Accessibility and mobile learning

Abstract

During the Digital Learning and MOBIleam projects, the authors have acknowledged a new gap in defIning accessibility in the context of mobile learning. This document describes this gap and seeks a broader de:fmition of accessibility. Accessibility is discussed in terms of 1) usability, 2) a digital divide and 3) evaluation. First they describe how accessibility is traditionally understood in usability design and what issues mobility brings to accessibility. Secondly, equality issues are discussed in the context of a digital divide. Then the mobile learning evaluation framework is introduced and the implications of accessibility on evaluation are discussed. Finally, these perspectives are integrated and future research topics are proposed. © 2005 by International Federation for Infonnation Processing. All rights reserved.