Https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/curriculum modules

From Education & Outreach

Curriculum Project Plan

Summary: Update and expand EOWG's Training Resources:

Previous work: Curriculum & Course Materials

Purpose

  • To create curriculum resources (specific lessons) for teaching UD and accessibility in course content for Computer Science, Web Design and Digital Media.

Audience

  • Faculty of colleges, universities, and high schools who wish to teach about UD and accessibility for the web and/or digital media.

Deliverables

Resources to provide for each topic area

  • Suggested prerequisites (e.g. knowledge of HTML)?
  • Clear learning objectives and outcomes
  • Suggested readings (including multimedia resources) for students
  • Resources for faculty to develop lectures and slides, including web pages, books, images, articles, etc. (Resources need to be reviewed for accuracy and compliance with international standards before inclusion).
  • Point faculty to the existing slides in the topic area, such as WAI training slides, when appropriate (WAI slides need to be updated first)
  • Perhaps on rare occasions, the provision of slides
  • Lesson outline including suggested in-class student activities
  • Suggested student assignments
  • Include characteristics for each lesson ala the WAI presentations and training (below from: https://www.w3.org/WAI/training/topics#intro)
    • Goals
    • Audience
    • Description
    • What this topic covers

Topic Areas and Modules

Note: the following topics were derived from “Who Teaches Accessibility” study/article and the “D.7 Design for All – A major in an ICT Curriculum” in ACM IT 2017 curriculum recommendations, particularly the Spanish major in a Computers and Telecommunications curriculum proposal – pg. 146 of the ACM document).

Module 1: Design for all (D4All) and Inclusive Design concepts and definitions

  • Definition of terms D4All, usability, Universal Design, Inclusive Design, User-Centered Design and accessibility
Learning Objectives
  • Define the meaning, scope and origins of the terms Universal Design (and related terms such as Inclusive Design, Design for All), accessibility, and usability.
  • Identify the principles of these various design approaches, such as User-Centered Design (as proposed by Donald Norman), POUR (web content accessibility) and Universal Design (7 principles)
Learning Outcomes
  • Students will be able to define the distinctions and similarities between D4All/UD/ID, usability and accessibility and understand how and where these concepts and tools should be used in the design and evaluation process
Suggested Readings
  • TBD
Suggested Prerequisites
  • None
Audience
  • Engineering, Computer Science, Web Design or Digital Media students or anyone interested in design 4 all concepts in physical or digital environments


Module 2: Demographics, user preferences and needs, benefits of D4All

Learning Objectives
  • Identify access issues of persons with disabilities, other often digitally marginalized populations, and design considerations for the scope of platforms and user environments
Learning Outcomes
  • Students will gain an understanding of the different types of populations that access the web, the issues they face and how design affects accessibility and usability
  • Students will better understand how demographic changes – ageing of population, globalization, and other social and economic trends – prioritizes the need for accessibility and D4ALL approaches to web design
Suggested Readings
  • TBD
Topic Areas

2.1 Demographics

  • Disability and age demographics
    • Disability statistics – U.S. and elsewhere
    • Ageing of population – projections, ramifications

2.2 Diversity of target groups; principles of D4All and user participation.

  • How people with disabilities use the web
  • Older users
  • Range of abilities and functionality
  • Use of mobile and increased use projections

2.3 Globalization, technical platforms and other factors

  • Platform/device independence
  • Situational constraints (related to UD)
  • Globalization

[Engaging with individuals from diverse populations appropriately (i.e. disability etiquette) (move this elsewhere?)]

Module 3: Business Case for Accessibility

(Too intertwined with legal?)

Learning Objectives
  • Review the history of regulation and civil rights laws in the U.S. that relate to disability and accessibility
  • Review worldwide regulation and laws, including U.N. resolutions
  • Review DOJ agreements and court rulings in the U.S. that apply to disability and accessibility for the web
  • Review the Universal Design and other business benefits derived from implementing accessibility and Design4All in products and services
Learning Outcomes
  • Students will understand the current legal landscape, how it influences the business case for accessibility, and the business benefits of including accessibility and Inclusive Design in products and services
Suggested Readings
  • TBD
Audience
  • Anyone interested in legal and regulatory history related to accessibility and/or interested in the legal requirements of the business sector
Suggested Prerequisites
  • None
Topic Areas

3.1 Legal Overview & Review

  • Understanding legal accessibility regulations (e.g., Section 508, Americans with Disabilities Act, etc. for Europe, the web accessibility directive, etc.), legal landscape based on recent rulings (i.e. Netflix, Winn Dixie, H&R Block, etc.) (EOWG feedback: Needs to be localized – i.e. U.S. vs Europe, etc. – or at least how it relates to an international point of view. Make sure not solely U.S. centered.)
  • Summary and review of legislation, U.S., U.N. and elsewhere
  • Summary of DOJ agreements, court cases in U.S. (and elsewhere)
  • Implications of U.S. court rulings worldwide
  • Use of WCAG level aa as legal standard

3.2 Business benefits of designing for accessibility and UD

3.3 Costs to businesses of being inaccessible

  • Company image
  • lawsuits

3.4 Benefits of accessibility

  • Global market, reaching all audiences
  • Spending power of persons with disabilities

Module 4: Assistive Technologies & Adaptive Strategies

Learning Objectives
  • TBD
Learning Outcomes
  • TBD
Suggested Readings
  • TBD
Audience
  • TBD
Suggested Prerequisites
  • TBD
Topic Areas
  • 4.1 Accessibility barriers for persons with disabilities, for AT (i.e. need to follow certain international standards and guidelines to ensure AT compatibility) and D4All (e.g. presenting information in different ways, cultural differences, different technology platforms, neurodiversity, spectrum of abilities and functionality, etc.)

4.2 Adaptive strategies – what specific adaptations do individuals use (i.e. enlarged font, high screen contrast via control panel) 4.3 Appropriate Assistive Technology in specific environments for people with concrete needs. 4.4 Review of AT and how it is used 4.5 Understanding of the interoperability between AT and ICTs. (Addressed somewhat in first bullet point in this section) 4.6 Requirements to make ICT compatible with AT

Section 2: Web Technologies and Inclusive Design

Module 5: Web Standards, Web Page Structure and Semantics

Learning Objectives
  • Review the rational and accessibility benefits of designing with Web Standards
  • Utilize structure and semantics to develop more effective and accessible web pages
  • Use the new HTML5 semantic elements to increase the accessibility and effectiveness of websites
Learning Outcomes
  • Students will understand what is meant by Web Standards and how to implement these standards, structure and semantics when designing and coding web pages
Suggested Readings
  • TBD
Audience
  • Students and specific audiences who are interested in the specific technical requirements for designing according to best practices and international standards (i.e. HTML5 and WCAG 2.1)
Suggested Prerequisites
  • Experience directly coding web pages or designing pages using tools such as Coda or Dreamweaver
Topic Areas
  • 5.1 Web Standards, Page Structure and Semantics: the Foundation of Accessible Design and Design for All
  • 5.2 Choosing a proper doctype and effective meta data (e.g. page title, page description, etc.)
  • 5.3 Using Headings, Lists, Paragraphs and Other Semantic Elements

(Use same categories as used in the EO Tutorials on page structure)

  • 5.4 HTML 5 - Extending Semantics and Structure

(What about WAI-ARIA?)

Module 6: Semantics Continued: Images/data-tables/complex graphics

Learning Objectives
  • Give examples of best practices for describing images.
  • Identify specific considerations when writing descriptions for complex images, such as tables and graphs.
  • Write alternate text for images in Word, Powerpoint and PDF documents.
Learning Outcomes
  • Students will understand the features and guidelines for providing effective alternate text for images, tables and complex images
  • Students will be able to apply specific HTML coding techniques for providing appropriate alternate text
Suggested Readings
Audience
  • Students and other individuals who are interested in the specific concepts and coding techniques for implementing effective alternate text
Suggested Prerequisites
  • Same as module 5
Topic Areas
  • 6.1 Alternative text for images
  • 6.2 Describing complex graphics
  • 6.3 Tables
  • 6.4 Carousels

Module 7: Visual Layout

Learning Objectives
  • Identify the issues that occur with various types of low vision & color blindness conditions
  • Review & discuss strategies for ensuring access for users with vision impairments
  • Review and discuss the theories around page layout, font types, color contrast and other aspects of visual design
  • Learn & implement the coding and design techniques required for accessible and usable visual design
Learning Outcomes
  • Students will understand the visual features and strategies that make a site accessible for persons with disabilities but also for users in general
Suggested Readings


Audience
  • TBD
Suggested Prerequisites


Topic Areas
  • 7.1 color contrast
  • 7.2 font size and font flexibility
  • 7.3 appropriate fonts for headings and body text
  • 7.4 white space, alignment, consistency grouping of elements
  • 7.5 line lengths for headings and body
  • 7.6 visual design & hierarchy


Module 8: Structure and Semantics Continued: Menus, Tables, Carousels

Learning Objectives
  • TBD
Learning Outcomes
  • TBD
Suggested Readings
  • TBD
Audience
  • TBD
Suggested Prerequisites
  • TBD
Topic Areas
  • TBD

Module 9: Multimedia and audio

Learning Objectives
  • TBD
Learning Outcomes
  • TBD
Suggested Readings
  • TBD
Audience
  • TBD
Suggested Prerequisites
  • TBD
Topic Areas

9.1 captioning and transcripts 9.2 Audio description

Section 3: Evaluating sites for Accessibility - formally and informally

Module 10: Evaluating web pages for accessibility

Learning Objectives
  • Identify specific technical issues to examine for web accessibility
  • Simulate accessing a site as a user with blindness and other scenarios
Learning Outcomes
  • TBD
Suggested Readings
  • TBD
Audience
  • TBD
Suggested Prerequisites
  • TBD
Topic Areas

10.1 Methods for evaluating interfaces, automatically, by experts and by users 10.2 Automated tools 10.3 Manual tests

  • Keyboard-only
  • Screenreader
  • Code review
  • Easy Checks
  • Shutting off styles

Module 11: Evaluating your page for WCAG compliance

Learning Objectives
  • TBD
Learning Outcomes
  • TBD
Suggested Readings
  • TBD
Audience
  • TBD
Suggested Prerequisites
  • TBD
Topic Areas

11.1 Introduction to evaluating web pages by accessibility standards and heuristics (e.g., W3C, WCAG) – (have to decide how far to go on this) (have to check what’s included and what’s not included in the existing WAI presentations and training)

  • Depth and sub-topics TBA

11.2 WCAG at a glance 11.3 Easy Checks (as a start) 11.4 A deeper dive of WCAG - Use of quickref 11.5 When can you say your page meets WCAG 2.x AA

Scope & Focus

  • In Scope - These course components will be geared for use in primarily Computer Science, Web Design and Digital Media. It is possible that these components could also be used by other programs – business, economics, humanities – to discuss issues related to accessibility and disability (to convey general topics and social issues, not specific technical details of accessibility).
  • Focus should be on topic areas where WAI has a specific expertise (e.g. using WCAG for evaluation) and where EOWG already has tools that can be readily integrated into curriculum (e.g. Tutorials)
  • Out of Scope - Anything beyond the deliverables mentioned below. Generally, this project seeks to avoid developing resources for teaching about accessibility and UD that are already readily available. In addition, this project will focus on Web Accessibility, HTML, CSS, HTML5 and to some degree, ARIA. However, we will not cover more advanced topics such as javascript, PHP, content management systems, etc. [I propose that we also not cover mobile. The list of topics under deliverables is already quite long].

Requirements

[text]

Tasks / Milestones

  1. Define roles
  2. Identify existing WAI documents that can potentially be referenced
    {SLH: I'm not sure about this. Can *all* of the existing WAI documents potentially be referenced?]
  3. Identify gaps in current EOWG training resources (modules that need to be updated and developed)
  4. Assign module development to editors in small production group
  5. Develop new content
  6. Submit for EO review and revision
  7. Finalize modules and post to WAI website
  8. Develop plan for review, update and revision of posted modules

Time Line

  • 20 March 2018 Updated project plan submitted (Howard)

...

  • 01 November 2018 Completed project submitted

Project Responsibilities

Project Lead

Howard Kramer

  • Create project plan to develop a higher ed curriculum including task definitions, assignments, timelines and QA schedule.
  • Manage communications to keep project focused and on schedule, including communication with EO chairs and staff
  • Identify how and when to coordinate with full EOWG
  • Execute plan and revise as needed

Editorial Group

Lydia Harkey
Kris Anne Kinney
Howard Kramer

  • Support project planning including identification of useful existing resources, gap analysis, etc
  • Define modules - purpose, learning objectives, format, etc
  • Write framework to reference existing WAI resources
  • Develop content for new modules
  • Integrate EOWG comments and feedback

EOWG

  • (Chairs) Schedule review and facilitate comment as needed during development cycle
  • Review materials as developed in a timely manner
  • Provide specific, actionable feedback
  • Approve final version of modules
  • Publish on WAI web site
  • Approve plan for periodic updates and revision

Future Development

  • [text]
  • ...
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