"The Internet's potential helps eliminate discrimination that exists in the context of a real-world social environment in which discrimination still prevails. Therefore, the disabled are more likely to achieve equality. Moreover, the idea that identity can be constructed according to the demands of the situation is a powerful framework for disabled people, because it permits a creative space for developing ideas about the self (Bowker & Tuffin, 2003)." "A good design can not only make visualization accessible, but can also make the information more accessible. Web 2.0 is available to be used by people in their everyday lives. It also has the potential to open up the world to people with disabilities, and is often presented as a way to eradicate disability as it is socially constructed."  If either of these two quotes strikes your interest please read this article. I know it was written in 2008 and some of the statistics are going to be off. Also, I'm sure that some of the issues that are being discussed have been resolved or updated. Some might even still be in the works to resolve them for people with disabilities, but I loved the article and it was an easy interesting read. It opened my eyes to how people saw Web 2.0 five years ago and how it is or is not  accessible to people with disabilities. 

I love your article Melanie on the 5 tips for using Web 2.0 and I really love the suggestion of Voki! I am a huge fan of asking kids to get out of their comfort zone and I know a good way to do that is class presentations, but I do know some students may struggle with this for more than just being nervous. Some students with certain disabilities might not be able to fully present in front of the class and this Voki site was great for that! I actually was playing around with it and I hope it works, but copy this link below to see if you can view my message... it was fun!!! HAHA Thanks for sharing this article!

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=7840526&height=267&width=200

This article does speak about assistive technology a lot, but I enjoyed reading it and I loved that it touched on why Web 2.0 is important for everyone. It also talks about the Disability Discrimination Act and how people with those type barriers are still in need of the same web access that people that do not have a disability have. 

I chose this site because it lists a lot of different disabilities with access to statistics and further information on each disability by clicking on the name. Not only that, but it give a description of what actual challenges that specific disability might face when attempting to access Web 2.0. A few sites I have visited mention aging difficulties and I never thought much about this being or causing barriers. This article touches on that topic along with other issues such as internet speed, age of equipment and location of your home. I thought it was a very good article that touched on a lot of