Spring13T2 Web 2.0 Access Barriers

I found this controversial article about a deaf woman and her lawsuit against eBay for having limited accessibility for disabled users. She wants to be a seller on eBay, but due to not being able to verify that she is a seller because she would have to retrieve and submit a password via a phone call, she chose to bring a lawsuit against the company. The judge, however, dismissed her case due to her lack of evidence. Ebay claims their were other ways she could have verified, but she chose not to. The woman will continue to appeal the ruling. The article also talks about a similar case with Netflix. The comments at the end were interesting to read as well, because some of them claim the woman is using the "deaf card" and looking for financial gain. Like I said, interesting article...

This is a website done by San Francisco State University that explains the common problems disabled users run into when accessing websites. This site also gives solutions for these problems. A list is provided for popular Web 2.0 websites (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn) and links to their accessibility reports. It also gives resources for disabled users to use while on those sites.

Strategy Tutor is a web-based tool designed to support students and teachers doing reading and research on the internet. For students, Strategy Tutor helps you read, research, collect and understand information better and more efficiently. For teachers, Strategy Tutor provides a way to easily create web-based lessons embedded with research-based, highly effective learning strategy and vocabulary supports. And, because it is web-based, Strategy Tutor allows you to check on your students' progress easily, at any time, and from any computer. There are two "views" of Strategy Tutor. The Student Strategy Tutor website is where students work. On the student homepage, you can read messages from your teacher, work on your own work or teacher-created lessons, and collect work log entries that are like note cards. Your work log entries are tagged with source citations and a strategy category; that makes research easier and more effective. You can also check out the research project tutorial and feature demonstration videos to learn how to use Strategy Tutor more effectively.

I love how this site provides real world connections and examples to math concepts that we sometimes only see in black and white. Website is for all grade levels and provides access to those visual learners.

I chose this article because it explained what Web 2.0 is and what implications it might have for disabled people who use the Web, particularly the use of Ajax (which I had no idea what that meant before) for interactive web pages. It also gave suggestions for ways to make sure the applications are accessible.

Katy, Thanks for researching and finding AJAX. Your comment above hooked me into to know more as Ajax is the name of one of my favorite soccer teams in Europe. They play in the Dutch league, but Ajax soccer and Ajax the tool are much different. I like how the site recommended how to apply Ajax and how it could be applied incorrectly. Great research and thanks for sharing. Jeff

Jeff--like we read in one of the articles, the problem with tagging is the tag might mislead you to what you are looking for! We just demonstrated that.....You saw AJAX and thought of your favorite soccer team, but the AJAX I tagged was for the web application! HA

Students arrive to the classroom with a variety of talents as well as some with disabilities. The National Center for Learning Disabilities indicates that those students with learning disabilities (LD) suffer from "reading, writing, math, reasoning, listening, and speaking" skills that makes learning extremely frustrating. I choose this one because of the tools, resources and ideas that it gave me so that I can be a better teacher. I really like the poll everywhere site. It is so easy to use and it gives a visual for my students of a question that I just asked. You can use an ipad or cellpone.

Hey Melanie, I love your article and 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

Thanks for researching and sharing. I have never heard of Voki or Poll Everywhere and what great tools they are. I know students have an fear or anxiety to speak or even weigh in on a discussion. It is a great tool as it allows students to express themselves in a comfortable and "safe" format for them. Thanks for the find and sharing. Has anyone ever used these tools in their classes? Jeff

This site is too cool!  I have thought about You Tube as being difficult to manipulate, but to someone with certain disabilities, they may not be able to use You Tube at all.  This site has a link to a version of "ACCESS: You Tube."  I typed in deaf, and the first video was all caption.  I only watched one and was so excited about this site that I wanted to go ahead and bookmark it.  I'm going to check it out even more.

I chose to bookmark this webpage as it really made me think about the topic at hand. The internet offers opportunities to people with disabilities that were once unavailable. However, if a website is not created with web accessibility in mind, it really limits the users who could benefit the most. It is easy to understand as it provides great examples with links to more inforamtion as well as videos to watch on the topic. Great resource!

Kathy, Great minds think alike! I'm glad you enjoyed it too. :)

Lauren, This is a great site. I learned a lot navigating through it. I was especially touch by the two videos on the site. I sometimes get so closed off to what is around me and sometimes I need to take a god look around me to see what is going on. I liked how the site questioned why certain things are not offered all the time like captions on video and how they would not only be helpful to people that are hearing impaired by to everyone. Thanks for your research.

Before this week's reading, I never considered color-blindness as a physical disability. I don't know why - my father-in-law is color-blind so I am very aware of the problem. I chose this bookmark because it contains some simple steps that can be used to make your website easier to read for someone with color-blindness. Since the very definition of Web 2.0 involves user created content, blogs, website, etc. - I feel that it is very easy to follow the simple steps described in this blog posting when participating in Web 2.0 techniques.

Marianne, I have a brother that is color blind. I have always known about this, but never have I heard him ever complain about it in any way except that he doesn't match his socks very well. He says that he really never pays attention to it and just deals with it. I don't know that I know anyone else that is color blind. I read that there are different levels of severity to color blindness, so maybe my brother is very mild. Like you, I really have never considered this as a physical disability. I do on the other hand have a cousin that is totally blind, which I know is not anything to do with this, except, that is what I guess I consider a physcial disability. Interesting blog. Made me think a little! :)

Marianne, This website is so extremely useful. Thank you for finding, bookmarking and sharing. The site did an excellent job of listing and analyzing various Web 2.0 technolgies and I thought it was really beneficial to see how they rated them, Once that stuck out at me that I have never heard of was Access Menu. This Web 2.0 seemed to be rated extremely high for nearly every disability. Have you ever heard or used Access Menu before? I am going to do a bit of exploring, but it interested me to know if you or anyone for that matter has used Access Menu. Once again thanks for researching and sharing this site. I am going to share it with staff members in my building as well as our Special Services/Needs/Ed Departments. Awesome resource. Jeff

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. 

Accessibility is making the Web work for people with a diverse range of abilities. Accessibility is essential for developers and organizations that want to create high quality websites and web tools, and not exclude people from using their products and services. Accessibility is vital to enable people with disabilities to participate equally on the Web.