The provision of consistent high quality home- and community-based services to children with disabilities living in rural and frontier areas is a challenge. Distance, weather, geographic terrain (mountains, canyons), and shortages of pediatric early interventionists are among the challenges to ensuring appropriate and equitable services.…

One issue that public librarians must consider when planning Web site design is accessibility for patrons with disabilities. This article reports a study of Web site accessibility of public libraries in Georgia. The focus of the report is whether public libraries use accessible guidelines and standards in making their Web sites accessible. An…

Researchers increasingly suggest that accessibility remains a prominent issue across the World Wide Web (www). This study raises awareness about issues of access in higher education. This qualitative research design utilized a listserv that invited university based webmasters to use freeware to evaluate the overall accessibility of their…

At the request of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF) has conducted "a literature search and review to identify best practices in [school] building design for accommodating the evacuation and sheltering needs of individuals with special needs or…

Describes tools that make the Web more accessible for people with disabilities and lists some of the basic rules for designing a page layout, focusing on HTML, color, buttons, images, links, image map, forms, columns and frames, applets and plug-ins. Discusses how to evaluate the Web page. (AEF)

This paper makes the case that if e-learning research and development projects are to be successfully adopted in real-world teaching and learning contexts, then they must effectively address accessibility and usability issues; and that these need to be integrated throughout the project. As such, accessibility and usability issues need to be made…

In the accessible e-learning community there are very few original metaphors, theories and models that have been developed to try and describe, explain and develop "best" practice. This paper will explore the extent to which existing accessibility models can help to develop our conceptualisations of accessible e-learning practice, and outline a…

This final report presents results of the first phase of an effort to develop in detail the resource requirements, operating procedures, and estimated costs for several centralized braille service options at the Library of Congress. Existing procedures and services were analyzed, and three models for centralized braille services were formulated.…

The importance of accessibility to digital e-learning resources is widely acknowledged. The World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative has played a leading role in promoting the importance of accessibility and developing guidelines that can help when developing accessible web resources. The accessibility of e-learning resources…

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress, administers a free library program for those unable to read standard printed materials, reproducing and distributing works in braille, recorded disc, and recorded cassette. Previous studies of the distribution network had identified costs and…

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress, administers a free library program for those unable to read standard printed materials, reproducing and distributing works in braille, recorded disc, and recorded cassette. A previous study of the distribution network identified costs and developed…

A study was undertaken to explore program policies and practices related to the accessibility of American distance learning courses to qualified students with disabilities. A literature review was conducted, a draft list of accessibility indicators was created, examples of applications of the indicators in existing distance learning programs were…

As educators' awareness of their responsibilities towards ensuring the accessibility of the learning environment to disabled students increases, significant debate surrounds the implications of accessibility requirements on educational multimedia. There would appear to be widespread concern that the fundamental principles of creating accessible…

Universal design for assessment (UDA) is intended to increase participation of students with disabilities and English-language learners in general education assessments by addressing student needs through customized testing platforms. Computer-based testing provides an optimal format for creating individually-tailored tests. However, although a…