Access and Equity

Think about the learning environment in which you are interning. How does access to and equity in this learning environment impact students' learning in their overall education experience?

Well, considering the orientation of GA View, I believe that it is better for those who are visually challenged. My reason for this is the fact that all of the information that you need to access, grades, dropbox, email, discussions, etc., are all on the left side of the page, which is rather different from the Desire 2 Learn/Folio environment. THe information that you need is split up into actually three places, left panel, top panel, and the very top of the screen. Anyway, a person that is visually impaired, in my opinion would have trouble searching to find the information that he/she needs. This also may ring true for those with memory problems; I normally have trouble remembering what is where, and do not, at all, like the design of its GUI. Just imagine for a moment, that you are dealing with a person like Stephen Hawking, a quadriplegic. Can you fathom the irritation, time, effort, and concentration that it would take for a person with limited to no hand-eye coordination to move back and forth on the page. Anyway, just a thought to consider.

Moreover, those who are not great/good communicators and/or strong writers will unfortunately be at a disadvantage in any online setting because of the heavy reliance on discussion boards. I mean, really, whether it is the dissertation or the thesis, I do believe that non-writers are at a disadvantage.

I have used my phone, a tablet, and a laptop/pc to access both sites, and have been successful in performing the major functions of the site. I would therefore imagine that those using TeleTYpewriter (TTY) -sound to visual text- and other things would be used to such an interface, but, I think that it would be also great to provide those with vision trouble with a similar pleasant experience. Many people have used TTS (text to speech) services, but realize how harsh and artificial that voice is. Therefore, though it would only take a little while, it would be very beneficial for instructors to take a little additional time to attach an audio version of the assignments to the text version. This would help those who are visually impaired become more connected to the professor, as we normally attempt to through pictures and video. Our voice is just as important to people with visual impairments as our visuals are to those who wish to bond with us ‘normally’ or visually.

It is important that we realize that we owe a great opportunity and experience to all students regardless to their ability or disability. Therefore, with respect to audio and visual equity, it is important that we do our best to provide an equal opportunity and the best presentation possible for all students.

In an attempt to practice what I preach, I attached an audio recording of my post, as well as a picture of the cross country team I coach.  We won the first trophy in school history and placed 2nd as a Double A school, 600 student body, against 5A schools in excess of 2000 students.

Link to audio files

http://www.yousendit.com/download/WUJZb253T01uSlJMWE1UQw

Photo of the victorious team

Peace and blessings.