Interviewing persons with Disabilities.
Briefly skim through these two sites. Then look at the assignment and then look at the sites again and you will be able to focus on the parts of these sites you will need for the assignment.
Disability Types http://www.washington.edu/doit/Faculty/Strategies/Disability.
Planning Usability Testing http://www.uiaccess.com/accessucd/ut_plan.html
Imagine you are designing an online course. Before you start your work, you would want to do a short analysis of the needs of your potential students so your design will help these students be successful in the course. This assignment is to interview a person with disabilities and find out what type of accommodations you will need to be made in your online course so this person would be successful in your online course. In your readings, you will learn that with short informal interaction you can gather valuable feedback from people with disabilities by discussing accessibility issues with them.
To get you started, here are a few questions you may ask your volunteer.
What is the nature of your disability?
What type of accommodations will need to be in place so you could be successful in an online course?
Would you find it easier to take an online course or a traditional face-to-face course? Can you tell me why?
You can come up other questions by getting ideas from the two sites above.
With this information, you will write a 2 pages
.
==== Informal interview I did with Jonathan ====
Jonathan’s GENERAL CONDITION & SYMPTOMS:
MOBILITY:
o Jonathan moves around in either an electric wheelchair or on special crutches. He can stand for short periods of time but needs to hold on to something for support.
o He seems to fall often (estimate) when he is using his crutches
SPEECH:
o Jonathan speech is impaired (dysarthria) which means that he has a hard time talking or getting out what he wishes to say. He has partial paralysis of one of his vocal cords
o Jonathan does better with his speech if he breathes slower and does not try to force air out to get the words out. Still some words are hard to understand and Jonathan needs to type them on a computer to express what he wishes to say.
o Jonathan noted that other people often have a hard time understanding what he is saying. He has to type the words out to get his point across
o This speech problem hinders him in face-to-face classes as he has a hard time communicating in class
WRITING & TYPING:
o I do not think that Jonathan can write by hand very well due to his Cerebral Palsy muscle problems
o Jonathan can type well and at a reasonable speed.
MENTAL
o Possible decreased intelligence or learning disability
He is slow sometimes to comprehend an idea
He is slow to respond when questioned directly but I do not know if that is shyness or something else.
NOTE: He does respond well and intelligently if you are talking to him via electronic chat
BEHAVIORAL
o Unsure what behavioral problems he may have but there seems to something subtle going on there but I cannot put it in words.
Question Answer Comments
What is the nature of your disability? Cerebral Palsy SEE PubMed Health – Cerebral Palsy & Wikipedia – Cerebral Palsy
What type of accommodations will need to be in place so you could be successful in an online course? He never took a class online so it is difficult to answer this. He did say that he thought he would hate taking an online course. I am unsure what Jonathan would need to do online classes, to be honest, but I will venture to guess what he will need.
Possibly extra time to complete homework
Flexible schedule due to medical treatment he may need
Alternate ways of doing presentations, especially if speaking is involved.
More guidance than normal with a more structured learning environment
Possible special equipment to do things like drawing (his has uncontrolled muscle spasms at times)
Would you find it easier to take an online course or a traditional face-to-face course? Can you tell me why? He would find a face-to-face course easier. He needs emotional support and the ability to express himself in a physical environment (speaking, interacting with others) to help his self-esteem.
