AccessLearn Introductory Survey Results 2. Challenges to providing accessible online learning

Hi all

In this second post discussing the survey findings, I’m focusing on challenges and opportunities.

Question 3 asked respondents to rank in order challenges to providing accessible online learning experiences.

The most significant challenges were, in order of percentage of responses that ranked the challenge most challenging or second most challenging:

1. Lack of accessibility knowledge and skills amongst course creators (57.64% of responses ranked 1st or 2nd)
2. Ineffectual or incomplete institutional accessibility strategy (44.07%)
3. Limitations of accessibility support by learning platforms (29.31%)
4. Limitations of accessibility of digital learning resources (24.56%)
5. Lack of standards focusing on accessible online learning (23.22%) 
6. Lack of clarity in legal requirements (13.79%)

Using mean ranking for each challenge, the order is slightly different:

1. Lack of accessibility knowledge and skills amongst course creators (2.64 mean ranking)
2. Limitations of accessibility support by learning platforms (3.31)
3. Ineffectual or incomplete institutional accessibility strategy (3.36)
4. Limitations of accessibility of digital learning resources (3.65)
5. Lack of standards focusing on accessible online learning (3.86)
6. Lack of clarity in legal requirements (4.48)

Comments:
* Lack of accessibility knowledge and skills amongst course creators appears to be the biggest challenge (ranked most challenging by 19 respondents). There’s a certain irony in “lack of education” being considered the biggest challenge to accessible educational experiences :)
* Ineffectual or incomplete institutional strategy had a relatively large number of low rankings (13 respondents ranked this 6th of 7), but was also ranked most challenging by 18 respondents. So there seems to be a more polarized view on the influence of institutional accessibility strategy
* A lack of clarity in legal requirements and a lack of standards for accessible online learning don’t seem to be considered too much of a challenge in comparison to others

Method:
* Participants were asked to rank the above 6 challenges in order. 
* 58 responses were received.
* Participants were not required to give every challenge a ranking, so there is an incomplete set of rankings. All respondents who answered this question ranked at least their top 4 challenges, and only 1 respondent did not allocate their 5th and 6th ranking.
* An additional “other” option was available, with an option for specifying the challenge in free text. 40 respondents gave this a ranking. “Other" was ranked first on 2 occasions.

Other challenges identified in free text included:
* Financial issues (costs, budget restrictions)
* Attitudes and perceptions (of responsibility and obligation to take action to improve accessibility)
* Reactive rather than proactive strategy
* Third party content accessibility issues
* Accessibility issues with legacy content (resources, strategy)
* A definition of and focus on accessibility that is dominated by Western thinking


The next email will discuss survey findings relating to emerging technologies, and challenges and opportunities they bring to online learning accessibility.

Dave


David Sloan

UX Research Lead
The Paciello Group
dsloan@paciellogroup.com

Received on Wednesday, 29 July 2015 09:47:06 UTC