Not open for all: accessibility of open textbooks

In order for open educational resources (OERs) to be truly open to all, they must be accessible to learners with disabilities, including those with visual, auditory, physical and cognitive disabilities. This study sought to determine the accessibility of a randomly selected sample of 355 open textbo...

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Published in:Insights the UKSG journal Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 24 - 13
Main Authors: Azadbakht, Elena, Schultz, Teresa, Arellano, Jennifer
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Newbury Ubiquity Press Ltd 20.10.2021
United Kingdom Serials Group (UKSG)
Ubiquity Press
Subjects:
Access
Accessibility
Alternative approaches
Classification
Computer software industry
Disabilities
Disability studies
Format
Handicapped accessibility
Image coding
Internet
open access
Open educational resources
People with disabilities
Physical disabilities
Physically disabled persons
Textbooks
Word processing software
United States
ISSN:2048-7754, 2048-7754
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Abstract In order for open educational resources (OERs) to be truly open to all, they must be accessible to learners with disabilities, including those with visual, auditory, physical and cognitive disabilities. This study sought to determine the accessibility of a randomly selected sample of 355 open textbooks using a custom rubric based upon the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C's) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), version 2.1, primarily at the Levels A and AA. Included books fell into one of four format types: HTML files/websites, PDFs, Microsoft Word documents and EPUBs. The average number of 'fails' - instances in which they ran afoul of a rubric category - across the whole sample was 5.93 and the median was 6, out of a total of 14 or 15 categories, depending on the format type. Overall, most of the books did not meet basic accessibility requirements, such as including alternative text for any images, properly coding/tagging any tables and following a logical heading order structure. Keywords: open access, open educational resources, accessibility
AbstractList In order for open educational resources (OERs) to be truly open to all, they must be accessible to learners with disabilities, including those with visual, auditory, physical and cognitive disabilities. This study sought to determine the accessibility of a randomly selected sample of 355 open textbooks using a custom rubric based upon the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C’s) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), version 2.1, primarily at the Levels A and AA. Included books fell into one of four format types: HTML files/websites, PDFs, Microsoft Word documents and EPUBs. The average number of ‘fails’ – instances in which they ran afoul of a rubric category – across the whole sample was 5.93 and the median was 6, out of a total of 14 or 15 categories, depending on the format type. Overall, most of the books did not meet basic accessibility requirements, such as including alternative text for any images, properly coding/tagging any tables and following a logical heading order structure.
In order for open educational resources (OERs) to be truly open to all, they must be accessible to learners with disabilities, including those with visual, auditory, physical and cognitive disabilities. This study sought to determine the accessibility of a randomly selected sample of 355 open textbooks using a custom rubric based upon the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C's) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), version 2.1, primarily at the Levels A and AA. Included books fell into one of four format types: HTML files/websites, PDFs, Microsoft Word documents and EPUBs. The average number of 'fails' - instances in which they ran afoul of a rubric category - across the whole sample was 5.93 and the median was 6, out of a total of 14 or 15 categories, depending on the format type. Overall, most of the books did not meet basic accessibility requirements, such as including alternative text for any images, properly coding/tagging any tables and following a logical heading order structure. Keywords: open access, open educational resources, accessibility
Audience Academic
Author Arellano, Jennifer
Schultz, Teresa
Azadbakht, Elena
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2021. This work is published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.
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SubjectTerms Access
Accessibility
Alternative approaches
Classification
Computer software industry
Disabilities
Disability studies
Format
Handicapped accessibility
Image coding
Internet
open access
Open educational resources
People with disabilities
Physical disabilities
Physically disabled persons
Textbooks
Word processing software
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