Fwd: Making Online Learning Accessible- Guidelines Released

>For immediate release:
>
>WGBH Contact: Mary Watkins, Media Access Group at WGBH
>617 300-3700 voice, 617 300-2489 TTY
>[email protected]
>http://access.wgbh.org
>
>IMS Contact: Caroline Oldershaw
>[email protected]
>
>IMS Global Learning Consortium and WGBH Boston Publish Guidelines
>for Creating Accessible Online Learning Technologies
>
>Online Version Available Free of Charge
>(http://ncam.wgbh.org/salt)
>
>Boston, MA. September 19, 2002. A groundbreaking collaboration among
>international players in the online learning field has resulted in a set of
>guidelines to educate the eLearning community about the challenges that
>people with disabilities face in accessing online education, and to provide
>solutions and resources to solve them.  Major support of these efforts is
>provided by the Learning Anywhere Anytime Partnerships program* of the U.S.
>Department of Education.
>
>"IMS Guidelines for Creating Accessible Learning Technologies" is a joint
>publication of the IMS Global Learning Consortium, and the CPB/WGBH National
>Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), the research and development division of
>the Media Access Group at WGBH Boston, a U.S. public broadcaster with a
>thirty-year history of developing access solutions for mass media.
>
>The IMS Guidelines are available on the Web in a screen-reader friendly
>format as well as in PDF (http://ncam.wgbh.org/salt) and are expected to be
>an invaluable resource for a broad range of stakeholders in online
>education, including educators providing online learning materials,
>developers of learning software such as learning management systems and
>educational software, and educational publishers, content authors, authoring
>tool developers and parents, advocates and students with disabilities
>themselves.
>
>Users will find the IMS Guidelines a comprehensive source on accessibility,
>which includes principles for accessibility in online learning, accessible
>delivery of text, audio, images and multimedia, using XML for accessibility,
>and legal issues for accessible distance learning.  Developers, including
>educators, will find methods for developing a wide range of accessible tools
>including:
>
>- asynchronous communication and collaboration tools
>- synchronous communication and collaboration tools
>- interfaces and interactive environments
>- testing and assessment
>- authoring tools
>
>Key contributors to the Guidelines include representatives from the
>following organizations: Blackboard (USA), Centre for Educational Technology
>Interoperability Standards (UK), Department of Education, Science and
>Training (AUS), Educational Testing Service (USA), Industry Canada (CAN),
>Open University (UK), Sheffield Hallam University (UK), UK eUniversities
>Worldwide (UK), and the University of Toronto Adaptive Technology Resource
>Centre (CAN).
>
>* The Guidelines were developed as part of the Specifications for Accessible
>Learning Technologies Partnership at the CPB/WGBH National Center for
>Accessible Media. Funding is provided by the Learning Anytime Anywhere
>Partnerships (LAAP), a program administered by the Fund for the Improvement
>of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), part of the Office of Postsecondary
>Education, U.S. Department of Education.
>
>About NCAM
>NCAM and its fellow access departments at WGBH (The Caption Center and
>Descriptive Video Service®) make up the Media Access Group at WGBH. WGBH,
>Boston's public broadcaster, pioneered captioning and video description on
>television, the Web and in movie theaters. NCAM is a founding member of the
>Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
>NCAM works with standards bodies and industry to develop and implement open
>technical standards for multimedia, advanced television, and convergent
>media that ease implementation, foster growth and lay common groundwork for
>equal access to new technologies. For more information, visit the Media
>Access Group's Web site at http://access.wgbh.org.
>
>About WGBH
>WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcasting producer, the source
>of nearly one-third of PBS's prime-time lineup and companion online content
>as well as many public radio favorites. WGBH is a pioneer in educational
>multimedia (including the Web, broadband, and interactive television) and in
>technologies and services that make media accessible for people with
>disabilities. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys,
>Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards…even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH was honored
>with a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For
>more information visit www.wgbh.org.
>
>About IMS
>The IMS Global Learning Consortium develops open technical specifications to
>support distributed learning. Its mission is to facilitate the delivery of
>online learning to all users and all use environments worldwide. IMS is
>supported by worldwide consortium, which includes more than 50 Contributing
>Members, over 100 Developers Network subscribers, and a Web community of
>users. All specifications developed by IMS are available free of charge
>through the IMS Web site (http://www.imsglobal.org).  For more information
>concerning participation in IMS and its activities visit
>http://www.imsglobal.org/members.html.
>
>-end-

-- 
wendy a chisholm
world wide web consortium
web accessibility initiative
seattle, wa usa
/--