Helping ALL Children to Access Text

How can we ensure ALL children have access to text books and other print materials in schools?

How can we avoid massive duplication of effort by teachers and other school staff making text accessible for pupils with a reading difficulty?

These were the key questions addressed at a major Symposium on Accessible Digital Resources for Children with Additional Support Needs, attended by nearly 100 practitioners, organised by the CALL Centre with the support of the Scottish Executive Education Department.

Professor Sheila Riddell from the University of Edinburgh placed the day firmly in the context of the Curriculum for Excellence agenda. How can all young people become successful learners, effective contributors, responsible citizens and confident individuals if many have difficulty accessing text?

Stuart Robertson from Learning and Teaching Scotland, who chaired the day, provided an overview of the impact of ICT initiatives on schools over recent years and looked ahead to the opportunities to be provided by the Scottish Schools' Digital Network when it is launched in 2007.

Consider the needs of ALL pupils

Stuart Aitken from the CALL Centre emphasised the number of pupils who could benefit from the use of technology to make text more accessible. In 2005, 34,680 pupils had a Record of Needs or Individualised Educational Programme. Of these, 21% had been recorded with the main difficulty in learning being 'moderate learning difficulties'. The second biggest group (20.9%) had been recorded with 'specific learning difficulties in language and/or mathematics'. 'Specific visual impairment' was the main learning difficulty in only 1.5% of these pupils. It was important to consider the needs of ALL pupils.

He also reviewed the legislation behind the drive towards inclusion, with a particuar emphasis on the Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils' Educational Records) (Scotland) Act 2002. Many local authority contracts for ICT provision in schools still did not meet the requirements for ensuring access for pupils with disabilities.

There is no single solution!

Decorative Image: A picture of Paul Nisbet with Stuart Robertson and Stuart Aitken

Paul Nisbet developed the ICT theme by looking at different ways in which technology could help pupils with reading difficulties to access text. If a school has only a paper copy of a text, it can be scanned to produce an accessible electronic text, subject to copyright permission, but this can be very time-consuming with work often being duplicated across the country. Where electronic copies of books and other materials are available, a variety of formats are in use, including PDF, MS Word, MS Reader, MP3 audio books and DAISY. A number of more specialist formats have been developed for pupils with specific needs, with Kurzweil being useful for children with dyslexia and Clicker being valuable for children who have to use switches to access technology. He emphasised that there is no single solution!

Paul later described work that the CALL Centre had carried out in conjunction with the Scottish Qualifications Authority in order to make exams available in a more accessible format. This has the potential to ease the problems schools face with large numbers of pupils requiring readers and scribes and also gives pupils greater independence.

20% of secondary pupils could benefit

Decorative Image: A picture of Moira Thomson, Broughton High School, Edinburgh

Moira Thomson from Broughton High School provided a teacher's perspective. She suggested that around 20% of secondary pupils could benefit from the use of technology to support reading. She also emphasised the time taken to produce accessible versions of text books and other printed versions of materials and expressed frustration at the need to destroy these versions to comply with copyright when they were no longer required for the specific pupil who had used them.

Decorative Image: A picture of Jamie Cuthbertson, RNIB

Jamie Cuthbertson from the RNIB described and demonstrated the DAISY system, which allows people with a visual impairment to read suitably formatted electronic books.

Tina Detheridge from Widgit Software emphasised the importance of materials providing symbol support for the benefit of non-readers and poor readers. She demonstrated the use of Webwide, that can add symbol support to html-based web pages.

Rosetta McLeod from the Learning and Teaching Scotland Scottish Schools Digital Network project described the system, which will provide a national Virtual Learning Environment for Scottish schools.

Richard Orme from the RNIB described developments in the United States where legislation had obliged publishers to develop ways to make text available in accessible electronic format. A new National Instructional Materials Standard (NIMAS) was being developed.

Range of Possible Solutions

Ian Litterick from the Right to Read initiative described copyright issues relating to dyslexia. He regretted that the Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act 2002 had not been drafted to include all Reading Impaired Persons and looked at various possible solutions so that people with dyslexia would no longer be disadvantaged.

James Christie from Harcourt Education (parent group for three leading UK publishers) brought a publisher's perspective. Harcourt were keen to make materials accessible, but he emphasised that it was not always a simple process, particularly with regard to their back catalogue, where copyright clearance had to be obtained for the use of illustrations, type fonts, etc. in addition to the basic text content.

Jim McNeilage from the Copyright Licensing Agency described the role of the agency and the licences available for photocopying and scanning print materials. He revealed that although scanning licences had been negotiated with the Further and Higher Education sectors, COSLA had not expressed interest in a similar deal for schools.

Overall, the Symposium was regarded as very worthwhile and a number of issues will be followed up.

Full details of the presentations made at the Symposium and other developments in the area of access to text will soon be available on the CALL Centre web site: http://www.callcentrescotland.org.uk/digitalcurriculum .

The CALL Centre is grateful for the support provided by SEED, which made the day possible.