Spring13T2 Web 2.0 Access Barriers

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.

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

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 website reviews Web 2.0 products and websites and rates them on accessibility. According to the website, "This resource aims to help those making decisions about their use of freely available 'Web 2.0' interactive and collaborate e-learning tools." The website is organized by type of disability. It lists what tests were performed on the Web 2.0 product and also the results of the test.

Hi Marianne, This is a great resource for users (disabled or non) to use to see which websites are accessible. I liked how you could browse by disability and then see how the different products, or websites, scored based on Web2Access's tests. Thanks for highlighting this site!

I think this is a great site, glad you found it and shared it. It is an awesome resource to check the accessability of websites. I plan to use this site to research websites suitable for the learning disabled students in my classes to improve my instruction for them.

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.

I choose to bookmark this page due it addresses how individuals with hearing impairments can access and overcome their disibiliites using web 2.0 technologies in the classroom. I bookmarked it as it introduced a new concept called vodcasting. Vodcasting is lessons recorded as video. It is similar to podcasting, but it is purely video with no sound. A teacher could create a podcast for their students from a lecture, and a vodcast for hearing impaired students using a similar web 2.0 technology. The vodcast would be in sign language and the podcast would be sound.

Jeff, Great site you found. I think that it is amazing that Vodcasting is proven in teaching a foreign language to hearing impaired students and just think that could not be done 10 years ago. We have come a long way with technology that it can be used for a multitude of people and can be an effective way to help bridge the gap for educators to reach more students. I also like that you can pause or reply the Vodcast making it so user friendly for students to use.

Nice use of Diigo deeplinks! I think it is interesting that you bookmarked the original Web for All Learners wiki that I created for a former 6019 classes! lol!

I chose this bookmark because it has many resources for people that are blind. The first page, where the link is set, is about my cousion who is blind, and his success story. I have many memories of him growing up as a child. One link is for products and technology where there is a vast amount of resources from notetakers to talking books that will benefit someone with blindness. There is a great link on blogs that has many user experiences. The very first one was about Dropbox and problems happening with that at the moment. Very interesting blogs.

Hi Kathy, I loved reading this article about your cousin. What a great guy to have overcome the limitations set before him due to his blindness. He is a great example of how people with disabilities can do everything and more just like everyone else. His journey from being one of the first blind students allowed to attend public schools to being the president of the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina is quite an accomplishment. You definitely should be proud! I loved the quote at the end of the article and how his son has a lot to be proud of. Thanks for sharing!

Kathy, I have read this about your cousin before. I am so amazed at all he has accomplished. He has never used his disability as a crutch. He has done so many things to help others who are blind. There are some great resources here. Thanks for sharing.

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 

Paula, Thanks for the website. I found it very interesting to learn about the different disabilities listed and how much information it had on each. I was not aware of the some of the different challenges someone with a disability faces in light of web 2.0 tools. I think I was in the dark way to long. Thanks for opening my eyes. Mel

Hi Paula, This was an interesting website that brought up a lot of valid points for website developers. I liked how it stated the economic and workplace benefits, as well as the legal requirements for websites being accessible for all. The latest statistics mentioned were from 2008. I'm sure that the numbers have increased a lot more since then. The common problems for disabled users mentioned were good as well. I didn't even think about problems like older technologies or location. I think those are still around today. Web site developers have to keep a lot in mind when designing their websites. They want to reach everyone so every problem that comes up needs to have a solution. Good website!

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 of the abundance of information on how to check if a site is accessible to all. More and more teachers have their own website and it is fundamental that their website is accessible to all of their students, parents, administrators and possibly the community depending on the privacy level of the website,

This is a great website. It is very comprehensive on its step by step process to check and enable web accessibility for all.

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.

Wow, I'm a new Mac user and I knew Apple had features that accommodate learning disabilities. But I didn't know that there were many features to help improve productivity and academic performance in reading proficiency, math, spelling, and more. One example that Apple uses is Text to Speech for students with cognitive disabilities. That is only one of many, check out all the features. I was amazed.

Jara, If you have a list of the apps I would love to see it. I am always looking for educational apps (especially music ones) for my students and my own kids. Wendy

I think the APPLE products are perfect for individuals with disabilities! I did not realize HOW many features are available for disabled users until I read this! SO many great features that I can share with my special ed department to support the use of these devices!

This is really cool. I typed in the web address for my district and it came up with errors and alerts.