Stephanidis, C., Savidis, A.: Universal Access in the Information Society: Methods, Tools, and Interaction Technologies. In: Stephanidis, C., Savidis, A. (eds.) Universal Access in the Information Society, vol. 1(1), Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Anderson, P.: The Future of Human-Computer Interaction in Emerging Technologies for Learning, BECTA (accessed February 2007) (2006) http://becta.org.uk/corporate/publications/documents/Emerging_Technologies.pdf
World Health Organization, WHO, Magnitude and causes of visual impairment Fact Sheet N°282 (accessed February 2007) (2004) http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/print.html
Viisola, M.: Statistics on Children with Visual Impairments ERIC Education Resource Information Center Publication ED432106 (accessed February 2007) (1999) http://eric.ed.gov/
Burzagli, L., Emiliani, P.L., Graziani, P.: Accessibility in the Field of Education, Lecture Notes In Computer Science. In: Stary, C., Stephanidis, C. (eds.) User-Centered Interaction Paradigms for Universal Access in the Information Society. LNCS, vol. 3196, pp. 235–241. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Anohina, A.: Analysis of the terminology used in the field of virtual learning Educational Technology & Society, 8 (3), 91–102 (2005)
Wikipedia, The free Encyclopedia - Electronic learning (accessed February 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Learning
Hoppe, H.U., Joiner, R., Millard, M., Sharples, M.: Guest editorial: wireless and mobile technologies in education. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 19, 255–259 (2003)
Lin, C., Kuo, M.: Adaptive Networked Learning Environments Using Learning Objects, Learner Profiles and Inhabited Virtual Learning. In: Worlds Proceedings of the Fifth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2005) (2005)
Dini, S., Ferlino, L., Gettani, A., Martinoli, C., Ott, M.: Educational software and low vision students: evaluating accessibility factors. In: Universal Access in the Information Society, Springer Berlin, Heidelberg (2006), ISSN 1615-5289 (Print) 1615-5297 (Online)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bocconi, S., Dini, S., Ferlino, L., Martinoli, C., Ott, M. (2007). ICT Educational Tools and Visually Impaired Students: Different Answers to Different Accessibility Needs. In: Stephanidis, C. (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Applications and Services. UAHCI 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4556. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73283-9_55
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73283-9_55
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-73282-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-73283-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)