Activity 2B

C & I 335

Summer 1998

Julie Nika Eck

Owen Marsh Elementary School

Springfield, Illinois

Bobby Accessibility

It was interesting to know that Bobby exists. I can definitely see the need for and use of this program. Before using the Bobby program, I thought about what Bobby might expect to have changed in each of my ePortfolio pages. I was surprised by what needed to be changed. I do realize, however, the need for the changes. At this point, my web pages are Bobby approved with a four star rating. The following are the changes that I made based on Bobby's recommendations:

  • Alternative Text Description - It was recommended that graphics include alternative labels (names) for each of the images. This would enable visually impaired students to have an idea of what graphics are included, if any, in web pages.
  • Adjacent Links - Adjacent links need to be separated to assist those who are visually impaired. The way I originally designed them to look on the page made it difficult to read. It was suggested that I add bullets or spaces to separate them for ease of reading. In my Activity 1C, Bobby noted that the several links we had at the top of my page were difficult to read. They needed spacing and I added bullet graphics to aid in the ease of reading the links.
  • Html Tables - While I did not have any of these in my ePortfolio, others in my group did, and Bobby suggested not using them. I am aware of the need to avoid them.
  • Text-Only Links - I also received a message suggesting that I create a text-only link for each of my pages that include graphics. I believe that this could be changed by simply copying and pasting my text information onto a new page and linking this new page to my original. Though I did not change this, I received a four star rating. I will keep this in mind as I create future web pages which include graphics.

 

I found the Bobby program to be beneficial in designing sensitive, user friendly web pages, though it is somewhat lacking. It was my experience that graphics provided the most "problems" for Bobby's ratings. I certainly see the need for this modification, but there are other issues that I was surprised that Bobby did not address. I don't see that Bobby fully critiques on the needs of students with other types of disabilities such as learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, or hearing disabilities. Bobby does not seem to encouraging changes to meet the needs of people with these concerns. In the end, though, this program was helpful in getting me to think about the needs of all who may access my web pages.

Bobby also has made me revise the design of future web pages that I create and that my students create. I will have students including names for their graphics if they are even used. Links my students create will be spaced and bulleted in order to allow for others to read them and use them more easily. My students would probably not include tables, so this point would not be an issue in my classroom. Students would be briefly made aware of the issues listed above, but I would make these issues more of a guideline for design instead of the issues themselves.