Content Creation

General points

Motor impairments can range widely from age related difficulties to long term disabling conditions or short term injuries. They can require specific assistive technologies (such as switch operated devices) or mere tweaking of existing hardware systems - for example, reducing the sensitivity of the mouse or keyboard. The range of appropriate and reasonable adjustments will depend on the individual’s circumstances.

Some subject areas can pose more difficulties for learners with motor impairments but this is less to do with the nature of course content and more to do with the activities and the context in which they are carried out. Courses with a high proportion of practical work or travel may pose difficulties which can be reduced by imaginative use of appropriate learning materials. For example, a simulation of lab work may enable a learner to demonstrate skills and understanding which might be difficult to demonstrate safely in a live laboratory context.

Assistive technologies

A range of hardware and software solutions can support learners in different aspects of their course. For many disabilities, specific media are better for the learner and others are worse - for example, a blind learner likes audio but not images. The same does not apply with motor impairment because the critical factors are not the nature of the medium (text, image, etc.) but:

• The way in which content is accessed and navigated.
  
• The learning activity based around the content.
  

Assistive technologies may therefore include:

• those that aid the manipulation of hard copy – e.g. document holders, page turners.
• those that allow users to personalise mainstream systems to better suit their needs – e.g. StickyKeys, MouseKeys, etc. – see JISC TechDis staff pack ‘Benevolent Bill - What Microsoft does for accessibility’
  
• those that provide alternative interfaces to mainstream technologies - for example trackerballs, keyguards, voice recognition, switch systems - see www.emptech.info.
  
• those that offer alternatives to mainstream processes - for example, voice recording or video recording as an alternative to note-taking and writing.
• those that offer specific benefits such as word prediction software which can significantly reduce the number of keystrokes required when writing.
  

In addition to specific technology support, it is important to recognize that effective use of mainstream learning technologies provides immense additional benefits for motor impaired learners. Examples include:

• Interactive whiteboards. The ability to save content from an interactive whiteboard onto a Virtual Learning Environment also benefits the learner who may be able to concentrate more on listening and less on note-taking.
  
• Where key teaching resources are loaded onto the Virtual Learning Environments learners can access them in their own time, read them at their own speed and manipulate them with their own assistive technologies.
  

Traditional resources and activities

For learners with motor impairments traditional resources are likely to create few problems but some traditional teaching activities can be problematic, particularly those requiring physical dexterity such as organising multiple resources, taking notes, etc.

Digital resources and activities

Resources in digital format are more portable than their hard copy alternatives but the benefit for the learner still depends on the quality of training. This includes;

• Staff training - if staff are trained in creating accessible documents (see JISC TechDis Accessibility Essentials 2) learners can navigate long and complex documents with minimal effort using the Document Map view.
  
• Learner training - learners need to be aware of how they can:
  
• Set up mainstream technologies (e.g. laptops, networked computers) to suit their needs (with StickyKeys, MouseKeys and FilterKeys, for example).
  
• Use the functions built into mainstream software - such as AutoText for word processing or auto-scrolling of PDF documents.
  
• Use shortcut keys to replace mouse movements.
  

Where interactive e-learning resources are being designed in-house it is important to ensure navigation by keyboard alone is possible. The Xerte learning object creator developed by the University of Nottingham provides a nice example of how non-technical staff using the JISC TechDis template for Xerte can create learning objects with full keyboard navigation. See www.techdis.ac.uk/getxerte.

Content creation for learners with motor difficulties - subsections:

Defining Motor Difficulties

Context

Adapting text-based materials

Adapting image-based materials