User Requirements When Designing Learning e-Content: Interaction for All

Abstract

Learning is a fundamental Human Right and in the Information Society learning has become an audiovisual experience. Audiovisual interactive learning materials, virtual learning environments and platforms, and online applications are the standard format where learning happens. Having access to this e-learning environment and content is fundamental to fulfil the right to education, but also the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which mentions “nothing about us without us” leading to take into consideration persons with disabilities when designing all learning elements. Therefore, accessibility has to be integrated in every step of the design process to avoid costly and unsatisfactory ad hoc solutions. How to contact end users and request their information and participation is an unavoidable challenge. Questionnaires have been the traditional tool to enquire users about their needs and preferences. Still, how to draft pertinent questionnaires to gather meaningful information is not a straightforward activity, but one that varies with fashions and schools of thought. For example, the Medical and the Social Models share equal popularity to classify user disabilities. In this chapter we will depart from the fact that access to education is a Human Right, and from the experience of designing an accessible MOOC. The second part of the chapter will revise some of the most used models of disability and we will explore a more holistic approach based on user capabilities. This will allow researchers in Education to focus on the aspects they can provide a solution to, instead of dealing with physiological tags that offer a simplified view of reality.