Google Docs and Accessibility, Part 2: Spreadsheets

Google Spreadsheets has become much more feature-rich since its inception. It is now possible to do many of the things you'd do in Excel - including formulas and charts - with this free webapp. It has many of the same benefits and drawbacks that I highlighted last time about Google Documents. However, Spreadsheets does have some of its own unique benefits and barriers.

Google Docs and Accessibility, Part 1: Documents

Here's the dealio. Google Docs, at this point, incorporates word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. It's a big chunk 'o stuff, and frankly, I doubt anyone's got the patience to read through a blog post that covers the accessibility of them all. Today's post will tackle just Documents, the word processing portion of Google Docs. I'll get to the others in turn. (If you have a burning desire to hear about one of them next, just drop me a note in the comments!)

Coming to a computer near you...

In the three years that I've been with DSS (wow, is it that long?), there have been one constant in an environment of change.

Paper.

Oh, sure, we have a couple of online forms for notetaking and alternate format text, but for the majority of students, paper has been everywhere. Testing requests, checking out alt format or equipment, notetaker contracts, accommodation letters.... it's everywhere! All that is about to change.


Enter AIMS, a totally new way to request and manage your accommodations. This completely accessible, online, 24/7 system will allow you to do many things you've never been able to do before:

• Customize your accommodation letters to each class, showing only the accommodations that you'll need in that specific environment.
• Automatically send those customized accommodation letters to your instructors, and track when you sent them.
• Request all your services at the same time you create your accommodation letter, all online at any time.
  
• Even better, track the status of those requests! No more wondering what's up with your alt text or notetaker!
• Retrieve notes from your notetaker online, any time! No more trudging in to the office to pick them up. Great for the Medford HEC and night classes!
• Schedule and track your test requests online, at any time. (There are some other great changes coming for testing, so hang on to your hats!)
• And much, much more!

Keep your eyes here and on your email (that's your student email, by the way) for updates. We'll be giving you info as soon as we have it.

Questions? Thoughts? Let's hear about 'em in the comments!

Insomnia has its benefits - Google Reader & LifeHacker

For some reason, the hours between 3 and 5:30 seem to be a difficult time for me to actually stay asleep. But that’s good news, blog readers, because last night I had a wonderful time prancing around the ‘Net and found great blog fodder!

Some of you may have already found Google Reader, another of the ever-growing number of free applications provided by the advertising geniuses at Google. Google Reader is an RSS feed, which brings updates from websites directly to your desktop (or browser, as in this case). Think of it a bit like a running stock ticker for news, exciting blog entries, or anything else on which you want to keep up to date. Ho-hum, not really blog-worthy news, right?

Well, think again. Google has just announced that its Reader feed is accessible to screen readers! This is news, because most dynamic (constantly updating) content on the web is not screen-reader friendly. Granted, there are limitations… it’s currently only accessible to Firevox, the self-voicing extension for Firefox, and Firefox 3, which is still in beta. However, this is a step in the right direction, making dynamic content usable to people with print disabilities.

The other place I spent a lot of time last night (or morning?) was on LifeHacker. Ok, any site that easily steals an hour from you without you knowing it doesn’t really qualify as saving you time… but in my defense, I was catching up on stuff posted there that had long passed me by! While LifeHacker isn’t really assistive technology per se, I did find a large number of items that would be of especial interest to those with learning disabilities or ADD. Particularly interesting were the items in the “Mind Hacks” category… all kinds of ways you can train your brain to work more efficiently.

What's New for '07-'08?

New Academic Year’s Resolutions

Everyone else makes New Year’s Resolutions, and never being one to follow a convention just because it exists, I’ve decided to make some New Academic Year’s Resolutions.

• I resolve to blog more often. (The nice thing about saying “more often” is that it’s nebulous and y’all can’t pin me down to specific timeframes.)
• I resolve - again - to look for more resources for math and science.
• I resolve to create more online training materials. I’m thinking about a Blackboard class for technology and disability.
  

New Stuff at SOU This Fall

This summer, once again, we’ve been busy re-imagining the student experience with SOU. And the results?

• JAWS went to a network version! Now, if you are a JAWS user, you can use it just about anywhere on campus. Not on Macs, obviously…
• Dragon is in the process of being updated. The adaptive stations in the library and main lab have the new version (9), and the AT Lab is next.
• Priority Registration is now available to eligible students online. No more picking up pieces of paper in the Access Center, heading over and standing in line… only to find out you need instructor approval for a class. Why is this in the AT blog? What better demonstration of how technology assists us than to use an online service to do something quickly and independently, and in our pajamas if we want to?!
• You can now access the request form for an accommodated test online. We’re working on some other very exciting changes in the testing process… keep watching for this!
• The new DSS Student Handbook is available for download from our website. This handy book includes procedures, form samples, resources, your rights and responsibilities… just about everything you could want to know. You can use any of your favorite assistive technology to access the handbook.
• We now have a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Coordinator, Ila Sachs. She and I work together on FM Systems, VRS, TTYs, and other hearing-related technology.

More improvements are coming. If you have ideas that you would really like to see implemented, tell us in the comment field!

If You Want New Tools...

If you think that this blog has had an unreasonable focus on alternate format texts, there is a reason. The number of alternate text requests for this fall has been just unbelievable, and so my mind has been very much upon the world of creating audio, etext, and Braille versions of textbooks and other readings. So far, we’ve had over 60 requests for individual texts. Compare that to last fall’s 27, and you begin to see why I’m a bit consumed! (And thus why blogging has taken a bit of a back seat in the last few weeks.)

So the academic year is underway. Indeed, we’re almost facing midterms already! (Don’t you just love the quarter system and how fast it moves?!) Wondering what tools SOU might have to help you through the year? Wonder no more. We have a series of trainings that explains the many software and hardware adaptations we have available on campus. For more information about the tools we have, check out the AT Home page. For information about the training series, check out our Learning Opportunities page.
If you missed one that you really wanted information about, keep checking - we will be running this series again.