Accessible Synchronous Communication

Does it exist? I suppose that depends on who you ask- many vendors are quick to tout the accessibility of their synchronous communication tools, but in reality it seems that most have a ways to go. In the past couple of weeks I have looked at the following tools:

HorizonLive claims it is accessible to persons with disabilities and even has an accessibility page with an archived accessible presentation that you can try out and some accessibility tips for screen reader use. It looks like there are quite a few frames in the presentation window, but there are shortcut keys set for most of them, although I’m sure they would take some getting used to. Also, this app is platform independent- available on a Mac, PC or Unix system. I have taken part in a couple of these presentations that I enjoyed.

I have heard some good things about Centra, but from the get go I was out as a Mac user, it is PC only. Further, the only thing I could find about accessibility on their website was an obscure reference in the description of a white paper. I have put in a request for more information on accessibility of their product, I’ll post their response as soon as it comes in.

iVocalize Internet Conference is another option. It is used by EASI for their online workshops. iVocalize gives no mention of accessibility on their website besides a list of shortcut keys. However, Talking Communities, which uses iVocalize, does mention its accessibility features– iVocalize is PC only as well.

Some other systems that I haven’t had time to look at include NetMeeting, WebEx, Interwise and I’m sure there are a host of others out there as well. Does anyone out there have experience with these or any others? If so, I’d love to hear from you, please leave a comment so others can see what you have to say as well.

Lastly, an brief article titled Online Learning Management Systems: Accessibility of Tools for Synchronous Communication for the 2003 CSUN conference (courtesy of Online Learning Update).