Open Access - Your Flexible Friend

How would your manager (or your accountant) react if you told them that, because of the way you’d designed your e-learning system or your e-learning content, as many as 20% of your potential learners (aka customers) were unable to gain access or make any sense of what you provided? And how do you think the learners felt? In this chapter, I examine just what’s required to make e-learning accessible for all and explore the implications (legal and otherwise) of sticking your head in the sand and ignoring the issue.

Why accessibility is good for you

When organisations are asked why they are introducing e-learning, the benefit that appears top of the list is invariably ‘improved access to learning’. There’s no doubt that, by providing access to learning materials and opportunities to collaborate online, you are freeing learners from the traditional constraints of time and space, and empowering them to take control of their own learning.

You would think that, if anyone was likely to benefit from the explosion of online opportunities, it was the sector of the population that has to live with the greatest constraints – the disabled. If you can’t get to the information, the information will come to you. In practice, accessibility in the online environment is patchy to say the least, as more content providers than not are oblivious to the measures that need to be taken to ensure all online users get to share equally in the benefits that the Internet can provide.

Essentially there are three good reasons why it makes sense to ensure that the e-learning you provide is accessible to all. Let’s start with an appeal to your finer instincts – it’s simply the right thing to do. In the words of Jon Buttriss, Operations and Services Director for NETg: "The e-learning industry must take a lead in providing materials that are openly accessible for all. If we do not then disabled persons will be doubly disadvantaged in life, by not having access to the same quality of training as everyone else. That is simply unfair.”

If that didn’t work, how about an appeal to your wallet? First some statistics. It’s estimated that 14% of under 65s have some form of disability or functional limitation due to injury, illness or aging. The figure for 65’s and over is 50%. Then there’s colour blindness: some 8% of men and 0.4% of women suffer from some form of colour vision deficiency – in America alone, that’s 32 million people. And in 2000, the World Heath Organization estimated that 20% of the world’s population (that’s 500 million people) live with some kind of physical disability. These are large, perhaps even scary numbers. The commercial implications are obvious – if you don’t address this sector of the population, someone else will. Even more importantly, many of your customers will insist that your products address accessibility issues and only go with suppliers who can meet these requirements. Suddenly you risk losing 100% of the market.

Still unconvinced? Then it’s time for some strong-arm tactics. If you won’t come voluntarily, the law may have to force you. As we shall see, legislators around the world are taking an increasing interest in accessibility issues, and are much less prepared to tolerate learning products that discriminate in terms of who can do the learning.