[BlindMath] Accounting resources for JAWS users?

[Sean Loraas]

I've been challenged with making Accounting courses accessible to JAWS
users and braille readers. It's been a huge challenge with courses that use
MyLab Accounting by Pearson. There are several reasons for this that I
won't go into here since that isn't the question that was posed. I have
found the Accounting professions to rely heavily on visual tables, which is
fine when those tables are presented as proper data tables, which like the
previous responder mentioned, can be extremely accessible. Unfortunately,
almost all the textbooks that I've encountered present many of the
accounting tables in ways that aren't proper tabular data, or in such
complex tables that there is no way to preserve column headings in a
consistent way that is accessible for a screen reader. The more I examined
the issues the more alarmed I became at how much was being lost for the
screen reader users. It's important to know that without the
tabular datatable features set up according to accessibility standards,
screen reader users can lose all the information about what is vertically
aligned. Seems minor, but the amount of information conveyed by vertically
aligned data, is immense, and critical to recognizing the type of data
expected for a given field or cell. This is often taken for granted due to
the ease at which it is recognized visually: instantly and effortlessly
recognizing the relationship between data that is aligned vertically.
Vertically aligned data usually shares a data type. For example Debits or
Credits in Accounting. Complex accounting tables that are presented in a
non-tabular format, without column headings, completely lose that vertical
alignment information. The fact that most screen reading applications will
skip blank cells without reporting them, further complicates the problem.
In Pearson's MyLab Accounting, these data tables are presented as form
fields, sometimes with dropdown selections, sometimes not. So the visual
alignment and layout of the table is lost for students navigating with
screen readers. I have found some success providing braille and or tactile
graphics that provide the visual layout of the table, but students without
vision, or with low vision are still at a huge disadvantage having to
become familiar with the table structure separately from the table data,
and I find instructors have a hard time wrapping their head around the
magnitude of the barrier. Some of the brightest students I've ever worked
with have had to work much too hard for the accounting materials to be
anything close to an equivalent experience. There needs to be some
investigation and research into the nature of accounting tables and whether
or not there is an inherent visual bias in the way accounting information
is traditionally presented, that discriminates against individuals without
vision or with low vision. I suspect that is the case, especially with
undergraduate level textbook presentations. If there are any alt format
specialists out there that have had success with providing accounting
materials in an alternative format, I would love to hear about it also.
Given unlimited time to provide materials, there are solutions that may be
identified. But I have had a difficult time finding a suitable method of
making all the materials accessible in real time, keeping pace with the
class with the resources available to our small department. I hope my
experience has shed some light on the some of the barriers and how
problematic they can be in a way that is subtle and not intuitive for
sighted people to appreciate, which can pose as much or more of a barrier
than the issues with the materials, and can derail attempts to provide
solutions that give students the opportunity to have anything like the
intended experience afforded to students with sight. I have even found
issues in the accounting materials from some of the most reliable OER
textbooks, from publishers like Openstax, who are publishing some of the
most accessible textbooks in history (in my opinion). There were complex
nested tables that would read down a column of account titles then go back
up and read their related balances. breaking any link between the account
and the balance. Though they responded to my support inquiry and pledged to
fix the issue. I have actually found very few barriers like that in
Openstax textbooks, so they are my go-to recommendation to students as a
supplemental resource to their official textbooks. Sorry for such a long
message. I'd appreciate any feedback or solutions others have identified
that were successful. Stay safe!

[Austin Community College District logo with four colored star]

*Sean Loraas (**he/his/him)*

*Accessibility Technician*

*Alternative Text and Media *

* Student Accessibility *

* & Social Support Resources*

Eastview Campus

*Office: 2140*

Email: sloraas at austincc.edu


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