UMUC Gets Help with its IDEA to Narrow Digital Divide for People with Disabilities

By Andrea Martino

UMUC has received two major gifts, totaling $113,000, to support development of a new University resource that will make online learning more accessible to people with disabilities by improving the ability of faculty to teach those students. The initiative—
Implementing Distance Education Access (IDEA) for People with Disabilities—builds on an existing UMUC resource, the UMUC–Verizon Resource Site for Teaching with Technology, which promotes the use of technology in teaching. The new IDEA pages should be available spring 2003.

The Verizon Foundation provided seed money of $50,000 last fall for IDEA and NEC Foundation of America followed last month with a $63,000 grant. IDEA pages will be devoted solely to using assistive technologies that promote accessibility to educational Web resources for students with visual, hearing, and orthopedic impairments, or other learning disabilities. Some resources now available include screen reading software, visual enhancements, and keyboard alternatives.

According to The Honorable Steny Hoyer, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland who shepherded legislation for the Americans with Disabilities Act through the House in 1990, the IDEA project at UMUC is an appropriate 21st-century development from that landmark ruling.

"It is most fitting that University of Maryland University College would launch such an initiative," said Hoyer. "UMUC is a technology leader in Maryland and we are most proud that its expertise enables more learners—of all capabilities—to improve their lives and their communities' economic development through higher education. Initiatives like the IDEA Project are the hallmark of U.S. higher education and why universities like UMUC are so successful in today's global marketplace. My praise for partnerships like these with Verizon and NEC Foundation of America rivals the great pride I feel for challenged individuals who can now cross hurdles that used to seem insurmountable."

UMUC President Gerald Heeger expects the IDEA project will remarkably improve education for people with disabilities. "Like many very significant developments before it, online education has been like a wave in higher education, providing invaluable benefits to learners of all ages," he said. "It is important, though, for us to be certain that the Internet wave does not sweep by people with special challenges, since these students have much to gain while providing a unique richness of perspective to fellow students and to their professors."

Research shows, however, that these students may have already been marginalized. A 1996 study found that, compared to other students, students with disabilities were much less likely to enroll in college within five years after graduating from high school. In a 1999 report compiled by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement, students with disabilities had somewhat lower collegiate aspirations than their counterparts without disabilities.

"Because the Web is such a phenomenal resource in making online learning very accessible, most of us take it for granted," said Nicholas Allen, UMUC's academic provost. "But there are still difficult barriers for individuals with challenges to overcome, making the Web not all that accessible to many other people. It is crucial that today's technology be adapted to assist everyone, not to impair anyone's progress."

According to Claudine SchWeber, associate provost, Office of Distance Education and Lifelong Learning (which received the IDEA grant), the resource may well be the first to support educators. "There are universities and companies that have developed resources to improve technological access by users," said SchWeber. "But so far as we know, we are the first to promote best technological practices and pedagogical approaches for those who teach or train online to people with disabilities."

Online faculty may very likely be unaware of their students' special challenges unless the students tell them, added Allen. "With proper instruction on technological capabilities and techniques we plan to develop, professors need not be taken unaware on the first day of class when a student says in an e-mail that he or she has special challenges. Many faculty and education professionals involved with distance education are lacking the means or the understanding to integrate accessible design features with existing instructional practices, so, in a sense, the faculty are disadvantaged, too."

Not surprisingly, the problem goes back further to elementary education, as well. The Learning Independence Through Computers (LINC) organization in Baltimore is working with teachers in Baltimore City Schools to help students with special needs overcome limitations and participate more fully in learning. According to LINC, the number of children with disabilities in Baltimore City Schools has been steadily increasing over the past 10 years.

"I believe our teachers are among Maryland's most progressive," says Principal Mary Booker, of Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle School, currently the only instructional technology magnet school for Baltimore City. "It is imperative that we remain ahead of the learning curve of educational technology because students today are so technologically proficient. It would be inexcusable to leave any child behind."

FSK is helping to launch another UMUC technology resource currently in development, this one to improve technological resources of K-12 teachers as they incorporate technology into teaching.