By Andrea DiStefano & Tom Kelly, City of London Boys School
What is the problem?
- We are aware that classroom learning resources
(and worksheets) often have issues with accessibility. - Over 11% of pupils experience some form of visual
processing or other accessibility obstacle. - Teachers do not always know the strategies or
techniques that enhance accessibility. - A greater awareness of the difficulties some
pupils experience is necessary to inform resource design. - There are simple strategies and techniques
teachers can learn which would make their resources more accessible.
Research and testing methodology
Studies
and recommendations by professional bodies on designing for dyslexia and other
visual processing were consulted. General accessibility best practices and
principles of effective universal design were researched.
To
test our theories we picked a cross-section of subjects and age groups (4
total). For each of the four groups, we observed 2 of their lessons and
surveyed the pupils.
Teachers
were asked to submit slides and handouts for a future lesson. We redesigned
them, applying some of the principles we’d learnt. We refer to this
processing as ‘pimping’ the resources.
The teachers were then invited to trial our ‘pimped’ resources, and we observed these used in lessons to obtain further feedback. Examples can be seen below.
Observations
- Resources are
sometimes made using existing content – textbooks, websites, etc, and
are often not reformatted for accessibility. - Content was
sometimes shrunk or squished to fit the boundaries of the page/screen, rather
than presented in a clear and accessible format.
Findings
- a Sans
Serif typeface (eg Calibri, Arial) - a slightly larger font size (between
11–14pt) - increased
line-spacing (approx. 1.3
lines) - a line length
of no more than ~15 words
- never use
BLOCK CAPS, and - always avoid
using justified text.
Our survey also revealed that pupils find it easier to read text with…
- 90% of pupils experienced difficulties filling in worksheets. Problems included spacing, structure, pages shrunk to fit
exercise books. - 70% of pupils admitted formatting of resources sometimes affected
their understanding. These
included poor photocopying, text too small, badly organised. - 82% of pupils preferred Sans-serif fonts as being the most readable.
- 100% of pupils found the ‘pimped’ slides easier to follow and
understand. - 83% of pupils found the ‘pimped’ worksheets easier to
use/complete. - 73% of pupils found generous line spacing made text easier to
read.
Conclusions
The
accessibility and design of learning resources is restricted by 3 key
factors:
- time constraints
- lack of technical IT skills
- the lack of accessibility understanding/awareness
Awareness and training
- Teachers need better awareness and training in accessibility,
including best practices for ‘remixing’ content taken from different sources.
Guidance and support
- Wherever
possible, text should be presented in a sans-serif font, at a comfortable size
(based on reading distance), and with generous line spacing. - Teachers
should have access to templates (and ‘snippets’) for a variety of worksheet
styles and types
Help for teachers
- Provide
teachers with a few basic principles to follow should enable them to design
resources that are more accessible for all boys. - Publish clear
guidance on accessible typography, use of colour, iconography and page layout/
formatting. - Provide
templates, which include a pre-prepared range of ‘snippets’, designed by Tom - A follow-up
research project later this year?
Postscript – one year later…
We
are carrying on this year – attending department meetings and offering bespoke solutions
for each group. This year has seen a significant positive change to the
way the Biology department curate their resources, thanks to the two years of
work we have done. Our estimates of slow, steady uptake are pretty
accurate so far, and I would anticipate that we will see further change if we
persevere with outreach.