[Athen] Pearson online Lab's

[Sharon Trerise]

1-     Has anyone had the any experience in their school with Pearson?

Our students have run into problems with MyMathLab and text-to-speech software.  The sample problems are displayed as graphics (the entire problem, not just the equations) so the vast majority of text-to-speech software will not work.  It has been over a year since this happened but I am guessing that the accessibility has not improved.



2-     What is your policy in your school working with publisher's inaccessible course contents?

We don't have a policy.  I contacted Pearson several times and they assured me that the next version would be more accessible. However, the way it appears that they made it more accessible was to give the instructor the option to provide their own examples using MathML.  That defies the whole purpose of MyMathLab which is to provide extensive practice and instruction for students without creating any more work for the instructor.



3-     What is your policy if course syllabus stating to use my Spanish lab and faculty makes an exception so a student is blind and don't use the interactive Spanish lab?

But follow the course from book (all fun staff and practices, quizzes are at my Spanish lab)

In part because of the accessibility problems and partly because the students don't like MyMathLab, our instructors now use it as an optional tool for students to practice concepts that they are teaching in class.  Our math department made a decision not to use it for testing or quizzes any longer.



4-     Are there any Colleges/universities out there Pearson is not allowed to sell their products or had to modify its services etc..

Sharon Trerise
Coordinator of Disability Services
Cayuga Community College
197 Franklin St.
Auburn, NY 13021
315-294-8606

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On Behalf Of Ozi, Selim
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 4:44 PM
To: athen at athenpro.org
Subject: [Athen] Pearson online Lab's

Hi All,


1-     I would like to get some insight and need your help documenting accessibility issues with Pearson.
              My School uses heavily Pearson products such as my language labs, my math labs, Course Compass etc..
              Typically student buys the book and gets the CD and faculty provides username and passwords for the students to login to Pearson online  labs.

We Convert the book into accessible format (structured word-daisy) and give it to the students who are using screen reader (jaws 11)
I consider myself a quite advance sighted Jaws user and test these online labs with various students who are blind and using screen readers.
There are too much to list here that we find not accessible and end up accommodating student with reader to do work on the lab.


1-     Has anyone had the any experience in their school with Pearson?

2-     What is your policy in your school working with publisher's inaccessible course contents?

3-     What is your policy if course syllabus stating to use my Spanish lab and faculty makes an exception so a student is blind and don't use the interactive Spanish lab?

But follow the course from book (all fun staff and practices, quizzes are at my Spanish lab)

4-     Are there any Colleges/universities out there Pearson is not allowed to sell their products or had to modify its services etc..



Your help greatly appreciated.

Thanks.


Selim Özi.
Access Center ,
Disability Accommodations And Adaptive Technology for
Metropolitan State College of Denver.
303-556-8387.

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