I. The Story of Echo the Bat
The Story
of Echo the Bat is a 13-page story with illustrations and
each page uses tables for visual layout. The illustrations are
mostly artistic renderings about the life of Echo the Bat. Some
illustrations are animations and some are more technical, i.e.
the illustration of echolocation. Audio for the story narrative
and sound effects are recommended to convey information from the
technical and animated illustrations and to maintain the engaging
environment. For example, the echolocation illustration could
be enhanced with audio of echolocation calls. The animation of
flying bats could be conveyed through sound effects. Under WAI's
priority 2 checkpoint states "do not use tables for layout unless
the table makes sense when linearized." This portion of the site
can be made accessible to screen readers through the reformatting
of html tables used in layout, providing long descriptions for
illustrations, and adding text links for navigation.
II. The Adventure - Interface
The "intuitive" interface in the adventure loses
functionality when presented in a non-visual manner.[example]
Navigation requires the learner to "physically" rollover images
with their mouse then click to activate the hyperlink. The visual
layout of the screen is achieved through the use of html tables
that cannot be interpreted logically by screen readers. There
are 18 html pages that comprise this interface. These pages will
need to be re-designed to incorporate textual navigation and tables
that can be read in a linear fashion. The linear table will work
for most of the interface screen except the satellite images.
These images are comprised of four separate images assembled in
a table with accompanied JavaScript functions. This item is addressed
under section III. Descriptions will be needed to aid the navigation
through added descriptions of visual cues, alternative to the
maps used for help feature, and descriptions of content. These
pages will then be tested on a system using a screen reader device
to enhance development and verify compatibility.
III. The Adventure - Content
The recommendation set out by section 508 that states
that " individuals with disabilities … have access to and
use of information and data that is comparable to that provided
to the public who are not individuals with disabilities." Revisions
to the interface and the inclusion of long descriptions will succeed
in making the Adventure of Echo the Bat "accessible" but by the
nature of the content, the site is not "usable." The educational
objective is to teach children how to interpret satellite imagery
and identify habitats is integrated into the adventure. The adventure
presents new information, guides the learning, elicits performance,
and provides feedback in reference to meeting this objective.[example]
References to color and texture are used in the explanation of
the content. Then the student uses the visual information to "interpret"
the image before proceeding in the adventure. Therefore, the act
of gleaning information from these visual satellite images is
critical to meeting the objective. In order to provide equal use
of content to the visually impaired, an alternative delivery method
is needed that enables the learner to investigate the visual imagery.
A number of devices have and are being developed
to enable the visually impaired to access technology and
visual information. These devices include advanced Braille
displays, voice recognition, touch screens, visible light
spectrum manipulation for person with selective vision,
and resistance mouse (Hinton, 1992). With adaptations to
the presentation of content combined with research in cognitive
psychology, the use of these advanced hardware/software
devices would provide the best learning environment for
remote sensing and other highly visual content. The costs
required to obtain, to test, and to develop material for
such devices are beyond the scope of this project.
The effort of attempting to meet the educational
objectives is still a valid one. According to experiments
by Zimler and Keenan (1983), the congenitally blind perform
as well as the sighted on tasks involving information about
visual phenomena and images of spatial configurations."
In addition, Marmor (1978) found that the congenitally blind
exhibit the same knowledge of color relations as the sighted,
despite their lack of first-hand experience with color perception.
Although, these studies involved the use of tactile activities,
Marmor shows that the congenitally blind can acquire knowledge
of non-tangible visual phenomena through instruction. Thus,
the use of auditory displays could be used to guide instruction
of visual information.
According to Kramer (1994), an Audio Display
(AD) maps data from some information generator (such as
computer models or factory machinery) to sound. The mapping
process is either an analogic or symbolic representation
of information. An example of a symbolic information representation
is listening to the audio signatures of electron plasma
waves to study the rings of Saturn (Kramer, 1994). An example
of an analogic information representation is the sound of
a trash can to indicate to a user that a file is successfully
deleted (Kramer, 1994). In studies of the use of AD for
interfaces for the visually impaired, Kramer (1994) states
that a "tactile interface joined with the auditory interface
was found to yield higher accuracy and greater ease of use."
Thus, combining this work the aforementioned hardware technologies
would be an optimal scenario, but is beyond the scope of
this project.
Further investigation into the field of AD
research for vision-impaired users reveals that early research
emphasized analogous representation and that research today
is focused on symbolic representation (Kramer 1994). According
to Kramer (1994) "the recent development of complex graphics,
the need to unlock standardized graphical user interfaces,
and enhanced sound synthesis and processing technologies,
analogic representations are once again ascending." Symbolic
AD systems that convey scientific information, i.e. listening
to Plasma Waves, could be applied to satellite imagery via
mapping various tones to the numerical data describing the
amount of reflected energy from the Earth's surface. While
this symbolic type of audio display would be more detailed
and accurate than a analogic audio display, receiving and
deciphering the tones for each pixel of satellite data would
be beyond the scope of our target audience (grades 5-8)
and the funds available.
Another option would be to research the analogic
representation of satellite data through Auditory Icons.
Graver (Kramer, 1994) describes auditory icons as "everyday
sounds that convey information about events in the computer
or in remote environments by analogy with everyday sound-producing
events. The use of auditory icons as an analogous representation
could be used in the instruction of such non-tangible concepts
such as spatial location and color. In the case of the remote
sensing content of Echo the Bat, auditory icons could be
associated with different habitats, colors, geographic locations,
or structures and combined with satellite imagery to elicit
investigation by the learner.
Recommendations for developing such a display
includes designing nine displays corresponding to the nine
locations in the adventure. These could replace the satellite
images on the first and last screens of each location. Shockwave
Flash or QuickTime 4.0, both proven technologies and readily
accessible, can be utilized to combine the satellite imagery
with sound and interactivity. The interactivity could be
controlled by either via mouse controls or key strokes to
move though the image and trip the auditory icon. By swapping
out the four satellite image slices and table with a multimedia-based
element, this solves the linear table problem to meet the
priority 2 checkpoint. Also, the nature of these technologies
allows the site to meet the different modals of information
delivery. Questions and visual cues will need to be revised
to work with the icons. Additional descriptions will be
used to help the learner apply their newly acquired knowledge
of image interpretation.
Since there is no such model in existence,
two different models should be developed and tested to determine
effectiveness. Since this interface is new, a set of practice
screens will need to be developed. Audio icons need to be
researched, developed and incorporated into the original
test pages. Descriptions of the science content will be
developed by a science teacher. The final files (Shockwave
or QuickTime) will be then be coded into the interface pages
prepared under section II.
More extensive research could be performed
in this area to determine the effectiveness of the AD approach
in image interpretation. Such efforts are beyond the scope
and funding of this task. This approach will not suit all
visually impaired learners, but will provide an attempt
to allowing these learners to meet the educational objectives
of the site. Perhaps some of the lessons learned in this
undertaking will benefit future efforts on other IMAGERS
projects such as the Pigeon Adventure.
IV. Electromagnetic Spectrum
Site
The Electromagnetic Site contains three pages introducing
electromagnetic waves and seven
pages describing each region of the spectrum. Pages include
many images and illustrations to help relate these waves to their
prior knowledge and present new content to the learner. Navigation,
layout and text will require minimal adjustment to the code. Tables
will need to be reformatted to read linear. A science teacher
will be needed to develop descriptive text for the wavelengths
and remotely sensing imagery. The science teacher will need to
consult with a teacher experienced with visually-disabled children
to verify the effectiveness of the descriptions for the target
grade level.
V. The Teacher's Guide and Activities
The current web pages for the teacher's
guide and activities are accessible. The tables are linear
and navigation is text based. The content is accessible but not
usable by the visually impaired. Each of the lessons and activities
has components that are inherently visual. For the visually impaired
to be able to use the site as it was intended, additional activities
will need to be developed.
Initial research will be needed to identify pedagogical
methods to present electromagnetic spectrum, remote sensing,
and biodiversity content to the visually impaired learner in
the 5th - 8th grade-level. The lessons
on spectral signatures and the electromagnetic spectrum can
be adapted to meet the needs of the visually impaired learner
through added descriptive text and alternative presentation.
New activities will need to be developed for the remote sensing
and biodiversity content due to the highly visual nature of
these activities. Prototypes of the activities will be tested
with visually impaired learners in the target grade level.
Testing and Revisions
The new site along with the newly developed activities
will be tested in a classroom situation for one class period during
one week. Adequate preparation time or training of a special education
teacher will be needed. Data collected from this testing will
assist in complying with NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Education
Products review and provide results to compile a research paper
on this subject. As stated above, the scope of this project will
assure that all visually impaired children will meet the educational
objectives presented in the adventure. Hopefully results of this
research will show that the use of Audio Icons can allow visually
impaired children to investigate and gain some spatial imformation
from a satellite image.
Future Applications - (The Pigeon
Adventure)
Based on this research and application of designing
accessible Echo the Bat adventure, the development of the Pigeon
Adventure will attempt to be priority 2 compliant from the start.
Since the content is highly visual in nature, future funding may
be required to incorporate effective descriptions and valuable
educational content for the visually impaired.
|
