Hi Jennison

It is terrific to see so many of us now exploring this rich and important area of emerging technology. Not sure if you saw my earlier posting in response to Katherine about accessibility solutions in 3D virtual worlds, but we are into the second year of a project funded by the Australian Teaching and Learning Council, which involves developing an open source and accessible 3D virtual learning environment. As part of that research we are working collaboratively with Virtual Helping Hands, a voluntary organization developing accessibility solutions in Second Life. They are launching Max the virtual guide dog on Helen Keller Day in Second Life next weekend. We are also co-presenting a poster at the IEEE-IBM accessibility conference in Boston in July. If you are going you might be able to connect up with the team.

We also have a State Government grant investigating the use of social media by children and adolescents with communication impairments. As part of that project we are also exploring technological solutions to increase the social participation of children with disabilities. 

Drop me an e-mail ([log in to unmask]) if you are interested in collaborating on these projects!


Cheers

Denisd


Dr Denise Wood
Program Director (Media Arts)
Teaching and Learning Portfolio Leader




C2-33C, Magill Campus
Tel: +618 8302 4642
Fax: +618 8302 4745
Web: http://people.unisa.edu.au/Denise.Wood
CRICOS provider # 00121B

Secondlife slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/UniSA/178/234/23
Second Life: AKA Denlee Wobbit 
Skype name: denlee5025
Twitter: http://twitter.com/denlee
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=709371922
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/denisewood



-----Original Message-----
From: Equal Access to Software & Information [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jennison Mark Asuncion
Sent: Monday, 22 June 2009 12:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Study on Social Media Use and Accessibility in Canada

Study on the Use and Accessibility of Social Media by College and
University Students with Disabilities in Canada

The Adaptech Research Network, in partnership with the National
Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS),  has launched a
national, cross-disability  empirical study examining the use and
accessibility of social media  by college and university students
with visible and invisible disabilities. For the purposes of this
research, social media includes social networking  sites such as
Facebook and MySpace, online gaming, virtual worlds  such as
SecondLife, along with instant messaging services, blogs,  wikis and sites
such as YouTube, RateMyProfessor.com, and Classmates.com.
Issues to be investigated include: understanding what social media
postsecondary students with disabilities currently use  and why;
what, if any accessibility-related issues these users face;  and for those
who do not use social media, why.

As colleges and universities, along with sectors such as government,
employers and all manner of commerce turn to social media to reach
prospective, current and graduating college and university students
broadly, it is  more important then ever to have data on who is using what
social  media, and understand and address any accessibility
barriers. Failure to do so could result in denying full participation by
all college and  university students, including those with
disabilities, in the full range of opportunities that engaging with social
media offers.

For more information on the study, contact Project Leader, Jennison
Asuncion [log in to unmask]

Since 1996, the Adaptech Research Network has been publishing and
presenting empirical, Canadian research primarily into the use and
accessibility of information and communication technologies by
college and university students with disabilities. This includes a
recently completed three-year study looking at the accessibility of
e-Learning, and the development of evaluation tools that campuses can use
to assess
their ICT accessibility from either the service provider or students with
disabilities perspective. We have further extended our research
scope, exploring the persistence of college and university students with
disabilities (stay tuned for a separate announcement on another  study).
Based at Dawson College in Montreal, the team is Co-Directed by Catherine
Fichten,  Maria Barile, and Jennison Asuncion. Our
website (to be refreshed  over the summer) is located at www.adaptech.org


Jennison Asuncion
Co-Director, Adaptech Research Network www.adaptech.org
LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/jennison