Accessibilty for EVERYONE?

Kind Folks,

I was absolutely amazed watching the videos sent by AIM (Accessibility In Mind) as the thought that the internet was NOT available to everyone never crossed my mind. Although, like this semester, I have hearing or sight impaired or ESL students in class; I have always been able to compensate for them: interpreter/speakers, discussion folks, and ESL tutor help.

When I first started taking on-line classes, I never dreamt that I would have students with disabilities. I thought that, per chance, if a class is on-line then the understanding of the English (actually, American) language, the need to be able to see and hear and write American was a "given."

I am saddened that my view was so myopic. I am, however, happy as hell that I have been given the opportunity to be all-inclusive! POUR it on! Make my site Perceivable! Make it Operable! Make it Understandable! Make it Robust!

For the "P" in POUR, I need to make my site enlarge-able for the vision impaired. Absolutely never crossed my mind even though my Dad has worked for the Lion's Club (helping the visually impaired) for over 50 years. I need to make sure the site works with both screen enlargers and screen readers.

For the "O" in POUR, I need to make my site operable for multiple student impairments. Whether a student is visually, aurally, or motor impaired; the site needs to be able to BE accommodating. I still wonder about how many "cognitive impairments" I need to cover on my web site, but that is best left for a future blog.

The "U" in POUR is for understandable. Every connection needs to flow together, every "color" (made clear to the sight impaired) needs to make sense, every graphic need to be -not necessarily easy- but understandable. When students ask me if my class is "hard," I always respond "Yes! But it is understandable!"

Finally, I need to make my website robust to cover the "R" in POUR. Suzie Ama has set up her course so there are multiple dimensions a video can be viewed, because the more ways a person can experience a video, lecture, talk, etc., the better. What about a blind student taking my on-line class? What will I do for him/her? What about a deaf person? How much video can s/he understand without the needed subtitles? What about the motor-impaired student? Can I construct Cascading Sheets that they can actually understand?

Wow! A lot of stuff that I never thought about.

I will try to get it all completed as I firmly believe that all of my students can succeed. Why stop those with impairments?

C-ya.