Reflections from Free Choice Paper

Reflections Readings/ Choice # 1


Online Course Accessibility: A Call for Responsibility and Necessity

As technology in education keeps rapidly growing, there is now a great need to accommodate our special needs population. The author points out the multitude of areas that appear to be lacking in the realm of assistive technology. Some areas of concern include distance learning, and internet web sites.
Furthermore, there is trepidation regarding the equalization and accessibility to educational content within all technology realms. Fortunately, the federal government created the American Disabilities Act to provide funding and assistance to all individuals with disabilities. This act provided a beginning to remove barriers for individuals with disabilities.
Another essential Act established in 1998, the Assistive Technology Act, added additional training and funding for technology in both the work place and all public education setting for people with disabilities. Therefore, assistive hardware and software and Internet adaptive components are now available.
The author clearly recommends more training become available to educators due to the increasing population of learners with disabilities and the growing use of distance learning. There are a whole host of assistive technology devices with unforeseen benefits and capabilities some of which include: braille calculators, voice synthesizers, electronic readers and the list extend on and on. Web accessibility for all learners is of primary concern to assistive technology developers as technology rapidly integrates into all realms of curriculum.



Opitz, C. (2002) Online Course Accessibility: A Call for Responsibility and Necessity. Educational Technology Review v10 v1. Retrieved January 8, 2004 from HYPERLINK "http://www.aace.org/pubs/etr/issue2/optiz-x1.cfm" http://www.aace.org/pubs/etr/issue2/optiz-x1.cfm