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Distance Education: Strategies and Tools
Disabled People & Computer Access
The web is great and wonderful, but many times, because it is a new
technology it limits access to persons who are disabled. Norman Coombs, a blind black history professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, pointed this out when we were studying chapter 8. He has become somewhat of a catalyst of encouraging and sometimes demanding equal access on the web for the disabled. Because the web is relatively new, many times the new technologies limit access to people who are blind, deaf, or some other way handicapped.
As the web grows, so do new technologies that allow the handicapped equal access. Technology enhancers like speech text, enhanced HTML and closed captioning for quicktime movies are only a few of the new devices available. Others have done research in behalf of the disabled examining issues on computer access.
In examining distance education and advanced technologies, we must not forget about the handicapped. While chapter 8 deals primarily with computers and distance education, some of the url’s I’ve examined which touch in other areas besides computers.
The information is especially important to me because I’m currently disabled. I became disabled in 1994. This class and these issues have become somewhat of a crusade for me in informing the non-disabled. Before 1994 my eyes were closed to what the disabled need. Hopefully, this information will open your eyes, like it’s opened mine.
Resources:
EASI: Equal Access to Software and Information for users with disabilities
http://www.rit.edu/~easi
This is Norman Coombs "baby". He’s the chairman of this organization. It examines many issues for web access and the disabled. The group is an affiliate of the American Association for Higher Education. Their mission statement reads: "People with disabilities must have the same access to information and resources as everyone else. EASI is dedicated to helping that happen."
Flex Learning
http://www.flexlearn.com
Flex Learning is another group that Norman Coombs is involved with. They provide distance education over the net. The courses and instructors are carefully selected to enhance CMC to it’s fullest. Currently over 21 different countries have had courses through Flex Learning. Because it’s "flexible" it makes classes ideal for the handicapped.
Interview with Alan Chute, Manager of ATT National Teletraining Center
http://www.att.com/cedl/jinterv.html
From the American Journal of Distance Education comes a very interesting interview the Manager of ATT’s National Training Center. The article is a little old (1994) but has some interesting concepts and ideas.
Electronic Books on the WWW
http://gopher.lib.utk.edu:70/1/Electronic-Books
Just like it says, these are books that are full-text on the web. They are especially useful for blind persons who have speech-text capabilities because the users computer will read what’s on the screen. In essence, a blind person has access to books read to them via the web.
Library of Congress and Recordings for the Blind
http://lcwebb.loc.gov/nls/nls.html
This is another great site for finding information relating to Internet books, Catalogues of Projects in Electronic Text, A directory of text centers and other related material.
Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
http://seidata.com/~marriage/rblind.html
This group provides extensive information about technology updates in allowing the blind to access the web.
DO-IT Program
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~doit
The DO-It Program is a program that promotes science, engineering and mathematics for minorities. They are especially looking for underrepresented groups such as women, ethnic minorities and individuals with disabilities. The program assists high school students who are disabled in preparing for these careers.
The GUIB Project
http://phoenix.herts.ac.uk/PsyDocs/sdru/guib/guib.html
The GUIB Project (Graphical User Interfaces for Blind People) developed a system that allows access to the blind in graphic based-computer systems. In using a multimedia approach it uses technologies such as , synthetic speech, non-speech sounds, 3D sound, braille and touch pad to provide interaction.
The Saturn Project
http://phoenix.herts.ac.uk/PsyDocs/sdru/saturn/saturn.html
The Saturn Project created a Smart card that will help meet the needs of the disabled and elderly. The card holds information that can be accessed by terminals. For example, "some smart cards can be used a few yards from a terminal. This means that the card could indicate the presence of a blind person to the terminal which could then give a spoken message to help the blind person find and use the terminal."
Archimedes Project
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/arch/
This is a project being carried out by the Center for the Study for Language and Information at Stanford University. Part of their mission is in designing better access for the disabled.
Assistive Technology On-Line
http://www.asel.udel.edu/at-online
This page is a great resource providing information about assitive technology for the disabled, family members, parents and other organizations.
NCSA Mosaic Access Page
http://bucky.aa.uic.edu
This page is a resource in providing information about how people with disabilities can use the net. One of the main sponsors of this page is the National Science Foundation. One of the goals it to look at some of the barriers the disabled run into when using NCSA Mosaic.
Project HIIT: Internet for the Hearing Impaired
http://www.dpa.org.sg/DF/
This is an excellent resource with tons of information. The page is from Singapore but has world-wide sites effecting the disabled. Some other links from this page include: Web site for the visually handicapped, and Disabled People’s Association.
Nordic Development Centre for Rehabilitation Technology
http://www.pub1.vtt.fi/nuh/nnh.html
This group out of Finland works for promoting the joint Nordic development of high technology aids for people with disabilities. It is a joint effort sponsored between the Nordic countries; Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Science Access Project Homepage
http://dots.physics.orst.edu/
This project homepage from Oregon State University examines and develops
methods for making science, math and engineering information accessible to persons with print disabilities. They are working on many projects that include: braille access to the UNIX operating system, a mathematics scratch pad for the blind and voice synthesizing.
Spoken Language Access to Multimedia (SLAM)
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/SLAM/
From the Center for Spoken Language Understanding at the Oregon Graduate Institute comes this page. SLAM is a spoken language extension to the graphical user interface of Mosaic. Using speech recognition, it is believed to be the first spoken language interface to the Web.
Technology Access Laboratory, DIT
http://147.252.133.152/dit/tal/others.html
Located in Ireland at the Dublin Institute of Technology this group is in all stages of development for disabled issues for modern technical systems and devices. This includes software, integration and portability of technical aids and wireless communications.
Captioning on the Web
http://www.boston.com/wgbh/pages/ncam/captionedmovies.html
This group is developing closed captioning on the web for quicktime movies. We have it on our TV’s at home. Now we can have closed-captioning on the Web.
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