How Accessible is EDUNET Contents?

Abstract

Korea has enacted “Individuals with Disabilities anti-Discriminatory Act” in 2008, and is actively promoting and propagandizing the law, but it is still at its infancy in comparison to other advanced countries in terms providing Web accessibility consideration for the recipients. Although the disability act was passed in April, 2008, and has been in legal force since the beginning of 2009, there still are many people who are having difficulties to obtain not only the Web accessibility but also for accessing media, obtaining telecommunication equipments, and accessing e-learning contents. This study is to investigate the accessibility of public contents offered for all students, teachers, and parents for free provided by the Korean Ministry of Education and Science such as EDUNET. The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of accessibilities of digital contents provided by EDUNET which is a part of public services. In the last 10 years, it provided and heavily used by K-12, and it has been most often used digital resources inside and outside of schools. Thus, EDUNET should guarantee access for all learners regardless of their physical or mental limitations. Based on FAE (The Functional Accessibility Evaluator) evaluation on five categories and its subcategories in its structures and styles, the contents fell far short in access. Thus, it requires immediate need of improvements to provide equal access for universal learners. Scripting had an average „Pass‟ rate of 46%, but most of the contents received „Fail‟ on HTML Standards, Scripting, and Text Equivalents. The result indicates that students with low visibility or hearing limitations cannot access the materials, nor benefit from using them. The implication of this study also points that all future digital contents should consider universal access and learning for all different learners. Digital contents, including EDUNET which is a part of public services, should guarantee equal access, and opportunities to benefit from them.