A Shout Out for Gaggle.Net--Attention to Accessibility Issues!

Gaggle provides a safe, secure, email service for teachers and students. Several years ago, I set up email accounts for some of my students who have visual impairments. The accounts were simple to set up and with some experimenting by the students, they found their email to be accessible using a screenreader. Our own school district does offer student email accounts, but they involve lots of red tape to set up, and turn out not to be keyboard/screenreader accessible. Thank heavens for Gaggle!
Then, a few weeks ago, I started to hear from my students that they could no longer access their email messages. I went to www.gaggle.net and discovered that Gaggle had changed the look of the service, giving it a Web 2.0 look. Well, it may have LOOKED wonderful, but it was no longer accessible via the keyboard and a screenreader. Another instance of companies trying to make the web more visually appealing, but in the process excluding some people. Sad, right?
But, here's the great part! I found a contact email address at Gaggle, and wrote to let them know how upset I was that my students could no longer access their email with a screenreader. Well, within an hour of my sending an email, I received a response from Gaggle, letting me know that they have switched all of our accounts back to the old, yet accessible, layout. I went back to check, and true to their word, the emails were accessible again! I was pleasantly surprised, as well as grateful to Gaggle for actually paying attention to accessibility issues of their consumers.
There was another wonderful outcome from this experience, and it came in the form of a letter one of our students wrote to Gaggle. I've copied it below, so please read on and celebrate one of our students being proactive and helping companies understand that attention to accessibility is important and appreciated.

To: admin@gaggle.net
My name is Karen A., and I have an email account with Gaggle; as a visually impaired person, I know how difficult it is to find an email server accessible to those of us who use screen-readers such as JAWS for Windows. One of these few email servers is Gaggle.
I would like to thank Emily and the rest of the Gaggle staff for helping to restore Gaggle to its original format so that VI students can continue benefiting from it. Not only does Gaggle allow me to send and receive emails and attachments efficiently, but it also allows me to communicate in a quick, easy manner that is increasingly one of the main forms of communication.
I am really appreciative of the fact that you take all of your student population in to account, so keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Karen A.

Highlighting Student Achievements, Part 1

I created this blog mostly to offer up some technology tips for teachers of students with visual impairments. Today I offer a little treat: we have so many talented students in our program, I thought it might be nice to devote a bit of space on the blog to some of their achievements. Laura is an 8th grader at Irving Middle School. She is a braille reader who uses her mPower (braille notetaker/accessible PDA), to complete her school assignments and read e-braille books. She loves writing, as well, and she gave me permission to share this poem she wrote. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Keep writing, Laura, and keep sharing! (Thanks to her teacher, Laurie G. for being a proud teacher who wanted to share her student's talent.)

What Would It Feel Like, To Fly With the Birds?
by Laura D.

What would it feel like,
to fly with the birds?
To experience their freedom,
their glory,
their joy
To never be trapped,
as I am right now
To never ask why,
when,
where,
or how,
To live in the moment
to live for just now
To live with the wind,
the sun,
and the sky
To be like the wind,
care free,
and alive
To caress the ocean,
as dolphins swim by
To sleep with the stars,
twinkling so far
And escape pain,
that showers like rain.

So how would it feel like,
to fly with the birds?

Would everything seem better,
or would it just get much worse?

Great Podcasts by Dr. Bill and Others!

For those of you who've never had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Dr. Bill Takeshita, well then head on over to AIRS-LA
and click on the Vision link across the top of the page. AIRS-LA stands for Audio Internet Reading Service-Los Angeles. Its purpose it to help "those who are blind, sight-impaired, reading-impaired, low-vision, or who suffer diseases that make it difficult or impossible for them to read. Our mission is to provide podcasts of news, information, and entertainment that's otherwise inaccessible to them."
There are tons of great podcasts on everything from the latest medical advances in eye care to technology for people who are sight impaired. Dr. Bill has a whole series of podcasts called Low Vision Technology. One I just listened to was about how accessible the new Macintosh operating system is for people with low vision.
The Health links offers podcasts on everything from "Cooking in the Dark," to "Vision Loss - How Others Have Coped With It." Go check it out, and thanks, Dr. Bill, for all your work in the field of low vision!