Oriane Pierrès

Oriane Pierrès

AI Ethics, Digital Accessibility, Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education

Publications

The state of scientific PDF accessibility in repositories: A survey in Switzerland

Published in Learned Publishing, 2023

This survey analyzes the quality of the portable document format (PDF) documents in online repositories in Switzerland, examining their accessibility for people with visual impairments. Two minimal accessibility features were analysed: the PDFs had to have tags and a hierarchical heading structure. The survey also includes interviews with the managers or heads of multiple Swiss universities’ repositories to assess the general opinion and knowledge of PDF accessibility. An analysis of interviewee responses indicates an overall lack of awareness of PDF accessibility, and shows that online repositories currently have no concrete plans to address the issue. This paper concludes by presenting a set of recommendations for online repositories to improve the accessibility of their PDF documents.

Recommended citation: Darvishy, A., Sethe, R., Engler, I., Pierres, O., & Manning, J. (2023). The state of scientific PDF accessibility in repositories: A survey in Switzerland. Learned Publishing. Volume 36, Issue 4. pp. 577-584 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/leap.1581

Gauging awareness of accessibility in Open Educational Resources

Published in ICCHP-AAATE Conference, 2022

Open Educational Resources (OERs) have been widely promoted in the higher education community in recent years. However, the accessibility of OERs for people with disabilities has received relatively little attention. This paper presents the results of interviews carried out with people at higher education institutions worldwide who are involved in the creation and implementation of OERs. The goal is to gauge the awareness of accessibility issues in OERs. This paper raises the following research questions: How much do OER creators know about accessibility? What measures are needed to ensure accessibility in OERs? Results suggest that OER creators are aware about some issues around accessibility, but they still need further training on how to solve them. OER creators lack time, skills, and awareness to create accessible OERs. Support from specialists and colleagues and hands-on trainings can help cope with these challenges.

Recommended citation: Pierrès, O., Darvishy, A. (2022). Gauging Awareness of Accessibility in Open Educational Resources. In: Miesenberger, K., Kouroupetroglou, G., Mavrou, K., Manduchi, R., Covarrubias Rodriguez, M., Penáz, P. (eds) Computers Helping People with Special Needs. ICCHP-AAATE 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13342. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08645-8_39