Making Learning Environments Appropriate for Students with Sensory Impairments by Lawrence A. Scadden, Ph.D. National Science Foundation Program for Persons with Disabilities Presented at the National Symposium on Educational Applications of Technology for Persons with Sensory Disabilities, July 22, 1994, Hyatt Regency Rochester, East Main Street, Rochester, New York. In generations past, the term "learning environment" would conjure up images of teachers leafing through a textbook on the desk before picking up chalk and walking to the board to write and talk. The classroom is still a key learning environment, but there are many more that must be considered when we work to make learning environments and learning opportunities optimal for people with sensory impairments. Educators and politicians alike speak today of life-long learning underscoring philosophers who have long said that when we stop learning we are dead. I agree with the premise that all of life's situations and experiences serve as learning environments; but just as the teacher and classroom represent too narrow of a focus for this presentation, "life" itself is too formidable a topic for this hour. Nevertheless, I do not want to abandon the broad focus of life experiences without a comment. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and other legislation that promote the rights of people with disabilities, all state that barriers to access must be removed. Far too frequently, however, discussions of barriers and of accessibility are limited to consideration of physical barriers to access for people with mobility limitations. The inability of a person in a wheelchair to attend classes on the second floor of a school building is a visible example of inaccessibility. The inability of a blind student to read information written on a chalk board or presented on printed handouts, and the inability of a deaf student to hear a lecture or a recording, are also common, albeit less visible, examples of inaccessible educational environments. Similar examples can be drawn from all areas of daily life experience. For example, on one hand, we commonly point to difficulties encountered attempting to enter by wheelchair a restaurant, auditorium, medical facility, or museum; but simultaneously, we as a society seldom push for access to written or audio information needed in any of these locations by people with sensory impairments. Thomas Jefferson said that "Information is the currency of democracy." It is high time to recognize that access to information by people with sensory impairments must be put on an equal plain with physical access to public premises for people with mobility impairments. The educational enterprise provides us abundant examples of environments where access to facilities must be ensured for students with physical disabilities and where access to instructional materials, media, and educational technologies must be ensured for students with sensory impairments. So, if "life" is too broad of a topic, and the traditional classroom is too narrow, how shall we define "learning environments" for this presentation? I have opted to concentrate on five typical learning environments encountered today by most students immersed in formal education, specifically: classrooms, laboratories, libraries, personal residences, and community- based learning environments. In the following discussion, each environment will be analyzed for the problems encountered by students with sensory impairments, solutions provided by human adaptations and interventions, and the role that can be played by technology in optimizing the learning opportunity. Enhanced accessibility provided by these approaches are not restricted to a specific environment; commonalities will be found in all five environments discussed. In addition, accommodations that facilitate learning by these students in these settings can generalize to many other of life's daily activities and experiences. Technology will be featured in the following discussion, but it must be remembered that there are many non- technological means by which accessibility can be facilitated, and many of these have not been implemented to the degree possible. Thus, as we conduct the research and development needed for providing improved accessible learning environments for the future, we simultaneously must be diligent in promoting full access through other means as well. Classrooms Although classrooms are now only one of several learning environments in formal education today unlike the past, they continue to be important learning environments for most students. The classroom is the center for didactic presentation, dynamic demonstrations, and interpersonal inquiry and discussion. Notetaking is not a serious problem for most blind and visually impaired students. While visually impaired students use pens and pencils, blind students who use braille have long relied on the slate and stylus or manual braille writer. Some blind students have used tape recordings of classroom proceedings for later reference, but few have found this technique helpful for rapid scanning and review. Computer technology began to be used in the late 1970's, and today various laptop computers and dedicated notetaking devices give blind students alternative means for notetaking with either braille or synthetic speech displays. Human adaptation is the primary requisite for making other classroom activities appropriately accessible for blind and visually impaired students. Common problems confronted by these students in classrooms relate to the inability to read written information whether it appears on a chalk board, overhead projection, handout, or video. By merely speaking all material that is written on a chalkboard or overhead projection, an instructor will make material accessible to blind and visually impaired students. Simultaneously, they will assist many other students who strain to read material from back rows and by eliminating ambiguity produced by idiosyncratic handwriting or visual processing problems. This last point illustrates a principle that many of us have emphasized for years while promoting universal design of environments and products. When something is made accessible for people with disabilities, it is typically better for everyone else. It is usually more convenient and easier to use for everyone. Pictorial and graphical materials used in classroom instruction produce additional problems for blind and visually impaired students. Adaptive techniques and materials can greatly assist these students, but rarely are these made available. Many visually impaired students will benefit from copies of all materials that are to be shown or projected in front of classrooms. Such copies should be produced with large print (point 16 type and larger) with a minimum of 70 percent contrast between the displays and the background. (Again, all sighted students would benefit from such handouts as well to be used as permanent records.) Blind students need either excellent verbal descriptions or tactile diagrams or three-dimensional replicas of materials to be shown. Both tactile diagrams and models are enhanced when they are supplemented with audio descriptions and instructions. I will return to these tactile materials when discussing another learning environment. I have already eluded to the importance of handout materials for all students, but lack of access to them can cause serious problems for blind students if the handouts are to be used in classroom presentations and discussions. The common accommodation is through human intervention -- use of a reader (most commonly another student). This is better than no accommodation, but it more commonly is unsatisfactory because it interferes with hearing what is transpiring at that time, and it may be a distraction or burden to the volunteer reader and others nearby. For those who read braille, a braille copy is highly desirable. Most schools have access to facilities and services that can produce these alternative formats at short notice, especially when they are provided on computer diskette. Alternative formats for handouts may not be as important when they are to be used outside of class because blind students typically will have means for reading them, either with a human reader or an electronic reading machine. Nevertheless, all instructors should consider providing the material in alternative formats available today through brailling services and electronic copies for students who use computers. Many college instructors today provide such materials for all students on campus computer networks. In such cases, blind students can experience equity with their sighted peers by using adapted computer displays. Classroom accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing students is provided by human adaptation, intervention, and technology. For many of these students, lip-reading continues to provide the primary verbal information input or a valuable augmentation for residual hearing. Instructors can significantly enhance this informational input by continuing to face these students while speaking and avoiding talking when facing the chalkboard, projection screen or demonstration. Interpreters provide human intervention for classroom presentations and discussions for many deaf students. For some students, interpreters vocalize for the students thus providing two-way interpreting and full participation for the students. Technology is playing an increasing role in making classrooms appropriately accessible for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. FM loops and infrared links are becoming common assistive listening devices for hard-of-hearing students. Instructors or other classroom presenters hold or wear a small microphone and transmitter that broadcast verbal information to receivers worn by hard-of-hearing students. These devices amplify the speaker while not amplifying other ambient sounds near the student as do standard hearing aids. Real-time captioning or graphic display of speech is yet to be widely used in classroom situations, but a number of successful demonstrations have shown its effectiveness especially when there are a number of deaf students in the same classroom. A stenotypist enters lectures and discussion on a computerized keypad, and the text is translated into full alphanumeric text which is then displayed on a video screen. A verbatim transcript of the classroom session can then be produced and used for review by the students. Audio-visual instructional media -- such as slides, videos and educational television -- can make classrooms inaccessible learning environments for all students who have sensory impairments. Such media are used by faculty to enhance learning by bringing students closer to the subject matter. A good audio- visual presentation can be compelling and motivating, immersing the student in the subject to be learned. What better way to experience history than through a good documentary? How else can a human experience the inside of an atom or a tissue cell? Problems arise, however, when only one half of the audio-visual presentation can be perceived. Even the simplest example, a slide show, will be almost meaningless to students with sensory impairments if it is handled inappropriately. Deaf students will not hear the audio nor may not see well enough in darkened rooms to benefit from interpreters. Without adequate verbal description, blind and visually impaired students will miss the important visual information. Modern techniques and technologies provide means to make audio- visual displays accessible to people with disabilities. Captioning -- whether open or closed -- and video descriptions will provide the information otherwise absent to people with disabilities. Unfortunately, far too few producers of these educational media are providing the needed augmentations. Research being conducted by the National Center on Accessible Media at the WGBH Education Foundation is exploring innovative ways of making both captioning and descriptions available only to those who desire them. The key problem continues to be how to encourage or require producers of educational media to incorporate captions and descriptions so all students will benefit from the multimedia audio-visual instructional information. The reference to multimedia instructional materials is a logical bridge to the next learning environment to be discussed, namely laboratories. Laboratories As a scientist, the term laboratory generally evokes memories of my years wearing a white lab-coat working in a lab surrounded either by prototype technology used in psychophysical investigations or apparatus associated with neurophysiological research. Access to science labs and experimentation is a central theme in my work at the National Science Foundation, and it is an extremely important topic for this morning's discussion. Educational laboratories, however, exist today in many other disciplines for individual tutorials, drill, practice, and advanced individualized study. Computer aided instruction and audio-lingual language labs have been around for at least three decades; and today they are being upgraded by sophisticated interactive, multimedia educational technology contained on videodiscs and CD ROMs. For the most part, these exciting new educational tools are inaccessible to students with sensory impairments because the educational software contained on these media does not contain captioning or video descriptions. With the growth of interactive educational technology and curricula, it is essential that we develop the process and promote its use throughout the education publishing industry. NSF is currently exploring this field with researchers. It is not as easy to provide captioning and video descriptions on interactive multimedia as on a video which is linear in nature; interactive media have completely different time and space constraints because both dynamic and still graphics are present. The needed processes will be developed, however, and then we must promote their adoption and wide usage. Full participation of students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing does not often require adaptations in scientific laboratories as long as good communication is established between lab partners. Most of these students will be able to indicate the most effective form for this adaptation. Students who have limited vision usually can operate effectively and safely in scientific laboratories with appropriate optical or electronic magnification devices. Full participation of blind students in these laboratories, however, has long been a concern of schools and faculty despite the fact that many successful scientists with disabilities (including blindness) serve as roll models and live demonstrations of the fact that laboratory scientific experimentation can be conducted safely and productively. Until relatively recently, human intervention augmented by low tech adaptations have represented the bulk of techniques used to make science labs accessible for these individuals. Most students in labs are required to work in pairs because there is seldom sufficient equipment and supplies for everyone. Division of labor is the standard mode of operation for everyone. Judicious selection of lab partners and appropriate division of responsibility give each student the benefit of full participation and the specific strengths of the lab partner. My strengths were always in experimental design, data analysis, and report preparation. In psychology, physics, and engineering labs, I generally could adapt meters and timers needed for data collection. In biology and chemistry, however, sighted partners were often needed to describe images seen through microscopes and identify color changes obtained in chemical reactions. I never had problem finding partners who were ready to exchange those abilities for mine. Today we are on the threshold of exciting technology that should make science labs far more accessible to all students including those with sensory impairments, namely: digital measurement instruments, sonifications, computer generated graphics, and virtual reality. Digital measurement instruments: Modern laboratory instruments used to measure physical properties (such as energy, electricity, light, sound, force, and chemical content) are computerized. This means that the output is digital, a form that can be used to display the information in a multitude of forms -- visual, auditory, or tactile. Scientific measurements that in the past could not be performed without vision can now be adapted for a specific output display, including speech or braille. These will not eliminate the need or appropriateness of working with a lab partner in many situations, but laboratories are becoming far more accessible today, and they will in the future. Sonification A common barrier to blind laboratory students is the use of dynamic data graphics, commonly called visualizations. These are complex graphical displays containing combinations of patterns comprised of lines, colors, textures, and shaded areas, that often continually change. These are used to illustrate such things as chemical reactions, neurophysiological and biological functions, and physical energy fields. They are commonly generated from digital signals recorded through sensitive measurement of the actual events. An interesting bi-product of visualization research is the translation of these dynamic, digital displays into audio transformations. The resulting dynamic auditory displays are now called "sonifications," to parallel the term "visualizations." Sonifications have been shown to be highly accurate representations of the recorded activities. One study showed that sonifications were more reliable and visualizations in monitoring the critical life functions of a patient undergoing surgery. Another study demonstrated that sonifications were better than visualizations in discriminating between underground nuclear tests and low level seismic activity. Visualizations are also used to show behavioral data, such as changes in the demographics of population samples. These also should respond favorably to sonification transformations. Much more research is needed in this area especially related to refining the techniques of sonification so they will be most appropriate for visually impaired individuals. I am certain that training will be needed to use sonification, but I understand that training and experience is needed for sighted people before there is full appreciation of visualizations. Computer generated graphics: Many people cannot produce good graphics or drawings in science laboratories. Computer-aided paint, drawing, and design software packages are used today by many scientists and science students to produce precise graphical presentations of data gathered in laboratory investigations. Raw data are arranged in tables, and appropriate graphical formats are selected. The computer then generates and prints the graphic for use in papers or manuscripts. With such software, individuals without help of vision or coordinated movements can produce precise graphical displays for their experimental findings. Virtual reality Virtual reality is an emerging technology that is being exploited successfully by game manufacturers and by some sales organizations. It should also be developed for science education for all students including those with disabilities. In brief, virtual reality is computer technology that provides the user with rich, interactive sensory information -- primarily visual today, but exciting advances are being made with auditory displays and, to a less degree, with tactile and proprioceptive feedback. Users normally wear special goggles, earphones, and gloves. As the person moves, all of the sensations move in three-dimensional space as do sensations we experience in the real world -- thus the term virtual reality. Computer simulation has a rich history in the realization of many phenomena. The airline industry has been training and honing pilot skills on simulators for many years. We should be able to adapt these technologies to science laboratory experimentation thus providing all students with the means to participate fully. Through such laboratory experiences, students should be able to master fundamental principals of science through simulated activities usually restricted to performance of experiments in laboratories. I support the view that participation with the actual tools of investigation is better than simulation, but students with sensory or motor limitations will benefit greatly from the simulation along with all of the other students who do not have access to science laboratories. Few schools -- let alone families -- can afford full science laboratories for physics, chemistry, biology, and the earth and space sciences. Virtual reality technology is still expensive, but its application in the entertainment field is driving the costs down. Within a very few years, the price will be within the range of schools and even families. Then is when we will see the true value of virtual reality reaching into all sectors of our society, and there is strong reason to believe that students with disabilities will be able to find equity in these simulations. I look forward to the day that all students can study biology by traveling through a virtual world of a living organism, study meteorology by passing through hurricanes, and study physics and chemistry by traveling around atoms and molecules. Libraries are warehouses of knowledge; but they have no value unless the knowledge can be accessed. Five points must be emphasized today when discussing libraries as learning environments. These apply to public libraries as well as school libraries because all are important learning environments for students and the general public. (1) All students, but especially deaf and hard-of-hearing students, must have good communication with library staff. Staff members skilled in sign language is encouraged; but in the absence of such skills, appropriate technology for interpersonal communication is needed. Obviously, libraries should also have an adequate number of text-phones that will provide for telephone inquiries. (2) Libraries should be equipped with inventories of audio-visual materials that have captioning and video descriptions. Redundancy in the forms in which multimedia information is presented must become a standard practice for libraries. (3) Card catalogs and other resource reference materials must be accessible to library patrons who have visual impairments. As libraries convert to computerized search and reference capability, this process should be made easier. The important point to remember today is that information must be stored in a non-graphical user interface format -- character-based data are far easier to access than data stored on Windows-based systems. This should change in the relatively near future, but I would not advocate that any library considering conversion to computerized searchable reference materials adopt a Windows-based system today if it wants to ensure independent access by people with visual impairments. (4) Libraries need to maintain appropriate access technologies on the premises to permit students with sensory disabilities to access print and audio-visual materials within the library including access to computerized materials. These should include optical character recognition-based reading machines, closed- circuit television magnifiers, and adapted computers for blind and visually impaired patrons. (5) Finally, library patrons with sensory impairments must be able to avail themselves of remote access to library materials that can be obtained over computer networks. Again, we must address the form in which emerging digitized information is stored, browsed, and retrieved. This can become a very technical discussion, but I urge librarians everywhere to investigate the accessibility needs of people with disabilities before adopting an approach of making digitized library materials available over computer networks. Within a very few years, people everywhere will be able to browse library materials and obtain it from remote locations using computer technology. These activities and materials will be accessible to people with sensory impairments. Personal residences Personal residences are likely to become the most important learning environment for most people in the future, especially with an emphasis on life-long learning. Homes have always been the primary environment where children have learned language, values, and culture. Personal residences traditionally also have been the location where students of all ages have conducted school assignments -- homework. Today we are on the threshold of an insurgence of home-based learning options, many of which will be technology-based. I will touch on three of these. First, we cannot forget continuation of the traditional homework assignments. Most of my discussions in this area will refer to means to make materials usually presented to students in printed form accessible to blind students. Instructional materials including texts and supplemental study materials must be made available in alternative formats. Recording for the Blind (RFB) and other volunteer reading organizations have provided an important service for blind students for many years. I anticipate that this service will continue to be needed far into the future although the medium used for storage will probably evolve to include digital recordings which will be far easier for students to search for specific chapters and sections. I am making the assumption that most students with sensory impairments at all levels of education will be using computers in their educational pursuits, and this assumption should be realized in the relatively near future. Without question, computers have already demonstrated their value for students in the preparation of reports. For me personally, the change from writing in braille and with a typewriter to use of a word processing program has been monumental. The independence in editing and formatting has been beyond my fondest dreams of 20 years ago. Now software exists and continues to improve that will allow a blind person to type mathematics or tabular data and have appropriately formatted mathematics or graphics printed out for sighted teachers or peers. Also today electronic reading machines and access to remote resources via the Internet make the reading of professional and educational materials a breeze. Our students of today and in the future will have these capabilities. I mention computers and related information technology now because most of my remaining remarks are based on the premise that students with sensory impairments will have access to these important technologies to be used in their education. RFB and other groups (like the Gutenberg Foundation) are now providing computerized (or electronic) versions of texts and classic works of literature. These materials are generically referred to as "e-text" versions of the print documents. E-text is still in its infancy, but researchers are making significant progress in developing means by which publishers can have their copyrights protected. In addition, new software will make it possible for students to have higher level math and science symbols readable in large-character, auditory or tactile modes. This is a significant breakthrough for blind students desiring to study higher-level courses in these disciplines. A need still exists for an affordable, computer-driven, full- page-sized tactile display for the presentation of braille, math, and graphics. Research continues on this problem, and I remain confident that such a device will be produced so that blind students and other computer users will be able to feel much of the graphical information displayed on computer screens. In the interim, we must make a concerted effort to produce and distribute far more quality tactile diagrams and three- dimensional models needed as supplemental educational materials in many courses. I again draw from my scientific background knowing that students in biology, chemistry, and mathematics will benefit from, for example, tactile diagrams of anatomical and molecular structures. Innovative efforts of scientists at the State University of New York in Buffalo have shown the value of such tactile diagrams especially when they are augmented by braille and auditory teaching and practice guides. Another option for producing tactile diagrams is available today although it is very technology intensive. Computers, scanners, and braille embossers can be combined to provide users a low- resolution, tactile diagram of any visual image scanned into the computer. It has great potential for kids and adults alike. A family use of this technology was shown to me by a mother who is blind and who never before could appreciate her child's drawings. An exciting new educational tool that is in early stages of evaluation is the Nomad that provides built-in auditory information for a tactile diagram. As a user pushes on a specific location of a tactile diagram, an auditory display will identify that location and provide other descriptive or educational information. The Nomad should become a valuable educational system for classrooms, but I foresee its greatest value as an educational tool for learning at home. Three-dimensional models -- for history as well as for math and science -- are valuable aids in learning about the physical properties of concepts being studied. Kits containing such models should be developed and distributed with appropriate textbooks. A second residence-based learning modality is provided by an increasing number of audio-visual, multimedia, and computer-based learning modules and courses. These include teaching materials on videos, CD ROMS, videodiscs, and computer diskettes. The potential problem confronting students with sensory impairments again relates to the need for having these instructional materials appropriately captioned and described. These are issues on which we must continue to educate and pressure curriculum developers and publishers so they will respond to a growing market for accessible materials. The third area of discussion for residence-based learning relates to distance education. A plethora of courses are beginning to be taught over the Internet -- the computerized information highway. Professor Norman Coombs from this host institution has been a pioneer in this field of teaching, and his writings demonstrate that students who are either deaf or blind benefit equally from this educational medium with those without disabilities. A colleague of mine at the National Science Foundation has taught college level chemistry via Internet. She tells of a student who let her know by e-mail that she was deaf and indicated that this was the first class in which she could participate fully in discussions with the teacher and the other students. To date, most of these Internet-based courses and discussions have been character-based in contrast to being Windows-based. There, however, is a steady trend toward the use of multimedia information. We must work with the producers of these courses to ensure that students with sensory impairments can participate fully. This may require the addition of alternative formats -- text or graphics; but inaccessibility of these courses is a barrier to learning that we must avoid. Community-based learning environments The final learning environment that I will discuss is represented by those many locations found in most communities that are designed to provide educational, informational and recreational settings for the general public -- museums, exhibits, aquariums, zoos, historical sites, and the like. These facilities should provide many of the techniques and technologies already described that facilitate access for people with sensory impairments. Alternative forms of printed materials. Braille, recordings, large print and even computer diskettes, are appropriate media. Multimedia presentations should contain both captioning and video descriptions. Tactile diagrams and three- dimensional replicas should be available for hands-on exploration. Above all, these facilities should have staff who are able to communicate adequately with deaf and with blind patrons so that questions emanating from inquisitive minds can be answered appropriately. By addressing the accessibility needs of students with sensory impairments in these five learning environments, we can ensure that they will have the opportunity to experience equity in education with their peers.