Macromedia Case Study: Accessible Training for Visual Rehabilitation Assistants

Lighthouse International is a leading resource worldwide on vision impairment and vision rehabilitation. Lighthouse equips people who are blind and partially sighted with the skills and confidence they need to meet the day-to-day challenges of life in the home, workplace, and the community. To achieve this goal, Lighthouse trains Visual Rehabilitation Assistants who provide individuals the techniques and tools they need to live an independent lifestyle. Visual Rehabilitation Assistants train people with visual impairments in practical life skills. These skills include tips for how to effectively make their way and around their apartment, how to walk, how to cook, how to count money and safely make their way out on the street in the neighborhoods or the city in which they live.

The challenge

In the past, VRAs were trained onsite at the Lighthouse facility in New York City over a period of four months. This proved to be a very costly and inconvenient training method, which inevitably put a strain on the lives of trainees during their relocation. “The cost of relocating trainees quickly became prohibitive--add to that the disruption in the individual's life, and it was a no-brainer, there had to be another way,” says Patrick Benson, CIO of Lighthouse.

The challenge for Lighthouse was to create distance learning courses that met Lighthouse’s educational philosophy: They had to be engaging, interactive, and accessible to the full continuum of users with vision loss. In addition, many of the VRA students are themselves visually impaired. The VRA program targets students with virtually no career skills who have only a high-school equivalent (GED) education, and engages them in a structured career-based educational program. Benson explains, “Naturally people with visual impairments are able to effectively understand and train those who have recently lost their vision because it comes from a place of personal experience.” Other trainees come from welfare-to-work programs, may have low literacy levels, and are likely to have little to no familiarity with computers.

The solution

Lighthouse required a solution that would allow flexibility for the instructors and students, would be easy to use for users with little or no computer experience, and was also accessible to users of assistive technologies. Benson adds, “No such system really existed that would allow us to create the dynamic type of content we needed, so we created our own learning management system using Flash.”

Converting text. Knowing that their students may not be able to afford assistive technologies, Lighthouse designed a text-to-speech feature using Flash that automatically converts text information to speech. A great solution for users with visual impairments, this feature was also a fantastic example of the way that accessible design can benefit all users.

Lighthouse found that the audio option better simulates a classroom environment, where students can listen and watch as material is presented. Many users who are low-literacy or simply learn better through listening also use the text to speech feature which can be turned on or off on every page. Benson elaborates, “The student is not passively reading a screen, which, if you’ve ever taken an online course, can be a real snoozer. Students are engaged in the learning process.”

Ordering content. One of the most significant accessibility challenges Lighthouse faced was managing the order in which content was read. In a dynamic environment with complex layout and design, it can be very difficult to predict the order in which content is displayed. Yet, in order to make content accessible to users of assistive technology, the reading order for every object on the stage must be established.

Lighthouse devised a very clever technique to resolve this issue using its own reading order engine. This engine dynamically places a copy of every object as it’s displayed on the stage in a single column of text that sits offstage. Screen readers ignore the content on the screen. Instead, they read content from the copy—a single column of objects that is automatically listed in the order in which content was displayed. This guarantees that content is displayed in the correct order and eliminates the need to use action script to hand code a static reading order. This innovative technique has since been adopted by many other sites.

While this solution was able to resolve the screen reader design hurdles, Lighthouse also had to consider users with low vision. Benson explains, “We always have, near and dear to our hearts, people who have diminished vision, so we wanted everything to be presented in large type as well.” Courses are designed so that text can be magnified.

Designing the interface. The course developer interface that Lighthouse designed has been a tremendous success, too. Using Flash, they were able to provide an easy-to-use accessible interface that allows trainers and administrators to add and modify content quickly and easily. “This has been one of the most important developments going forward. Having the accessible course builder means that instructor can easily create courses regardless of their computer experience or disability.”

Instructors are able to, screen by screen, panel by panel, select what they want to see in the different frames for the various sections of the courses. Story boarding the course and adding content is a simple straightforward process. “We call it the Easy Bake Oven approach because it's so simple for anyone to use,” says Benson. This sustainable self-managing system has become a key part of the Lighthouse strategy going forward.

Benefits for Lighthouse

• Using the Flash-created distance learning course, Lighthouse saves time, man-power, and travel costs (more than $30,000 for one four month VRA course).
• Training courses can be offered anywhere in the world.
• The system allows instructors to use templates created by other instructors, resulting in a powerful system for sharing creativity.
• System is easy to use for learners and instructors who are not trained in a computer environment.

Benefits for learners

• Learners aren’t required to relocate to New York City for four months.
• Text-to-voice features allow users to listen while they watch, an effective learning technique.
• Users with visual impairments can use text to speech feature and access content without costly screen readers.
• Lessons can be repeated as many times as necessary.

Future plans

Because the training module is online, it has never been easier for an organization like Lighthouse to rapidly deploy this kind of training globally. “We plan to take this program to the national and international level. For example, Lighthouse has long-standing relationships with the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute and Aravind Eye Hospital in India where they would like to set up VRA training,” says Benson.

In addition to expanding the VRA program geographically, Lighthouse plans to expand the use of the course builder content management system and distance learning course delivery to continuing education classes (for CEU credits) to professionals. “The potential of this system is unlimited,” contends Benson.

Reprinted with permission: August 2004.