National Institute for Keeping Web Accessibility in Mind in K-12 Education: Project WebAIM

• Funded by: OSERS (The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services), funded under the Projects of National Significance grant program for 3 years. (Grant # H325N020064)
• Work of the project: This grant extended the work conducted in postsecondary settings into K-12 settings and created unique resources necessary for teacher training.

Problem in K-12 Education

The Internet is one of the most powerful influences in our country, our society, and our education system today. However, students with disabilities are often denied access to the Internet because of the design of many web sites. There are increases in the educational materials that are placed on the web; placed in inaccessible formats. This includes curricula, assessments, homework, teacher feedback, as well as collaborative work from groups of student peers. Data gathered in 2002 suggested this problem was appalling in the K-12 system with as few as 6% of a national sample of K-12 pages attaining basic accessibility conformance (i.e., conformance to Section 508) (Rowland, 2002). When students with disabilities cannot get to or use curricular elements that are placed on the web they are, in fact, denied access to the general curriculum. This flies in the face of legal requirements under IDEA regulations. As important, these students are denied their independence, dignity, and choice. In 2002, when WebAIM received a grant to work in K-12 settings, there were many problems that appeared to work together to create this complex problem. WebAIM choose to work on three of these problems.

Project Goals and Outcomes

The WebAIM K-12 project targeted 3 areas of work for the problems found in K-12 education. In each instance stakeholders became partners in development.

1. Although information on web accessibility existed at the time the project began, no work had been completed on helping districts work toward a system-level change. Thus the first goal for this project was to "Develop, implement, and evaluate a web accessibility model that can be used effectively as a blueprint for change in the K-12 system" The Western Heights School District in Oklahoma became a partner in this effort and worked with WebAIM to field-test a model of reform. The results of this field test were mixed as many elements were outside the control of the District staff (e.g., technologies used to organize School data and provide web content to students and staff). The successes of Western Heights were shared with the Oklahoma Schools for the Deaf and Oklahoma Schools for the Blind where staff received training and support in accessible design. Moreover they were shared with the statewide VISON project (Virtual Internet School in Oklahoma Network). By the end of the project, the District had a policy to institutionalize web accessibility that was forwarded to the School Board for approval. The Oklahoma School district used the 8-Step Implementation Model.

2. When this project began, few teacher preparation programs taught web accessibility in their technology courses. One reason for this was surmised to be the lack of curricular aides to help those who wished to teach accessibility, but who were not themselves experts in accessibility. Therefore, the second goal for this project was to

   "Design and create an accessibility curriculum to be used in required technology courses in teacher training programs. This curriculum would include simulations, assignments, and evaluation tools"

   The Web Accessibility Resource Planner (WARP) (no longer available) was created to fulfill this project goal. It is a content management system that contains over a hundred resources (e.g., simulations, fact sheets, activities, and student assessment tools), all on web accessibility. The instructor can use WARP materials in flexible ways. The WARP development team used data heavily from years of field tests. Forty-five instructors used the WARP to construct 61 lessons. With each round of field-test data came revisions to the product. The WARP is available as an open-source tool.

3. Awareness about the problem of K-12 accessibility was poor when the project began. Although the important work of goals 1 and 2 would occur, others needed to know about both the problem and some solutions. Thus, the third goal of this project was one of dissemination.

   "Launch an aggressive dissemination effort to insure that our web accessibility resources are available to all"

   Due to the visibility of WebAIM, dissemination occurred beyond expected levels. Problems and solutions for web accessibility were disseminated to close to a million individuals through (1) seventy-one regional, or national workshops or presentations, (2) electronic dissemination to over 600,000 individuals via the website, forum, and a monthly newsletter to 538 individuals in K-12 settings, and (3) publication of 11 articles.