Recommended Links…

These are some of my favorite reads, If you don’t have one yet, I would highly recommend picking up a news reader to keep track of everything. According to my logs, FeedDemon (for PC) and NetNewsWire (for Mac- lite version for free) are the most popular, but there are an abundance of options out there. Once you have a reader, you can import subscriptions to individual rss feeds or grab the OPML file below to import all of the accessibility sites. If you want to learn more about RSS and Syndication, I would recommend An Introduction to RSS for Educational Designers by Stephen Downes or Sharing Your Site with RSS by Jason Cook.

If you have any additional suggestions, please contact me, I’ll be adding to the list regularly

Accessibility

Link to an OPML file of the above sites

Sites without syndication (yet)
AnitraPavka.com – Accessible Usable Design
WebAIM

Distance Education

Accessible Web Forms

Behold! a new writer and a new category to write about. Topher was kind enough to introduce me below, so I will just jump right in. As a web developer who strives to make accessible/usable websites, one of the challenges is making html forms accessible. One of my projects last week was to whip up a quick survey for my employer. I’m interested in any feedback fellow developers might have on the coding techniques I’ve implemented. In particular, I’m interested on people’s thoughts on my use of the “fieldset” and “legend” tags. I am also interested in peoples’ thoughts on my checkboxes. I didn’t use “label” tags because I felt that the layout was logical enough to not require it. But I am interested in if people feel it is bad form to have the actual checkbox come before the option that you are checking off? Please use the ‘comment’ function to give your feedback, and don’t be shy.

Access E-Learning (Free Training!)

Access E-Learning

From the site:

Access E-Learning (AEL) is a ten-module tutorial that is a resource for those seeking to make their distance education accessible for individuals with disabilities. AEL offers information on the most common needs in distance education, and provides instruction in techniques that will enhance the usability of online materials for all students.

The tutorials are being provided as a service of the Georgia Tech Research on Accessible Distance Education project (GRADE). The ten modules go over Disabilities, Accessibility Planning, Powerpoint, Video, Flash, Word, Excel, PDF, HTML and Scripts/Java. Many of the modules even have a lab along with the necessary files (Windows or Mac) that you can download to practice what you are learning.

Perhaps even more exciting are some of the future activities that Project GRADE has planned, including the development of distance education accessibility standards and a national leadership institute on accessibility in distance education. I’ll be watching this project closely and keeping you updated on what they are up to.

Making Online Teaching and Learning Accessible Satellite Event

I’m back among the living and came across what looks to be an exciting event on the Disabled Student Services in Higher Education Listserv yesterday. Working with the PBS Adult Learning Service, the University of Maryland University College is producing a live telecast titled:

Untangling the Web: Making Online Teaching and Learning Accessible

From the description, the areas that the telecast plans to cover are:

How students with disabilities are navigating the Web, and how
inaccessible course content impacts the work of faculty and staff
How to address accessibility problems posed by courseware, course
management systems, multimedia, and use of audio and video in online
courses
What kind of collaborative models have been developed to help faculty
and staff meet the challenge of online accessibility
How to develop institutional coordination policies in your campus or
organization
What faculty and staff development programs can do to enhance
understanding of disability and technology
What role good teaching plays in improving online accessibility
How Universal Design and Universal Design for Instruction can inform
the process of ensuring online accessibility

It is still 3 months away, but looks to be an exciting event.

On another note, I have recruited Jeff Coburn to share with us some of his accessibility wisdom on Curb Cut Learning. Jeff is our web specialist at the Institute for Community Inclusion and he is the guy I go to when I’m stumped with an accessibility question or am trying to figure out a new technology. Welcome Jeff.

Accessible Web-based Distance Education: Principles and Best Practices Article

Accessible Web-based Distance Education: Principles and Best Practices

I really like this article from Laurie Harrison at the Unversity of Toronto because of the emphasis on Universal Design Principles. While it is a bit dated (it looks like all of the references were pulled in July of 1999), the ideas expressed are solid and provide a good basic overview for someone new to the ideas of universally designed distance education.

The idea of universal design is vital in promoting the develpment of accessible distance education resources. Unfortunately, too many developers still ignorantly lump all types of users with disabilities together and then dismiss their content as being irrelevant to “that population.” Idiots. When people realize that standards based markup that separates content from presentation in accessible ways benefits EVERYONE then maybe we’ll see widespread change happening. The good news is that it is already happening to some degree and we’ll only see more of it in the next few years.

On a sidenote, I’m getting my tonsils out in a couple of hours, so it may be a week or two before I post again. I’ll have plenty of time to think while recovering (and I’ll be on some pretty heavy painkillers), so maybe I’ll have some interesting thoughts to share when I come back.

Curb Cut

Recommended Links…

Accessibility

Distance Education

Web Design

Weblogs with some accessibility content

Accessibility in Foreign Languages

Accessible Web Forms

Access E-Learning (Free Training!)

Making Online Teaching and Learning Accessible Satellite Event

Accessible Web-based Distance Education: Principles and Best Practices Article

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