Work-based learning experiences can help students make career decisions, select courses of study, develop job skills, and network with potential employers. For students with disabilities, work-based learning experiences provide a unique opportunity to explore different, job-related accommodations, and to practice disclosing their disabilities and requesting accommodations from employers.
For many students with disabilities, written assignments and exams present significant difficulties. Mobility impairments may make writing physically difficult, while visual impairments may impact a student's access to standard word processing programs and computers. Research (e.g., accessing library resources) and the writing process (e.g., spelling and grammar) may also be difficult due to mobility, hearing, language, or learning disabilities.
The Internet should be universally accessible, but the multimedia nature of the web and the poor design of some websites make it inaccessible to many users.
Some users:
For many students with disabilities, accessing and using standard computers and electronic resources can be challenging. For example, a student with a spinal cord injury may be unable to use a standard mouse and keyboard.
My name is Jonathan. I am the Chief Accessibility Officer at SSB BART Group a company that specializes in accessibility standards compliance. Although most people imagine that a career in computing is about programming, only about 25% of my time is spent programming. The rest of my time is divided between technical writing, research, management, and consulting. I am responsible for maintaining our accessibility testing methodology, creating best practices, and staying current on new standards. I write blogs, reports, and provide consultations to large and small organizations.
