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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Hi Susanne,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Marc Thompson and I looked into the accessibility of
Softchalk as an application and pages that it creates </FONT><FONT face=Arial>a
few week ago and we were impressed with it. It does not mean that it is
fully accessible or it creates perfect accessible content but I see a great
potential in the program to become more accessible and create more
usable/accessible content.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>For those of you who worked with me in the past you
already know that I don't get easily excited about a few accessibility features
here or there but indeed I think Softchalk is on the right path. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Softchalk has approached me and I guess at least one other
colleague in other institution to work with them collaboratively to improve the
accessibility of their product but since we are not using their product here at
UIUC I was a little hesitant to start the collaboration group.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>If there is enough interest and more importantly there are
a few people who can commit to work on improving Softchalk I will be glad to
establish the collaboration group and work with them to improve the
accessibility/usability of their product.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Are you personally interested to work on such
collaboration group and/or do you know other colleagues who are interested to
dedicate a few hours in a month for such collaboration project?</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">Thanks,</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">Hadi</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=svmistric@waketech.edu href="mailto:svmistric@waketech.edu">Susanne
Mistric</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=athen@athenpro.org
href="mailto:athen@athenpro.org">athen@athenpro.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, November 04, 2010 10:03
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Athen] Accessibiilty and
SoftChalk 6</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Our
campus has a Soft Chalk 6 site license. As Accessibility specialist/trainer,
I'm questioning the accessibility of the "accessible" options available within
the product and any of the third party widgets that I've explored as optional
resources for instructors to implement. I'm just not seeing it as being as
accessible across the board as it's made out to be. I'm interested in the
input of others who have used, are using, or who have evaluated the
product as a tool for the creation of accessible course content. I'd
actually love to find that my skepticism is off track, because it is a tool
that is easy for our instructors to use. Thank you and I look forward to
meeting as many of you as I can at the upcoming Higher Ground conference
in Colorado.</SPAN></P><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><o:p>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook"><FONT size=3>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #17365d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 191">Susanne
Van Dorpe Mistric<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #0f243e; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128">Blackboard
Student Support<BR>Access-Ability Advocate/Trainer<BR>Distance
Education Academic Support Services<BR>Wake Technical Community
College</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #0f243e; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128"><BR></SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma"><BR> <A
href="mailto:svmistric@waketech.edu"><FONT
color=#0011ff>svmistric@waketech.edu</FONT></A><BR><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> (919)866-5631</B><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #0f243e; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">“<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The power of the web is in its
universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential
aspect</I>."</SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #0f243e; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><BR><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Sir Tim
Berners-Lee</B><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'"></SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #0f243e; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128">“<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Anyone who has lost track of time when
using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come
true and the tendency to miss lunch</I>.” <BR><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Sir Tim
Berners-Lee</B><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #0f243e; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128"><EM>" I
have it on good authority that if you type GOOGLE into GOOGLE, you can
indeed <STRONG>BREAK</STRONG> the Internet!"<BR></EM></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #0f243e; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128"><STRONG>Jen
- The I.T. Crowd</STRONG></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #0f243e; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128">Statement:</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #0f243e; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128">
<BR>Email correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North
Carolina Public Records law and may be disclosed to third parties by an
authorized state official (NCGS. ch. 132). Student educational records
are subject to FERPA.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></FONT></DIV></o:p></SPAN>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>_______________________________________________<BR>Athen mailing
list<BR>Athen@athenpro.org<BR>http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>