By William Marsburg,
This blog post is intended for external speakers giving guest lecturers as part of the UCL MSc DDI course. It will attempt to guide presenters in both their production of lecturers for online delivery, and provide guidance on the adaption of previously given lecturers that this change of platform may necessitate, to ensure that their lecturers remain accessible for all students.
Along with the accessibility of the tools/programmes required to access the full range of content delivered by an online lecture, it is also important to consider the method and style of delivery when designing accessible content.
A guest lecture typically involves a talk and presentation, often aided by physical handouts, followed by questions from the audience. The talk and accompanying presentation (the actual “lecture”) can be handled neatly by many different pieces of software, with live screen sharing allowing for an experience very similar to an in-person lecture. Delivering content this way will be familiar to most people by now, and as such only minor things need to be taken into account to ensure complete accessibility. On the other hand, although it is possible to use the built in “chat” feature present in most of the software used for online delivery to receive questions about the content of the lecture, doing so is not ideal from an accessibility point of view. Likewise, the obvious replacement for physical handouts – a document that students can have open in another window (to “flick to” during the lecture), has accessibility drawbacks which must be considered when designing/adapting lectures to be given online.
The accessibility of the tools most often used for online lecture delivery at UCL: Blackboard Collaborate and Microsoft Teams, are well documented. Both tools have live closed captioning (in English) capabilities, something essential for students with disabilities – particularly those with auditory impairments or processing difficulties (to act as a method of reinforcing the delivered content). In conjunction to this, both can be fully operated solely by keyboard input, should the use of a mouse be problematic for some students. Strictly speaking, both are also fully screen reader compatible, although it has been reported by numerous sources that the inconsistent and illogical layout of Microsoft Teams limits its usability when assistive technology, such as a screen reader, is required. There are no such reports of similar issues with Blackboard Collaborate, although this may be down to the fact that it is used far less in academic circles.
More information on the accessibility of Microsoft Teams and Blackboard Collaborate can be found at:
https://help.blackboard.com/Collaborate/Ultra/Administrator/Accessibility#caption
With regard to the delivery/content of the lecture, there are a number of things that should be considered to ensure accessibility. Firstly, the layout/style of the presentation should be made to be as readable and logical-to-follow as possible. UCL has already produced some guidelines on producing accessible presentations/documents, so it is really worth taking a look at these when designing slides/presentations to accompany lecturers.
Following these guidelines will help to ensure that any files displayed in a lecture are accessible to all.
Along with making accessible documents, it is also necessary to deliver the content in an accessible way, and running sessions with a few simple “rules” really helps to do this. Things such as requesting that all participants turn off their video unless they are speaking, speaking clearly and slowly (to allow for bad internet connections) and verbalising when you have finished speaking help to make online lecturers much easier for people with certain disabilities to follow. It is also recommended that the use of “chat” during a lecture is limited as much as possible, such that it is only used for instructions or sharing links/documents. Again, UCL have already produced a set of guidelines for running online meetings with neurodivergent participants, which are very useful to read when planning an online lecture.
Replacing physical handouts:
As mentioned above, simply replacing a physical handout with a document to be opened and viewed during the lecture is problematic. Not only can relying on this result in students missing vital information while they search through the document, but it can also lead to certain neurodivergent individuals becoming distracted or loosing focus. It is far better to adapt presentations to include information/figures that were previously in handouts, so they form part of the main presentation itself. If doing this is impractical then the presenter can always switch the window being transmitted to students from the presentation, to the handout, and then highlight any relevant information. Should this approach be taken, and if handout is sent to the students prior to the lecture, then it should also be made clear (at the start of the lecture) that any relevant information on the document will be highlighted to the audience, and that there is no need to have the document open in another window (while the lecture is running).
Receiving questions during a lecture:
Questioning often forms an integral part of a lecture. As mentioned above, using a “chat” box as a way of receiving questions is not ideal from an accessibility point of view. It is therefore necessary to use different approach to receive questions in real time. Mentimeter, a service UCL subscribes to, allows for students to ask questions in real time via a web interface. An account is not needed to ask questions, as students can log-in with a session code. Questions are anonymous, and the service appears to be accessible for most. Another option for receiving questions is via twitter #hashtags. Twitter itself does a very good job at accessibly, although, the fact an account is required to post a #hashtag, and because accounts are not necessarily anonymous, means this may not be the best option for all scenarios.