Conference Organizers, Participants, and Random Readers: Thank you for taking the time to read the following "presentation" on Web Accessibility. I approached this conference session much like a workshop session, so any and all feedback and criticism you might provide to assist me in moving forward with this important topic/project is greatly appreciated.

ABSTRACT
Web accessibility, usability, and the impact of associated adaptive technologies are far-reaching and significant arenas of research slowly beginning to receive more attention in academia. While preparing a presentation with Kathryn Riley, “Arguments for Web Accessibility: A Rhetorical Analysis,”
for the 2004 ATTW conference, it became apparent to me that there is a serious dearth of existing literature addressing web accessibility in the academy. The preponderance of current literature that addresses web accessibility and usability related issues takes the form of dialogue among web developers. The more “academic literature” that attends to accessibility issues is chiefly concerned with providing “resources” and “guidance” for making websites that adhere to the accessibility standards issued forth by the W3C (WAI) and 1998 Section 508 of the Educational Rehabilitations Act Amendments. Unfortunately, the literature almost completely neglects to give voice to the actual disabled users of the web for academic purposes. This is a serious absence that needs to be addressed immediately."

My current, in-progress research, which will be discussed in this presentation, is a preliminary attempt to understand and begin to fill this academic gap. In order to do so, I have begun the time-consuming and arduous task of framing a qualitative research study, which will, in the end (theoretically), function to argue for an institutionally heightened awareness of web accessibility issues. It will also attempt to illuminate issues idiosyncratic to particular disabilities of which web designers and instructors alike need be aware. Ultimately, the goal of my research is to personalize and illuminate the accessibility issues of university students in order to advocate for an institutional embrace and implementation of the aforementioned accessibility and usability standards. The main focus of this presentation will be to discuss what precipitated my interest and research, what questions I hope to answer, what methods I will employ to do so, and the current status of my research, with particular attention given to the difficulties I have encountered in gaining access to this protected population of students. In all, I hope to receive feedback from others interested in this topic to help continue to research and frame my study.

INTRODUCTION
For the past several years, the issue of web accessibility and usability for disabled users has been gaining attention. The attention comes on the heels of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990,Section 508 of the Educational Rehabilitations Act Amendments of 1998, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) of 1999, all of which issue forth guidelines and standards for creating websites accessible to users with disabilities. Numerous articles, books, and websites, all dedicated to accessibility-related issues and these standards have been published as of late. The preponderance of this literature takes the form of a dialogue among web developers, predominantly through threaded discussions (blogs) and online articles. The more “academic” (refereed journal articles) of the publications tend to focus on synthesizing the aforementioned accessibility standards/guidelines. While further academic productions provide tips and guidelines for designing accessible web pages, including authoring and repair tools and technologies for validating accessibility.

Many of these texts do offer up a brief section on “why accessibility matters,” but it is typically a cursory one at best, which often speaks in generalization or of obvious issues. These authors, interested in adhering to and advocating for accessibility standards, tend to employ traditional rhetorical appeals, with an emphasis on appeals to logos (with a focus on law and business) and pathos (with a focus on the plight of the disabled user). Anecdotes, quotes, and other references to the struggles that disabled users face when attempting to use the web, either for professional, personal, or academic purposes consistently emerge. It is these emotional appeals that precipitated the interest and focus of my current research. Although the existing literature paints a picture of extreme hardship for disabled users, the emphasis given to the struggles of the contemporary, disabled student is lacking; rarely is the student attempting to use the web for academic purposes given the formal (published) right to be heard in order to clearly articulate the severity of the problem. Ultimately, there is a serious dearth of existing literature addressing web accessibility issues of students in the academy. Due to this lack of literature and student voice, I am currently designing a qualitative research study that will, in the end, give these students, students attempting to be successful at a large, public, postsecondary institution, that voice.

FRAMING THE STUDY
WHO WILL I STUDY?
• Students with a variety of disabilities at Purdue University

In order to give students the voice that I desire, it is necessary for me to gain access to them as a population, so as to begin a dialogue and more clearly understand the issues from their points of view. Essentially, I hope to gain access to and gather information from students with disabilities at Purdue University, a protected population. Further, in order to complete my study, I need to gain access to students willing to be studied longitudinally. I also hope to find research participants with a variety of disabilities: visual, auditory, motor skills, and learning, all of whom are receiving services through Purdue University’s Adaptive Programs office. In doing so, I will be able to discover issues idiosyncratic to each disability, as well as issues that are universal for academic, disabled web users.

A second round of research might also include

• University instructors/professors willing to amend course resources (online)

Once I gather information from my student participants, I might consider doing yet another study that looks at accessibility from the perspective of the professor/instructor. I would be interesting to illustrate how adhering to and employing accessibility standards increases student success, not only for those with disabilities, but universally. Of course, the scope of this current study does not allow for this.

HOW WILL I STUDY?
In order to best give students the voice that I deem necessary for filling the gap in the literature, I determined that a qualitative approach to studying this population/issue was most efficient. My study is comprised of several facets, all of which will ultimately lead to a better and more comprehensive understanding of student identified accessibility issues:

• Preliminary Research
(Comprised of understanding the issue, what the current literature has to say, etc.)

• Formal Interviews
(Actually sitting down with participants and asking my initial research questions)

• Focus Group
(Gathering all research participants together and asking focused questions to all participants. This differs from the interview in that each participant has the opportunity to listen to the other participants. This dynamic facilitates greater depth of response and understanding of the issues as a whole.)

• Longitudinal Case Study
(Based on the previous three steps, I hope to study the progress of at least three students over the course of a year. I will observe them using the web [and adaptive technology], discuss their perception of their success/access with them, reframe questions, etc.. Essentially, I will chronicle their academic lives as related to web accessibility, using their experiences to provide clarity on web accessibility.)

It is my hope that, by questioning and discussing web accessibility, usability, and adaptive technologies with disabled students in a variety of forums, that I will be able to gain a clear and well-defined understanding of accessibility from the student perspective. This approach should allow for the students to have the voice, to mandate the content of my results.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
My initial research questions basically stemmed from my own recognition of the importance of web accessibility at the postsecondary level. As a beginning T.A. in the composition program at my institution, we were required by the department to design, create, and maintain a “consistent online presence” (website) for our introductory composition classes. Yet, little to no training on creating websites was provided, let alone any address of accessibility. In fact, the topic only surfaced in one session of our 32 week long mentoring; I mentioned it. So, I began to wonder what would happen if I were to have a student with a disability that I required to access material on my inaccessible website. This got me thinking about larger issues of accessibility.

When beginning to frame my study, I had several questions in mind that I wanted to ask the students once I gained access to them. My questions are all chiefly concerned with attempting to understand students’ perception in terms of their success at the university because of their website/adaptive technology access, or lack thereof at the university. I plan to ask the following preliminary questions. It is my hope that these initial questions will elicit some type of emotional responses from the students. I imagine that they will begin to tell stories about their experiences in specific classes, illuminating how they were unsuccessful, or, at least, less successful than they thought they should be, because of the expectations of the instructors, the university, etc..

• How accessible do you find the course websites created by your professors and instructors?

• How do the expectations (in terms of web use) of professors and instructors (at Purdue University) encumber the achievement of students?

• How do the expectations of the university as a degree-granting institution hinder student success?

• What types of technologies are available to students with disabilities at Purdue University? At other particular institutions?

• How do these technologies play a role in aiding students in being successful? Are they sufficient?

• Do postsecondary institutions (Purdue University) provide the “equal opportunity” for students with disabilities that the law requires?

In all, I hope that this round of questions will begin to illuminate some of the major problems that students with disabilities face when attempting to be successful at the university. Once I begin to gather data, and proceed through the several rounds in my study, I will be able to frame more informed and specific questions.

CURRENT RESEARCH STATUS
For about the past five months, I have been attempting to gain access to students with disabilities who receive services through the Adaptive Programs office. This process has been a long and somewhat patience-testing one (which I will not detail here). In fact, I spent the majority of a semester dealing with the several important bureaucratic entities involved with students with disabilities. My timeline, of the process can be accessed in .pdf, and has finally resulted in the powers-that-be allowing me to send out an invitation to participate in an informal conversation regarding accessibility issues they face when using the web for academic purposes.

My initial invitation yielded two students willing to begin this dialogue. Since then, my initial investigation has been focused on understanding what makes a website accessible and inaccessible for students. This work is quite preliminary and is ongoing. Initially, I asked the two willing students, both of whom are visually impaired, to look at two “poor” and two “good” sites, as identified by Axel Schmetz and to talk about their experiences in doing so. I didn’t discuss with these students which sites were which, but rather, very informally discussed their experiences while they attempted to navigate them. The sites are as follows:

Poor Sites
http://oldweb.uwp.edu/academic/ethnic.studies/

http://www.simmons.edu/

Good Sites
http://libraries.ou.edu/

http://www.washington.edu/

The results of this preliminary investigation were somewhat interesting, but not too surprising. The sites that used alt tags, and had text specific links were the most accessible. Interestingly, both students “correctly” identified the poor and good sites. It was also interesting to note the amount of disgust that each student willingly displayed for the sites/developers that were poor. In fact, one participant said, in reference to the University of Wisconsin site, “Is this an actual website, or did you just make something up for fun to test us? Who would actually use this as a site for their university?” It must be noted that both students were using JAWS to access the sites. Unfortunately, because my participants are undergraduates, they have left for the summer, putting my research on hold. I am planning on sending another, pared down invitation to participate in the fall, and I have already discussed this with the appropriate people in Adaptive Programs. They are very willing to assist me in the project.

CONCLUSION/ASSISTANCE
In all, I am finally beginning to gain a more focused understanding of the scope of issues involved with accessibility. In the fall, I plan to continue to work on this project and, with a bit of luck, gain access to even more willing participants who will assist me in gathering relevent data. It is my hope that I will be able to continue work on this important topic and move toward my aformentioned goals of illuminating the issue in academia.

Furthermore, it must be noted that I was most specifically interested in being a part of this online conference to get some much needed feedback from the people in the know. I have a somewhat limited knowledge of the actual technologies and issues that students face. I am also somewhat new to researching in the qualitative realm, although I have taken a class with one of the most prolific scholars of qualitative research, Dr. Patricia Sullivan of Purdue University. It is my hope that what I have presented here is sufficient in providing a framework for understanding 1) my ideas about accessibility and related issues, 2) how I hope to frame a study to broach this important topic in academia, 3)where I am at this point in my research, 4) the fact that I am in search of any assistance that you webmasters might provide. I have basically approached this as more of a workshop than a conference, seeing as the status of my research is quite preliminary and ongoing. Thank you all in advance for any information, help, guidance, or criticism you might provide in helping me move forward with my project. I think this experience will be invaluable in my ongoing work.

Selected Resources
• Judy Brewer, ed. ,"How People with Disabilities Use the Web." World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). 4. Jan. 2001. Accessed 10. Oct. 2001. http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/PWD-Use-Web/Overview.html
• Scott Carlson, "Left Out Online." Chronicle of Higher Education. 50 (40), June 11, 2004: A 23-A25. Available online at http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i40/40a02301.htm
• Paul Ryan Bohman, "University Web Accessibility Policies: A Bridge Not Quite Far Enough." WebAim. 5 January 2004. Accessed 7 March 2004. http://www.webaim.org/coordination/articles/policies-pilot.
• Norman Coombs, "Electronic Ramp to Success: Designing Campus Web Pages for Users with Disabilities." Educause Quarterly No. 2 2002: 45-51. Accessed 13. Sept. 2002 http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0226.pdf.
• Schmetz, Axel. "Accessible Web Page Design: Resources." Accessed June 4t, 2005. Available online at http://library.uwsp.edu/aschmetz/Accessible/pub_resources.htm