Accessible Learning in the Virtual Classroom

Students with different disabilities face obvious barriers in conventional classrooms when it comes to accessing and absorbing content. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and all learning went online, they were faced with a whole new set of obstacles to navigate. Everything moved to a small screen and the picture and sound could often be wonky. Even students without disabilities could struggle to see and hear the content.

That situation motivated scholars in the Faculty of Education to develop tools and guidelines to make online learning accessible to all. Building on their earlier work to enhance learning experiences for tertiary students with visual impairment and provide guidelines for disability inclusion in higher education, they have developed a set of tools, videos and guiding principles on online access and inclusion that apply to everyone.

Developing Inclusive Online Learning

The project was funded through the UGC Special Grant for Strategic Development of Virtual Teaching and Learning and launched in June 2023. It was co-developed by Dr Ma Yuet Kwan, Gloria, former Post-doctoral Fellow and Dr Yeung Pui Sze, Patcy, former Associate Professor of the Faculty. Developed through open source, it offers the first freely available guidelines on virtual learning accessibility for higher education in Hong Kong and has attracted thousands of views from students, teachers and the wider community.

“The increasing adoption of online teaching and learning during the pandemic offered many new opportunities for both teachers and students but, at the same time, students and teachers with disabilities encountered a different set of barriers,” Dr Ma said.

“For example, just in a simple Zoom meeting, students with visual impairment might not be able to read a PowerPoint in a shared screen, or those who are deaf or hard of hearing might be unable to hear the lecture or discussion. Even users without visual impairment might have poor video quality because they do not have more advanced devices or they only have a small screen. That was why we wanted to focus on enhancing accessibility of online teaching and learning for all.”

The team already had material to work with from their earlier work for students with visual impairment, where they produced guidelines on developing teaching and learning content. For example, functions on Word documents can be enabled to make them more compatible with assistive technologies such as screen readers, and colour contrast on PowerPoint or images can be tailored to make them easier to read. In the current project, they looked at 17 different kinds of technologies or software and further consolidated the options available. For example, live captioning can be turned on in Zoom to assist learners. Teachers could also consider issues such as the weight of virtual reality headsets and the stickiness of controls, to try to ensure that devices are usable by all learners.

Comprehensive Accessibility Toolkit

All of this information has been uploaded to a comprehensive website that features a toolkit, a set of demonstration videos, accessibility-focused templates for PowerPoint and Word, and cheat sheets on techniques for enhancing accessibility (see Virtual Learning Accessibility Toolkit – Guidelines on accessible digital educational materials and virtual learning environment (https://vlaccessibilitytoolkit.hku.hk/)).

Most importantly, the project sets out a framework for approaching accessibility in education that brings it into the planning from the outset, rather than regarding it chiefly as an add-on.

“Accessibility and access to education are fundamental human rights for all individuals, including individuals with disabilities,” Dr Ma said. “Accessibility is not a checklist to fulfil. It is a shift in your mindset whereby you always consider it when you create and deliver teaching materials and activities.”

The project’s materials are aimed at both university teachers and students but can also be used by others in the community, and there is a strong emphasis on self-learning. For instance, the video series (called IDEALeaders Self-learning Video Series and available on YouTube) shows how to make different technologies more accessible and even includes a video produced with the Hong Kong Blind Union to show how screen readers work.

The toolkit and video series have been disseminated to 43 tertiary education institutions in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Teaching Excellence Alliance, and presented at international conferences, such as the International Conference on Learning and Teaching and a conference on teaching, assessment and learning for engineering organised by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

In the first four months, the toolkit website received more than 1,200 visitors and the video series had more than 1,300 views. There were also hundreds of downloads of the toolkit PDF, templates and cheat sheets.

“The feedback has been very positive. To the best of our knowledge, there are not similar kinds of materials available through open source in Hong Kong. We believe the materials are applicable to non-teaching staff, too, because very often they may send electronic materials, like email notifications or documents, and we hope they would consider accessibility in this process. The technical details of the project are very important of course, but the essence that we want to emphasise is the importance of the collaborative effort of each member of the university and society towards creating inclusive education for everybody,” Dr Ma said.

It is also an issue close to Dr Ma’s heart. She has mobility disability and uses a power wheelchair, and she said she had found the project empowering and meaningful. “We should try to eliminate ableism and embrace diversity on campus. I think HKU has been quite proactive in celebrating diversity, but it is an ongoing process. We want to let more people know about these concepts,” she said.

Dr Patcy Yeung (left) and Dr Gloria Ma (right) co-developed the “Virtual Learning Accessibility Toolkit” and the “IDEALeaders Self-learning Video Series” to promote the co-creation of virtual learning accessibility to cater for the diverse learning needs of our students.

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