Joop Heijenrath, CCO and Cofounder of ReadSpeaker, presents at Blackboard's Teaching and Learning Conference in Groningen, April 2016. Learn about how to make your digital learning environment accessible.

1. Accessible Design:
Text to speech in the VLE
Joop Heijenrath, ReadSpeaker Founder/CCO

2. Welcome!
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3. Agenda
• Accessibility in higher education
• UDL: what is it, and why do we care?
• Text to speech in relation to UDL and accessibility
• Enhancing the Blackboard VLE with text to speech
– Demonstration of ReadSpeaker in Blackboard
– How to implement the ReadSpeaker building block
• Questions?
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4. Accessibility in higher education
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A hot button issue

5. A few statistics
• 6% of university students identify as having disabilities.
• Of these:
– 31% report Specific Learning disabilities
– 18% report concentration difficulties due to ADD or ADHD
– 15% report psychological condition
– 7% report mobility limitation
– 3% report visual impairment
– 3% report cognitive difficulties and/or intellectual disability
• Up to 10% of university students in the UK come from
overseas, and the majority do not speak English as a
first language (around 15% foreign students in NL).
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6. All learners deserve equal access to content
10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning, as reported by
Digital Learning Now, include:
• Learner access: All learners have access to high-quality
digital content and online courses.
– No learner should be unable to access course material, despite
any disability or limitation he/she may have.
– All course content should be created to be accessible.
• Personalized learning: All learners can customize their
education using digital content and digital tools.
– Each learner has a preferred method of learning. Digital content
should be customizable and be able to be accessed with digital
tools to reach these preferred methods.
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7. What does an accessible VLE look like?
• No barricades to assistive technology (screenreaders,
etc)
• Videos are captioned
• Flash is not used (use HTML5, as it is accessible)
• Documents are available in readable text format, not
as a scanned image.
• All material is both keyboard- and mouse accessible.
• Additional tools for learners are available (text to
speech, spell check, text-only mode).
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8. Assuming all material within the VLE is accessible…
• ReadSpeaker can read aloud the text using text-to-
speech.
• Conversion to audio is instantaneous and done on-
the-fly.
• ReadSpeaker offers reading in more than 130 voices
and more than 40 languages, so you can choose the
voice best suitable for your learners.
• ReadSpeaker has been around since 1999, so we are
experts in text-to-speech.
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9. ReadSpeaker Presence in Education
ReadSpeaker has customers in 62 countries
ReadSpeaker has dedicated staff in 13 countries
offices
clients

10. UDL: What is it, and why do we care?
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11. Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
• UDL is a framework to improve and optimize teaching
and learning for all people based on scientific insights
into how humans learn.
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12. What kind of learner are you?
Most learners
prefer to learn
with a
combination of
these styles.
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13. UDL: Why do we care?
UDL flips the model of assistive
technologies by offering benefits of
digital technologies to all students,
allowing them to choose the digital
tools that fit them best.
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14. Text to speech in relation to UDL and
accessibility
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15. Learning via visual and auditory channels
Bimodal reading:
The act of reading text while hearing the words at the same time,
such as when using speech synthesis software, or reading the text,
hearing the words, and having the words (and/or sentences)
highlighted at the same time, such as when using text-to-speech
software with integrated highlighting.
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16. ReadSpeaker works using bimodal presentation
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17. Who benefits?
• Busy learners who like to multitask or listen on the
go.
• Learners with reading impairments, including
dyslexia.
• Learners with concentration difficulties.
• Learns with cognitive impairments.
• Learners who are non-native speakers of the
language in which they are studying (e.g. ELL
students).
• Learners with visual impairments.
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18. Importantly, bimodal reading benefits ALL learners
Specific benefits of bimodal
content presentation include:
• Improved word recognition skills and vocabulary.
• Improved reading comprehension, fluency,
accuracy, and concentration.
• Improved information recall and
learning/memory enhancement.
• Increased motivation and more positive attitude
with regard to reading.
• Increased reading self-confidence and perceived
performance.
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Improving Learning Outcomes

19. Enhancing the Blackboard VLE with
text to speech
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20. ReadSpeaker for Blackboard
Seamless integration into the Blackboard
VLE for an easy, straightforward learner
experience.
• Reading of HTML content and documents
• Language adaption: ReadSpeaker will read in the
language of your Blackboard environment,
automatically (on the basis of the Blackboard language code)
• Simple, quick integration via building block.
• Ability to turn functionality on and off per course.
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21. HTML reading
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22. Document reading
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23. Implementing the ReadSpeaker building block
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24. Implementing the ReadSpeaker building block
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25. Implementing the ReadSpeaker building block
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26. Implementing the ReadSpeaker building block
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27. Implementing the ReadSpeaker building block
• One-time implementation
• All documents automatically have docReader capability
• Anytime you (or an instructor) changes course content,
this is automatically and instantly reflected in the
audio!
• ReadSpeaker support team is available to assist with
any questions or concerns during (and after)
implementation.
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28. Questions?
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29. For Further Information
• Visit www.readspeaker.com/education/Blackboard to
download your packet for getting started with
ReadSpeaker for Blackboard.
• Send an email to education@readspeaker.com
• Try out ReadSpeaker in your own Blackboard VLE: visit
our stand and speak with a representative.
Thank you!
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