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Assistive Technology
What is Assistive Technology(AT)? Any "product, device, or equipment, whether acquired commercially, modified or customized, that is used to maintain, increase, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities."
Assistive Technology does not have to be expensive but it does have to improve access to instructional information for students with disabilities. Assistive Technology includes (but is not limited to):
Software: Screen Reading Speech Recognition Screen Enlargement Word Prediction Audio and Visual Feedback Braille Printing Software Daisy Text Readers
Hardware: Optical Scanners Alternate Keyboards Alternative Pointing Devices (including Trackballs and Mice) Braille Printers Accessible Tables Closed Circuit Televisions (CCTVs) Portable Magnification Devices Daisy Victor Readers Digital and Tape Recorders
One thing to remember is that many students have assistive technology to access information on their computer but when accessibility is not considered when information is placed online, it may be inaccessible no matter what assistive technology the student may have. Assistive technology may be necessary but not sufficient for accessing online information.
Here are some links to some pages regarding assistive technologies:
Assistive Technology Works: Making Evidence-Based Decisions Speaker Perspective
This site is an online discussion on assistive technology and evidence-based practice on how assistive technology helps people with disabilities.
[1]
A summary of Assisitve Technologies by WebAIM on technologties that help people with motor disabilities. Motor Disabilities Assistive Technologies [2]
This page summarize how people with learning disabilities can use assistive technolgies to improve access to information. LD In Depth Adaptive Technologies [3]
Web Accessibility Pages
Internet web sites and other file formats may can be inaccessible for people with disabilities. This shuts the door on information for people who can most benefit from the capabilities of the Internet.
Standard, guidelines and best practices have been developed people creating information for the Internet. These include: The W3C Accessibility Initiatve Guidelines. [4]
Federal Section 508 Standards [5]
UIUC iCITA Best Practices for Developing HTML Pages [6]
Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act Implementation Guidelines for Web-Based Information and Applications 1.0 [7]
There are many tools to help with developing accessible web sites. Even the best tools can't check everything automatically, although they can draw your attention to potential issues and ask you to manually check specific items.
Here are a few of the tools available to check accessibility:
Online Testing Tools These online testing tools can analyze web pages for common HTML and accessibility errors. Note that none of these tools (yet) tests specifically for compliance with IITAA Standards, and no automated testing tool can identify all accessibility errors:
W3C Markup Validation Service - test for valid HTML/XHTML code. [8] Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE) - test for compliance with the UIUC/iCITA HTML Best Practices. [9] Cynthia Says - test for compliance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and/or Section 508 standards. [10] WAVE - test and visualize compliance with leading accessibility guidelines.[11]
Contrast Testing Tools The following tools can be used to check whether color combinations meet minimum contrast requirements:
Contrast Ratio Calculator [12] Luminosity Contrast Ratio Analyser [13]
Toolbars The following toolbars provide a variety of accessibility testing and visualization tools:
Web Accessibility Toolbar for Internet Explorer [14] Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar [15] Firefox Accessibility Extension [16] WAVE Toolbar for Firefox [17] Web Developer extension for Firefox [18]
Here is a great place to get an overview of Web accessibility: WebAIM Introduction to Web Accessibility [19]
