WINAHEAD

Building Accessible Documents: A Mix of Use-Now Tips and Build-a-Strategy Resources

This post at TILT is a good “plain English” overview of designing accessibly.

Overview

Section 508 [of the Rehabilitation Act] requires that web content be equally accessible to people with disabilities – web applications, pages and all attached files; the requirements apply to course-based as well as public-facing pages that we create to support teaching and learning.

While universities are working to ensure that Learning Management Systems provide an overall accessible platform for sharing and creating content, the creating of learning-related documents posted to those LMSs is the responsibility of instructors, and often of peer learners in a classroom.

Laura Thrasher notes this in opening her post for by eduniverse.org:

“In higher education, maintaining a Section 508 compliant web presence is essential. However, many people assume that a website’s accessibility is the programmer’s responsibility. You might be surprised to learn that content can also impact accessibility. People with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive disabilities need to navigate your website. Also, they need to understand…

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Photo Math

Students may find the app Photo Math an amazing boon. Mathematics teachers may find it a potential challenge. As amazing as Photo Math is, it could be at best, meddlesome and at worst, disruptive to the instructional process.

The user simply takes a picture of the math problem (or a whole page of math problems) and the app deciphers the syntax of the problem and solves it.

Right now, the app can handle arithmetic expressions, fractions, powers, roots and linear equations but supposedly they’re working on calculus level equations.

Know What To Look For: The 4 Big Signs Of PTSD Laid Out In Less Than 4 Minutes

The statistics are staggering. Since October, 2001, approximately 2,050,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq (respectively, OEF, OIF, OND [Operation New Dawn]) Nearly 7,000 American troops have been killed in combat Iraq and Afghanistan during the past decade. –More than 52,000 have been wounded in combat.

But what about the veterans who return home with a disabling injury?

Only 1 in 28 wounds in battle result in death
Survivors are likely to be more seriously disabled than in the past
A reasonable and likely conservative estimate is that 40% of veterans are individuals with disabilities

The signature disabilities of these conflicts are traumatic brain injuries (TBI’s) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While we may hear stories about the veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan struggling with PTSD, the general public, and many veterans, lack an understanding about what PTSD actually is or what the signs are.

To educate veterans and the public, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD, created the video, What is PTSD?