Automatically Producing Accessible Learning Objects.

The “Anywhere, Anytime, Anyway” slogan is frequently associated to e-learning with the aim to emphasize the wide access offered by on-line education. Otherwise, learning materials are currently created to be used with a specific technology or configuration, leaving out from the virtual classroom students who have limited access capabilities and, in particular, students with special needs. On the contrary, accessibility of learning materials is a key issue to ensure a whole inclusion of people with disability in instructional process, and, consequently, to prevent risks of “digital exclusion”. The foremost explanation for the creation of not inclusive materials is the assumption that creating accessible and universal Learning Objects (LO) is a dismaying and lengthy task, partially supported by complicated ad-hoc tools. New simple mechanisms that drive authors in creating accessible LO are needed to enlarge LO audience; they should contemporary support students’ needs (while reading) and reduce authors’ efforts (while writing). In this paper we present a LO creation and management process, based on common personal productivity tools, which guarantees both content accessibility as well as universality and offers a simple and friendly interface to authors.