Activity 2C
C&I 335
Summer 1998

Christy Kindel
Jefferson School
Springfield, Illinois

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Web Access Issues

Accessible Web Page Design

During my search for pages pertaining to accessible web pages I discovered an article addressing some additional ways to make web pages more accessible. The name of the article is "Accessible Web Page Design: General Design Tips" this article is located at the website of Starling Access Services. The article gave some interesting hints on web pages design for individuals with sensory impairments. The following is a list of additional suggestions mentioned in the article.

• Always use vertical lines were possible. This is easier for the screen reader to interpret.
• Avoid using the <blink> tag. This can cause some screen readers to lock up. It is also very distracting to the reader in general.
• Try to end all sentences and list items with periods or appropriate punctuation. Screen readers will signify punctuation for the reader. If punctuation has not been correctly used the screen reader will run the information together, making it difficult to understand.
• Always try to include a graphic bar to aid navigation on the page. This feature is helpful to students with learning disabilities who often have limited reading skills. Please don't forget the text only descriptions for these graphics!

I think the suggestions made in this article would effect me as a teacher in two ways. The first way would be in my selection of Internet sites I choose for my students. After reading this article and several like it I have begun to realized the kinds of pages that are easy for my students to understand. Since my students are learning disabled I will try to bookmark sites that offer graphic bars as a means to navigate through a site. I will keep these issue in mind as I critique and select sites to be used in my classroom.

The second way this new knowledge would effect me as a teacher would be by conveying what I know to the students. It would be very easy to teach students about alternate text features and the use of lists to separate links. As far as the use of proper punctuation this would only reinforce a skill we already work very hard to perfect.

Summary #2

The second article I chose to summarize was extremely interesting to me as a special education teacher. I located the article on the Special Needs Education Network, an organization that provides information and resources that aid in the education of students with special needs. The article discusses a pilot program that is now underway in Canada that focuses on two aspects of educating students with special needs. The first aspect is how does school curriculum provide developmentally delayed students the skills necessary to become successful members of society, and the second and by far the most interesting aspect was that of how Internet technology can be fully utilized to benefit students with limited reading skills. The project will be piloted in three classrooms in Canada.

According to the article most Internet sites require a high level of literacy to comprehend, and most ongoing Email dialog requires a high level of both reading and writing skills. As a way to address this problem Internet videoconferencing will be used as a way to allow the students to experience interaction with people from around the world. For sites were graphics and hyperlinks have kept reading levels to a minimum the students can be taught to go to book marked sites and easily access sites, and be learning while feeling good about themselves.

This is just a short overview of the content of this experimental classroom. I was very interested in the comments and suggestions that I came across while reading how the pilot classroom would be designed. I hope to keep this website as a resource and I will refer back to it as more information in updated. I plan to use some of the suggestions on ways to use Internet as a reading motivator in my classroom in the fall.