Now You See It: Creating Accessible Online Content for the Blind/Visually Impaired

NICHOLAS ALLEN MCCLURE

Oaks and Palms Academy (OPA) was the pseudonym used for the organization examined within this study. OPA is a state-wide, K–12, residential and academic program for students who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind/visually impaired (VI), and deafblind. Full-time employees (FTE) are deaf, blind, or hearing and sighted. Creating and providing content and experiences that are accessible to all stakeholders was a key value at OPA at the time of this study. Visual content such as images, pictures, and PDFs were being shared, but not always in an accessible format. This study examined the behavior of FTE within different populations as it related to creating and accessing online content. This research study identified a problem within the online realm of OPA. Inaccessible content was identified within Viva Engage; a Microsoft Suite news-sharing application used by OPA. I established a research team known as the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) team to develop and design instruments, analyze data, and select and evaluate interventions. The CQI team was a group of administrators that examined systems within the organization and, as the name implies, created an environment of continuous and quality improvement. The CQI team and I conducted organizational, environmental, gap, and cause analyses at OPA. Once these analyses were conducted, the team selected appropriate interventions to solve the problem of inaccessible online content and evaluated the selected interventions to measure effectiveness.I conducted an organizational analysis to examine the mission, vision, strategic plan for 2017–2022, and Organizational Policies and Procedures (OPPs). I found that OPA strived to be an organization of inclusion and accessibility based on their accessibility notice and staff acceptable use policy OPP 8.09. I completed an environmental analysis by sending a questionnaire to employees who were blind/VI and a questionnaire to supervisors and conducting a content analysis in an internal news-sharing application, Viva Engage. The questionnaire revealed that some content shared on Viva Engage was not accessible to some employees who were blind/VI. The questionnaire sent to supervisors revealed that all participants thought accessible information on Viva Engage was important. Along with the questionnaires, I conducted a content analysis of Viva Engage to determine if users were posting inaccessible information. The content analysis revealed that users were posting inaccessible information throughout the 3-month window of data collection. Of the 150 posts collected, I categorized 40 posts including links, images, GIFs, and PDFs as inaccessible. The CQI team and I conducted a gap and cause analysis to determine the root cause of the problem. We determined that the root cause of inaccessible content was that employees did not know how to create accessible content. I gave a list of interventions to the CQI team to determine the most appropriate and feasible intervention for this research study. I followed evaluation processes using the Dessinger and Moseley (2004) full-scope evaluation model as described in Van Tiem et al. (2012) and included a formative, summative, and confirmative evaluation of the interventions. The research team chose to use a document and standard in the form of a policy amendment and a performance support tool/job aid in the form of an instructional website to solve the problem of inaccessible posts. The research team designed and developed the two interventions to align with the mission and vision of the organization and to improve internal communications at OPA. Administrators within OPA implemented the interventions in two phases with the first phase disseminating the website and the second phase disseminating the policy amendment approximately 3 months after the first phase. I conducted a formative and summative evaluation, and I determined that the interventions were effectively designed and developed. I planned a confirmative evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the interventions 3 and 6 months after the dissemination of the interventions. Theoretical and conceptual frameworks used for this research study included the performance improvement/HPT model provided by Van Tiem et al., (2012), Rothwell’s (2005) six-cell gap analysis tool, the fishbone diagram supplemented by the 5 Whys approach used for the cause analysis, an intervention selection process proposed by Van Tiem et al. (2012),principles of universal design (UD) for intervention design and development as suggested Garrett (2002), and Pan and Wang (2019), design guidelines from Addison et al. (2009), Carliner (2002), Sanders and Thiagarajan (2001), the Dessinger and Moseley (2004) full-scope evaluation model, and Kotter’s (1996) 8-step change model. By using all of the listed theoretical and conceptual frameworks, I found that the research methods and results were trustworthy, valid, and effective.

Now You See It: Creating Accessible Online Content for the Blind/Visually Impaired

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Now You See It: Creating Accessible Online Content for the Blind/Visually Impaired

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