Evaluating the Accessibility of Computer Laboratories, Libraries, and Websites in Jordanian Universities and Colleges

2022 ◽  
pp. 1968-1985
Author(s):  
Iyad Abu Doush ◽  
Ikdam Alhami

This article evaluates the accessibility computer laboratories, libraries, and web sites of five different institutions of higher education in Jordan. The evaluation is performed using a questionnaire and by expert visiting these institutions of higher education to check their accessibility according to a set of universal standard collected from the literature. The analysis of the results revealed a serious weakness in understanding, adopting and implementing web accessibility guidelines throughout nearly all evaluated Jordanian universities and colleges. On the other hand, the accessibility of computer laboratories and libraries the questionnaire answers show that there is environmental barrier and technological barrier for persons with disabilities to access such services. The article points out the importance of improving awareness, training staff and developers, and developing formal guidelines to improve the accessibility of universities and colleges services.

Author(s):  
Iyad Abu Doush ◽  
Ikdam Alhami

This article evaluates the accessibility computer laboratories, libraries, and web sites of five different institutions of higher education in Jordan. The evaluation is performed using a questionnaire and by expert visiting these institutions of higher education to check their accessibility according to a set of universal standard collected from the literature. The analysis of the results revealed a serious weakness in understanding, adopting and implementing web accessibility guidelines throughout nearly all evaluated Jordanian universities and colleges. On the other hand, the accessibility of computer laboratories and libraries the questionnaire answers show that there is environmental barrier and technological barrier for persons with disabilities to access such services. The article points out the importance of improving awareness, training staff and developers, and developing formal guidelines to improve the accessibility of universities and colleges services.


2004 ◽  
Vol 1 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Jo Calloway ◽  
Mir Abdul Meraj

The proliferation of information in electronic format does not guarantee its accessibility. The fact that many Web sites are not accessible to large segments of the disabled community has created a digital divide. Web accessibility is especially important in University communities, since the Internet and the digitization of information have changed the ways education is delivered.  Over 9 percent of entering freshmen reported disabilities in 1998. There have been significant developments in the field of accessible design, legislation and institutional effort to remove inaccessibility of Web sites. But this research reveals that by far the majority of people surveyed in a representative University community are unaware of these developments, although they are positive that removing any inaccessibility will be a wise and mutually beneficial step.  As aging of America continues, the number of people with disabilities is expected to increase. 


2011 ◽  
pp. 522-540
Author(s):  
Rui Lopes ◽  
Konstantinos Votis ◽  
Luís Carriço ◽  
Spiridon Likothanassis ◽  
Dimitrios Tzovaras

The Web serves as the principal mediator for information sharing and communication on a worldwide scale. Its highly decentralized nature affords a scale free growth, where each endpoint (i.e., Web site) is created and maintained independently. Web designers and developers have the onus of making sure that users can interact without accessibility problems. However, coping with users with disabilities poses challenges on how to ensure that a Web site is accessible for any kind of user. When (and if) this is done, designers and developers do it in a post-hoc way, (i.e., verify and tweak Web sites according to guidelines such as WCAG). In this Chapter the authors present SWAF, the Semantic Web Accessibility Framework, a base framework for supporting the integration of accessibility services into Web design and development processes. SWAF affords both tailoring accessibility to user needs and specifying the semantic validation of accessibility guidelines in different application situations.


Author(s):  
Oksana Khomik ◽  
Nataliia Bielikova ◽  
Svitlana Indyka ◽  
Oksana Kovalchuk ◽  
Viktor Halan-Vlashchuk

The current study investigates the ways to increase accessibility to higher education for students with disabilities. The importance of implementation e-learning for such students as one of the preconditions for effective social and psychological adaptation and further successful integration of persons with disabilities into society is emphasized. A survey of students with disabilities was conducted to identify their needs in educational process. The main difficulties that they overcome in the process of education in institutions of higher education are identified. The main peculiarities and advantages of the distance learning course «Adaptive Physical Education» are described created in the Moodle system. The differences and benefits of Microsoft Teams over the Moodle platform in the process of e-learning for students with disabilities are described. The process of organizing of «Adaptive Physical Education» distance learning course for students with disabilities on the Microsoft Teams platform and the purpose of implementation it in the institution of higher education are emphasized.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Silvia Gamboa-Cerda ◽  
Ignacio Villegas-Flores ◽  
Juan Emilio Medellín-Ramírez ◽  
María del Carmen Herrera-Chaires

Given the current importance of the role of teacher evaluation in higher education institutions, there is a need to know the current perception that students have of their teachers and use it as a reference tool for decision-making that positively impacts practices of the teaching-learning process, so this research allows to know the strengths and areas of opportunity of teachers of the basic accounting subjects of the Public Accountant degree offered by the Facultad de Contaduría y Administración of the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí and be used at first as feedback so that teachers make their actions conscious in front of the group and on the other hand serve the institution as an instrument in the design of actions that improve the performance of teachers in their work and thus achieve a Qualitative training of professionals in the accounting area. Finally, this research sets a precedent for both the UASLP and other institutions of higher education to analyze and improve the educational practices of the degrees they offer.


2015 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 46-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Hager

This paper addresses my political and pedagogical resistance to the institutional discrimination of Palestinian Arab students in Israeli academia. Describing my instinctive negative reactions (frustration, helplessness, anger) towards what seems at first sight as their reluctance to study,  I go on to criticize my own and other lecturers' tendency to blame the victim by analyzing the structural, cultural, political and social obstacles encountered by Arab students in Israeli institutions of higher education. The paper mainly focuses on the story of my resistance to this prevailing social and political structure. Adopting feminist critical pedagogy in my course "Representing Disability in Literature and the Cinema", I have created a space for my Arab students to overcome at least temporarily their repression by the Israeli academic system. The process of empowerment and the subsequent educational transformative and liberating exchange has enabled all participants to grant Arabs' transparent and excluded knowledge a significant social, cultural and political place, thus creating new and more culturally sensitive knowledge. Confronting the empowering effects of this method, I conclude my paper by suggesting some explanations as to the rarity of critical feminist pedagogies in Israeli academia.


Author(s):  
Serhat Kurt

The World Wide Web (Web) has become an essential part of our daily life. Web accessibility remains an important issue because many people have limited access to the Web. It is essential to make this content accessible to all people. This chapter provides an overview of the importance of web accessibility. It explains the current status of the issue, accessibility guidelines and techniques to evaluate and achieve web accessibility. Useful resources and practical recommendations to increase accessibility are also included.


2020 ◽  
pp. 089443932095514
Author(s):  
Arne Weigold ◽  
Ingrid K. Weigold ◽  
Stephanie A. Dykema ◽  
Naomi M. Drakeford

Studies examining the similarity of online self-report survey responses using different item formats have yielded inconclusive results. Additionally, no studies have used appropriate methods for thoroughly and correctly examining equivalence across conditions. We examined the comparability of survey responses across four item formats—horizontal radio button, text box, drop-down menu, and vertical radio button—in two studies. The second study added two response categories: optional responding and forced responding. Participants were college students at two institutions of higher education who were randomly assigned to conditions. They completed measures of computer self-efficacy, personality, and social desirability. Results of both studies indicated quantitative (mean scores) and qualitative (internal consistency estimates and scale intercorrelations) equivalence. However, there were notable differences in auxiliary equivalence such that participants in the text box condition had lower amounts of missing data than those in the other conditions, those in the horizontal radio button condition completed the study in the shortest amount of time, and participants across conditions generally preferred to use drop-down menus compared to other item formats.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-25
Author(s):  
Dolores Marlene Martínez Suárez

ABSTRACTThis research aims to incorporate E-learning as a complementary tool for teaching and learning for people with hearing disabilities, assuming that universities should comply with the provisions of the affirmative action measures in benefit of accession of Persons with Disabilities to Higher Education in Venezuela, on the other hand, as indicated in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and other relevant laws on disability, which recognize that this population have been discriminated against in the Education University tion so should be allowed equal opportunities in the entry of people with disabilities at university level. In this sense, it is intended to supplement teaching through electronic books, guides, Self, exercises, forums, chat, videoconference and others; to strengthen the knowledge received in the classroom, motivated that there is a disadvantage in high schools, colleges and universities due to lack of sign language interpreters Venezuelan support to teachers. The research design was documentary, bibliographic and field descriptive. Within this framework it is raised the need to rethink the teaching practice, proposing new challenges that will generate, among other things strategic alternative pedagogical gies for building an educational culture in which all feel part well break the barriers of language and communication allowing for greater inclusion of people with hearing loss, or deaf to the university and on the other hand the educational transformation is to strengthen and facilitate understanding of the issues of greatest difficulty through the use of E-learningRESUMENEste trabajo de investigación tiene como propósito incorporar el E-learning como herramienta complementaria para la enseñanza y aprendizaje de las personas con discapacidad auditiva, partiendo de que las universidades deben cumplir con lo establecido en las Medidas de Acción Afirmativa a Favor del Ingreso de las Personas con Discapacidad a la Educación Universitaria en Venezuela, por otra parte, lo indicado en la Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela y otras leyes competentes en discapacidad, donde reconocen que esta población han sido discriminadas de la Educación Universitaria por lo que se debe permitir la equiparación de oportunidades en el ingreso de personas con discapacidad a  nivel Universitario.En este sentido, se pretende complementar la enseñanza a través de Libros electrónicos, Guías, Autoevaluación, Ejercicios, Foros, Chat, Videoconferencias entre otros; a fin de que refuercen el conocimiento recibido en las aulas de clases, motivado a que existe una gran desventaja en los institutos, colegios y universidades por no contar con intérpretes de lengua de señas venezolanas que apoyen a los docentes.El diseño de la investigación fue documental, bibliográfico y de campo, de tipo descriptivo. Dentro de este marco se planteó la necesidad de repensar la práctica docente, al proponer nuevos desafíos que permitan generar, entre otros aspectos estrategias pedagógicas alternas para la construcción de una cultura educativa en la cual todos se sientan partícipes además de romper con las barreras de lenguaje y comunicación permitiendo una mayor inclusión de personas con hipoacusia, o con discapacidad auditiva al ámbito universitario y por otro lado se ve la transformación educativa al fortalecer y facilitar la comprensión de los temas de mayor dificultad a través de la utilización del E-learning. Contato principal: [email protected]


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