Social Networking Accessibility

Via Accesssites.org, a summary of a 21 page report on the accessibility of social networks from AbilityNet. The report analyzes Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo and Bebo and reports that they all stink. Of those 5 sites, Yahoo was the only was to receive a two-star rating- that’s two starts out of five. The other four all received one star indicating they are ‘very inaccessible’.

The Dataportability.org group has been in the news of late as a number of major social networks have become involved. While their stated mission is not to make social networks accessible for users with disabilities, the goal that they are working towards should have that overall effect over time. They are working to promote the use of existing open standards to facilitate the sharing of social network user content outside of that network. Over time this will open the door to the creation of more accessible interfaces to access at least some of the data that is currently available only through proprietary, inaccessible systems.

Hopefully, the process of making user content more readily available will also lead to improvements in accessibility along the way. In the meantime, are users with disabilities being left out of the social networking revolution? Is anyone doing this right?

Accessible Web Browsers

I have mentioned a symbol-based browser before, but here is a list of three different accessible browsers:

Free Accessible Web Browsers for Learners with Multiple Disabilities

Accessible Pen and Paper?

I first heard of Livescribe from an announcement of their upcoming ’smartpen’ and noted that a former professor, Andy Van Schaack, PhD was involved in the project. A few weeks ago, I was able to attend a presentation from Dr. Van Schaack and learned a little more about the project. I was especially interested in the note on the presentation flyer that said he would “present his current NSF-funded study on the use of the smartpen to support blind college students in science, engineering and math.”

He started off with promotional information about how the Livescribe system is a new computing platform with a great team behind it. By all accounts it appears to be a laudable effort in the arena of comparable smart pen technologies. It works by recording audio while using the pen on special paper. You can then go back to any point in your notes, tap on the page and listen to the corresponding audio. Your notes also become searchable and shareable.

Then he addressed how the project would help make content accessible for students who are blind. Currently, a student who is blind studying in a field that requires the use of graphs or diagrams would need a technology toolkit such as a laptop paired with a not inexpensive tactile talking tablet. The price point lowers significantly as students are able to use the Livescribe pen with the more affordable Sewell raised-line drawing kit. This combination of technology allows the students to draw and annotate a graph with the ability to reference the graphic later and access whatever audio was recorded at the time.

Additional Resources

• Livescribe site
• Smartpen aids blind engineering students
• New Smartpen and Paper to Help Teach Blind College Students
• NSF Grant Information- Award Abstract #0726403 and Award Abstract #0726424
• LiveScribe Smartpen Demo With Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher
• Additional Tactile Graphics Resources
• NCDAE Webcast on Electronic Accessibility in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

(Update) Andy sent me a couple of additional links to share:

• Article on the smartpen from Vanderbilt’s Online Research Magazine
• Vanderbilt Press Release