Hello Classmates,Before reading the article 5 Steps to an Accessible Classroom Website I hadn’t even thought about the necessity to create a website that is accessible to students with visual, hearing, or cognitive disabilities, let alone English Language Learners. Now it seems so obvious that this is something that teachers need to consider when building their classroom website. If teachers are going to require that students use their web site as a reference for any kind of information, then they need to ensure that all of their students can access that information.
Teachers do not need to be super tech-savvy in order to make their websites accessible. In fact, the first suggestion is to organize the site for easy navigation. I feel like this is something that website builders strive to do anyways. Most websites use headers to separate sections of information and are consistent with web page themes and fonts throughout the site. One suggestion I really found useful is to provide text explanations, or captions, for all images, audio, animation, Java applets, or any other form of media. This is especially helpful for students using screen readers so that they can benefit from the graphics as well.
The article also mentioned a really neat tool call a web validator. I did some personal research and found out that there are many different types of web validators. Essentially, the web validator detects any problems in your web page, which can include broken links or tags that do not open. WAVE is a web validator that evaluates the accessibility of a site. This tool is free to use and is supposed to provide an easy to read report so that people who are not very good at HTML coding can still make the necessary changes to make their web site accessible. There really is no reason why teachers cannot make their websites accessible to all their students.
Hi Marisa,
ReplyDeleteI really like your suggestions of how to make a website more accessible by using images, audio, and animations. That is great how you researched and learn more about different types of web validators. I think it is very important for teachers to make their WebPages as simple as they can. Some of the websites I have seen are either hard to read or too complicated to navigate. Teachers need to keep in mind their audiences and make sure that their websites are accessible.
Nhu Y
Dear Marisa,
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that your extra research has yielded a free web validator. Such a tool will prove to be very useful for everyone who is not very tech savvy and desires a more accessible web experience for their students. As someone adds more web pages and links onto his site, such a resource can simply the website creation process by informing the creator of what works and what no longer does.
I also think that for some people who are great organizers, good navigation comes as a second language. I personally hate being disorganized and I manifest this attitude in regard to my website. I do not create any new pages unless they have a specific purpose and I think carefully about the format of each page. If I find the format I have made unsatisfactory, I will see if anything needs to be salvaged, and then I will scrap the page altogether. I do understand though that there are people out there who try things haphazardly. For these people, a website that's organized can be a challenge.
Sincerely,
Ariel
Hi Marisa,
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting your blog! I found it really interesting. I also liked the tip about having a text explanation for images. That way there are no misunderstandings. I had never heard of web validators and that some are free like the WAVE. Since the WAVE is free there is no reason for teachers not to use it to make their websites accessible to their students. Thank you for the information. When I get my website up I will make sure to utilize the WAVE to see if my site is accessible.
See you in class,
Lesley Gonzalez