Higher Education and Virtuality from an Inclusion Approach

Abstract

The pandemic that started at the beginning of the year 2020 and the isolation situation virtualized face-to-face educational proposals very quickly. The distance modality confronted us with the review of teaching practices including the planning, evaluation and monitoring of students and an exhaustive evaluation of the tools to be used. In this period, videoconferencing tools emerged as the only resource that allowed synchronous meetings and collaborative interaction. In addition, the use of educational platforms and accessible resources was necessary to ensure that the student can interact with the teacher and the study material. In this article, the accessibility analysis of videoconferencing systems used by students with disabilities in the Computer Science School subjects of the National University of La Plata is presented. The functionalities provided for disability, their compliance with international accessibility standards were analyzed and the tools were also manually tested in different interaction scenarios. Besides, different tools that allow validating the platforms used and creating accessible material for students are mentioned. A set of recommendations is also proposed as a contribution to improve the teaching strategies with technologies, considering the different situations of students with disability.