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This site is a great resource for teachers or parents that are unfamiliar with disabilities. It gives background knowledge about learning disabilities as well as, suggestions for schoolwork, homework, accommodations and assistive technology. The assistive technology section has a variety of suggestions, videos, books and apps that are helpful for teachers and parents alike.

This is a great site that you found Kim. As a teacher it is always tricky to address accommodations and adjust to the modifications some of our SPED students need. It also has a lot of information for parents too.

This page in particular provides scenarios and accessibility solutions for users of web 2.0 who are disabled. It includes information about color blindness, deafness, classroom student with dyslexia, cognitive disabilities, etc.

Hi Brooke, The section about the classroom student with dyslexia really caught my attention. I saw that text to speech software is used with an option for freezing animated objects. Text to speech software is not only great for individuals with dyslexia or ADD, but it can also be modified for blind or nearly blind students and younger age kids, like kinders or pre-k!

I chose this article primarily because it talks about how important it is that inclusion is so necessary especially on the world wide web. This is indeed the place that EVERYONE has access to what is available. It was a bit discouraging to find this statement: "Despite the fact that the United States has the world's most comprehensive policy for Internet accessibility and that clear guidance for creating accessible technologies already exists, designers and developers of Web software and hardware technologies in industry, academia, and government often exploit holes in existing policy to ignore the needs of people with disabilities. As a result, most Internet-related technologies are born inaccessible, cutting out some or all users with disabilities."  Do creators do this because it's easier? Possibly, but shortcuts leave too many people without access. 

The article describes possible barriers in e-learning and educational technology for people with disabilities. It starts with an overview of the different ways disabled people work with computers and assistive technology. Then several examples of creating accessible content and communication are provided. (This article is helpful because it gives you great examples on making your content accessible for those with multiple disabilities. It also shares how to implement the technology into classroom.)

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) contains a wealth of info about web 2.0 accessibility for those with disabilities. My favorite feature is that it provides scenarios of both children and adults who have disabilities, the barrier that they face, and how to overcome that barrier.

This shares a variety of accessibility options for those with visual, auditory, physical, speech and cognitive disabilities.  

This article is about how students with learning disabilities can use text messaging, wikis, and blogs to help in the classroom. Since blogging is something we have talked about in class, it's great to see how a tool like this isn't a barrier for students with learning disabilities, but how it can help them shine in a classroom.

Ali- I find your article very helpful. I especially liked the part about Blogging since I am new to the blogging world. I learned that Blogging can be quite helpful for getting teens to express themselves more freely and more frequently. I find it interesting that teen bloggers write more often. I do think that it is hard to get reluctant teens to write...especially with pen and paper. In regards to disabilities, it is very helpful on a personal level. My friend's daughter had surgery called DBS-Deep Brain Stimulation for her condition called Dystonia. She has had to learn to use her left hand, so she has not been writing as often. I am here in Maine with her now and she is recovering beautifully. Blogging would be a great way to get her writing again.Thank you, Ali! My friend Jenny thanks you too.

An article on the barriers that those with cognitive disabilities face when using the web.

For many people, the term "disability" conjures up images of individuals with physical impairments. We need to think more broadly. It seems to me that anyone who is denied full access to information and ideas -- or the means to express themselves as individuals -- has a type of disability.

This article is by George Lucas, the founder of Edutopia. He talks about his feeling that technology can help all of us achieve our own potential and discover our own disabilities.

This article discusses elderly users and web accessibility. They compare elderly users to people with disabilities.

This site should be saved on every teachers computer! It is a jackpot for tools to use in the classroom for any child with a disability. Not only does it have a behavior management section but it also has a whole section on social skills. One of my favorite tools from this site though is the cards that teachers can print out for schedules or behaviors. In addition to all of this, it also has games and songs.

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging. (This is what came up when I bookmarked the site. I feel this site is invaluable in that it defines Web accessibility and why it is important, explains how to make your Web site accessible, how to evaluate the accessibility of a site, as well as provides many more useful resources.)

This study looks at the accessibility of websites belonging to 80 colleges of communications and schools of journalism in the US and Canada using a computer-generated test called the Bobby test. The article provides background on disabilities, the Web, as well as suggestions to improve accessibility to Web pages.

As an add-on to this, I got on CAST's website (http://www.cast.org/) and here is a bit more information about the Bobby test: Bobby In 1995, CAST launched Bobby as a free public service to make the burgeoning World Wide Web more accessible to individuals with disabilities. Over the next decade, Bobby helped novice and professional Web designers analyze and make improvements to millions of Web pages. This work won CAST numerous awards and international recognition. CAST no longer supports the Bobby accessiblity testing software. Bobby was sold to Watchfire in 2004 which, in turn, was acquired by IBM in 2007. Although Bobby is no longer available as a free service or standalone product, it is one of the tests included within the IBM Rational Policy Tester Accessibility Edition software, the comprehensive enterprise application for testing websites. References: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/rational/welcome/watchfire/press.html http://www.watchfire.com/products/webxm/bobby.aspx http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/tester/policy/accessibility/ Other options are listed on the W3C Website at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/Overview.html

This provides a variety of links to methods that help with accessibility and usability from the ADA National Network. It shares keyboard shortcuts for accessibility as well. 

This article highlights many web tools used for disabled individuals. It focuses on web 2.0 tools in higher education, but as we all know, everything on the internet can be adjusted to fit the needs of our students.

In this article there are several common Web 2.0 applications discussed. There are also examples of common accessibility problems with web 2.0 pages. This best part of this web page is the list of ways that web designers and companies that have disabled employees can check for accessibility and make their pages accessible if they are not.

I follow this site on Twitter and noticed that they had this post. It has resources to make the web accessible to those with learning differences, including voicethread.

This website talks about how research regarding Web 2.0 accessibility has expanded in library and information science studies due to the distinctive difficulties that individuals with disabilities face when they have to rely on digitized layouts.

There are lots of reasons why kids are reluctant to read and write- learning disabilities, competition from other activities, lack of interest, school not valued. Students have told me they don't read and write outside of school. Of course they do. They just don't realize it. This blog has a great slideshow near the bottom that outlines how web 2.0 targets reluctant readers.