External Links

What is Universal Design? Why Use It?

• Principles of Universal Design and Seven Principles of Universal Design - The Center for Universal Design (University of North Carolina) provides an overview and a thought-provoking, illustrated list of these seven Principles.
• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act - Federal statute requiring access to the Federal government's electronic and information technology (including information procured for Federal Web sites).
• State Policies Relating to Web Accessibility - Links to the Web accessibility policies of fifteen U.S. States having such policies.
• Technology Policy 99-3 Universal Accessibility for New York State Web Sites - An example of a State policy concerning access to information on the Web.
• Universal Design for Learning Associate Editor Column - Journal of Special Education Technology E-journal (JSET E-Journal), Vol. 15.1 (Winter 2000)
• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an organization which sets standards for the Web and is committed to universal access. The site contains guidelines, techniques, training resources, and other information about the details of Web accessibility.
• Webaim.org - Web Accessibility in Mind, Utah State University - General information, how-to's, and resources on Web accessibility.

Universal Design in Writing Pedagogy

• Disability Studies

  • Society for Disability Studies - An interdisciplinary, educational organization.

Responding to Reading Before Writing

• Talking a Draft
  • Speech Recognition: Sci-Fi or Composition? - An article by Charles Lowe addressing the significance of this technology for Composition.

Taking Advantage of the Web

• Extensible Markup Language (XML) - from the World Wide Web Consortium. By providing a formal structure for documents and data on the Web, XML is making Web content better organized and more understandable by the browser.
• HELP Read - Free application that reads Web pages and other text aloud.
• Metadata - from the World Wide Web Consortium. Simple additions to HTML code can help people (and search engines) find your Web site.
  

More Information and Help

• "Voice Browser" Activity — Voice enabling the Web! - from the World Wide Web Consortium. Read about voice technologies coming to the Web.
  
• AccessAdobe - Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is one of the most popular formats used to post documents on the Web. PDF files are viewed via the free Acrobat plug-in. Adobe is working to help authors make PDF files accessible.
• Distance Learning: Access Guidelines for Students with Disabilities - from the High Tech Center Training Unit, in Collaboration with the Distance Education Accessibility Workgroup, Chancellor’s Office, California Community Colleges.
  
• Electronic Texts: Texts and Publishing - This Library of Congress Internet Resource page provides a large collection of links to and about electronic texts.
• HTML-Kit - This tool is a powerful (free) text editor for coding, formatting, and validating HTML and other languages. It has built-in help, preview, and publishing features. Let it point out errors and suggest improvements to your HTML code.
• National Library Service, part of the Library of Congress, administers a free library program of Braille and audio materials (audio cassettes) circulated to eligible borrowers in the United States. A Digital Talking Book (DTB) Standard is now under development.
• National Information Standards Organization (NISO) - According to NISO, "the next-generation technology for this application [talking books] will be digitally-based, bringing many improvements in sound quality, document navigation, and searching."
• The Growing Digital Divide in Access for People with Disabilities: Overcoming Barriers to Participation - White Paper by Cynthia D. Waddell, J.D. Presented in May, 1999 at “Understanding the Digital Economy” conference.