2021 Accessibility Week: Digital Accessibility with Dr. Harriette Spiegel
Written By Carolee Avery
Thumbnail Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash
Dr. Hariette Spiegel: Photo by The University of Tennessee
To kick off the 2021 Accessibility Week, the Fred Smithers Center at Saint Mary’s held an event on digital accessibility with keynote speaker, Dr. Harriette Spiegel. If you were unable to attend the event, this article services to summarize the presentation, so you don’t miss anything. The event took place over Zoom on March 21st at 11:00 am and began with opening remarks by Kim Penny, the Fred Smithers Center of Support for Students with Disabilities accessibility resource assistant. Kim thanked those in attendance and provided links for transcripts of the presentation. Kim then handed the presentation over to Dr. Spiegel, who began by introducing herself.
Dr. Spiegel hails from Tennessee, and she currently lives in Martin, TN, where she lectures in Educational Studies at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Spiegel’s interest in digital accessibility began during graduate school; she was teaching an educational technology class when a blind student showed her how screen readers processed inaccessible background code from a web page. Dr. Spiegel had this to say about screen readers:
“A screen reader is [an] assistive technology that literally interprets digital text for the learner. Let’s say a learner is using a screen reader that interprets an online course document that contains illustrative images that are informative for the lesson. However, the designer of the document has failed to insert descriptive alternative text, “alt text,” in any images or illustrations in the document. What this means is that any image – in this case, important to the learner’s access to the information – will only be read by the screen reader as “picture, picture, or graphic, graphic” etc.– a screen reader cannot interpret an image, but instead would have read out an informational description of the image for the learner, if it had been present through alt text.”
To express to the audience just how crucial digital accessibility is, Dr. Spiegel recreated this use of a screen reader, which attempted to read the inaccessible PowerPoint out loud. Dr. Spiegel followed up this demonstration by explaining how things like inaccessible web pages and word documents affected her as a person who is hard of hearing.
Dr. Spiegel followed her introduction with a short interactive quiz on how to create accessible media, including how to add alt-text (alt-text refers to an invisible description of an image that is read aloud to blind users on a screen reader.) to an image, how to format links in a word document, how to create accessible PowerPoints, and what steps you can take to make videos accessible. Dr. Spiegel then introduced the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is a framework developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology to improve and optimize teaching and learning and is based on scientific insight into how humans learn. UDL offers a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline, and ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.
Dr. Spiegel also explained why digital accessibility is important. She explained that by not having access to relevant information, a person is at a disadvantage compared to his or her peers. She said, “Web Accessibility and Digital Accessibility have been called the ’Wheelchair ramp on the Web.’; think of how many people use the curb cuts originally meant for wheelchairs.” Dr. Spiegel then offered up statistics related to how disability and accessibility affect the learning and work environment. For instance:
Persons with disabilities face lower employment rates: 59% of working-age adults with disabilities report being employed, versus 80% of those without disabilities.
3.2% of Canadian children have some form of learning disability (2006)
In Canada (2017) 22% or 6.2 million people live with some sort of disability
In addition, Dr. Spiegel touched on legislation surrounding disabilities and accessibility in Canada and the United States. She said that COVID-imposed virtual schooling has emphasized just how many learners are getting left out of the digital learning environment. Legislation is now providing mandates to address accessibility in all areas.
Dr. Spiegel’s research is aimed at understanding the legislation surrounding digital accessibility. This legislation is important as it eliminates barriers that hinder the full and equal participation in society of persons with impairments (such as learning, communication, or sensory impairments). In Canada, the major legislation relevant to this area is the Accessible Canada Act of 2019. In the U.S., it’s the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which made amendments in 2018 for Information Technology. In both countries, the primary legislation applies to federal agencies and organizations under federal responsibility. Dr. Spiegel mentioned that universities can face lawsuits brought by students whose access to learning has been affected by the lack of accessible digital understanding in the U.S. For instance, in her home state of Tennessee, Dr. Spiegel said that there is legislation that “relate[s] to ensuring accessibility of digital curricula for students with disabilities at state institutions of higher education.”
Dr. Spiegel then gave a short demonstration using her Basic Digital Accessibility Guidelines. She walked the webinar participants through creating alt text in all applications, headings in word, meaningful links in all applications, tables in word and PowerPoints. Dr. Spiegel even provided practice documents, one that was inaccessible and one that was accessible so that those who attended the event could use them for future reference.
The event wrapped up shortly before noon, with Dr. Spiegel giving her thanks to those in attendance and the Fred Smithers Center for hosting the event. Dr. Spiegel also left links to her PowerPoint presentation and asked attendees to fill out a survey that rated the event and gathered information about the public’s knowledge of accessibility.
