Raising the Awareness of Online Accessibility: The Importance of Developing and Investing in Online Course Materials that Enrich the Classroom Experience for Special-Needs Students
By Weir, Lori; T.H.E. Journal (Technology Horizons in Education), Vol. 32, No. 10Publication Date: May 2005
Article focuses on the author’s experience in which she participated in a training session on practical techniques for teaching online. None of the session forums included discussions on the development of course materials for students with disabilities who use technologies such as screen readers or voice recognition programs. Because of this, the author set out to gain insight on the experiences of students with disabilities who take online courses, as her student observations are discussed. For example, a student with dyslexia used Kurzweil 3000 from Kurzweil Educational Systems, which interprets online texts and reads it out loud to the user. Another student with cerebral palsy uses Dragon NaturallySpeaking from Scansoft, which recognizes her speech patterns and types her spoken text into a word processor. The author contends that the development of online courses and course materials and discussions regarding learning styles should include the needs of people with disabilities. Seeking feedback from students and spending time with them while they are learning is a simple way for instructors to gain further awareness of course material accessibility.
Assistive Products Discussed: DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING
KURZWEIL 3000 FOR WINDOWS
Published by: 101communications (Website:http://www.101com.com)
T.H.E. Institute (Web Site: http://institute.thejournal.com )
Link to text: http://thejournal.com/articles/17291
