Educational software and low vision students: evaluating accessibility factors

The aim of this paper is to draw a few guidelines for the evaluation of the accessibility and usability of educational software programs from the point of view of low vision students. The presented findings are based on the results of a long term research project carried out by the Italian National Research Council's Institute for Educational Technology (ITD-CNR) and the David Chiossone Institute for the Blind, both based in Genoa, Italy. The educational project, whose general aims and results are not a matter of discussion here, involves a significant number of visually impaired students from primary to upper secondary school; in such a context, the researchers have the opportunity to assess and evaluate whether, and to what extent, the selected educational software products meet the needs of low vision students. In this perspective, the paper takes into account the features which can be considered significant from an educational point of view: general readability, working field extension and position, menu location and coherence, character dimension, colour brightness, etc. Bearing in mind the ultimate goal of providing children with appropriate, effective educational tools, an educational software accessibility checklist is proposed which is meant to be used by teachers with no, or scarce, experience of low vision, and not by professionals; it has already proved to be an effective tool for helping teachers select suitable educational software products "usable" by low vision students