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This is a good video that gives people an idea of why accessibility is so important and ways that it can be, and is, tested by others.

I think most educators want to provide the best possible environment, materials, and services for everyone and every need, but without complete awareness and leadership, we can either be oblivious to what we are lacking or overwhelmed at the gap that we need to fill. One of the speakers even said that her imagination can put herself in another person's shoes only so far because it is so hard to completely know what someone else's life experience is like.

This is a true problem. Our interpreter for our hearing impaired student is hearing impaired as well and she has challenges using the net. I work nexts to an older teacher who asks me quite often how to find things because he does not have a computer at home and does not use it often unless he is at school. Maybe if sites were more accessible and friendly he would be more proficient.

I thought that addressing Accessibility with Cloud Computing would be a good topic to address, since most technology is making its way tot the cloud. This video is 2 of 4 that are titled Will Accessibility Raid on Your Cloud Computing. All of the videos are great. This particular video discusses cloud computing and how it is addressing accessibility in a positive way. It discusses the growing impact of accessibility. One Project they talked about is called Lucy that is being piloted in Northern Italy. It provides a way for all people to access cloud features and applications for free. It is open source software. It will be able to help people through screen readers, text zoom, etc. Since this is open source, people express their needs to help enhance the system. Since this is cloud based they can login to their Lucy account and provides them with the tools they need from any location. It also talks about GPII andt technologies delivered to cloud services. That is working on a global system that addresses all users personal preferences when using technology. An example is text to speech that you use on your phone. This type of service was developed to meet accessibility needs, but is now a personal preference for all users. Thanks, Krystal

As I watched this video that Krystal posted, I realized how much I have personally benefitted from technology that was most likely originally designed for people with disabilities. I really hadn't thought of how the need for hands-free components in cars could be likened to having a visual disability. Clearly, people who fail to use such new technologies are not using their eyes, ears, and brain to focus on driving and are thus impaired. I sure am glad to have benefitted so much personally! The video also referred to translation apps and resources for times when we are "disabled" by not having language skills in a foreign region. While I haven't traveled to foreign countries where the masses don't speak English, I am reminded how little Spanish I know every time I have parent-teacher conferences with Spanish-speaking parents. Translation resources are more and more valuable the more that we are exposed to people who speak different languages. We surely have come a long way in this society from excluding people with disabilities from the routines of everyday life.

This video is in a collection of four videos from City University London. This specific video is an interview with an accessibility expert at AbilityNet. She discusses common problems with individuals with disabilities, social networking and how they are excluded from social networking. All four videos are very interesting.

This video made me think about accessibility from a different perspective. Before, I always thought of accessiblity on the web as dealing with screen readers and maybe adaptive devices so a disabled person could use a keyboard. Not having acces to social networking is a new thought to me. As the lady said, the Ajax program (used by google apps) and facebook are not accessible to the disabled. If the most popular social networking site and google are not worried about accessibilty issues how will change come for the disabled. It seems that web design outpaces web accessibilty technology so the diabled will always be behind. Sad.

Like Laurie, this video made me think about accessibility from a different perspective. Before, I always thought of accessiblity on the web as dealing with screen readers and maybe adaptive devices so a disabled person could use a keyboard. Not having acces to social networking is a new thought to me. As the lady said, the Ajax program (used by google apps) and facebook are not accessible to the disabled. If the most popular social networking site and google are not worried about accessibilty issues how will change come for the disabled. It seems that web design outpaces web accessibilty technology so the diabled will always be behind. Sad.

There are billions of people who face problems in accessing webpages, including people with disabilities, elderly people, and illiterate people in developing countries. The needs for accessible webpages have become too broad to be left only to Web developers. The wisdom of crowds has become part of a key strategy to combine various skills and knowledge into a community that can address the needs for accessibility. Social Accessibility is one such project for visually impaired people, which has been operating for more than a year, producing findings and new challenges. The collaborative approach can work well and be expanded for people with other problems such as poor hearing, aged eyes, and reading problems. I chose this site because it includes the elderly and the illiterate when talking about web accessibility.

I agree Tracy, the collaborative approach, consortiums and communities working together for a better web for all is a growing movement that will enhance not only people with disabilities but it will streamline the web for all of us.

Some sixteen million Americans have eye conditions that glasses cannot correct. There are many programs and technologies available to aid visually impaired individuals. This video demonstrates one technology called LowBrowse. This helps people with low vision to be able to browse the internet. Whatever the cursor is hovering over will be blown up at the top of the screen. Other programs can be difficult to navigate because they only magnify one portion of the screen. LowBrowse allows the lower portion of the screen to remain at normal size and displays the magnified portion at the top. This technology is completely free and once you set your preferences they will automatically appear wherever you go on the internet. It can also read text out loud.