JSET ejournal
Accessibility of State Department
of Education Home Pages and Special Education Pages
Christine Opitz
Wilhelmina Savenye
Arizona State University
Cyndi Rowland
Utah State University
Many institutions worldwide provide online information at
a moment's notice via the World Wide Web (WWW). Federal agencies,
private industries, and public institutions have united in offering
content to a wider audience in order to educate and inform the
public. As of January 2001, there were over 109 million hosts,
or providers of URLs, advertised in the Domain Name System (DNS)
worldwide, compared to the 4 million in existence as of January
1995 (Internet Software Consortium [ISC], 2001). Since 1985,
from the origination of the first .gov domain name, more
than 1,262 government domains exist (Rutkowski, 1997; Zook, 2001).
The increase of domain names offered by hosts includes Web site
resources offered by both the public and private sector. Among
federal Web sites currently available to the general population,
are department of education pages representative of each of the
fifty states. These sites typically include information about
departments such as committee actions, consumer resources, and
current events. Many sites also provide online materials pertaining
to state academic guidelines as well as disability resources.
These resources provide information about recent policy news,
legislation, financial reports, and legal issues concerning teachers,
parents, and students of all abilities.
Users of departments of education sites visit the online offerings
in order to obtain the latest information about their desired
focus. However, if users are unable to read, hear, or locate
pertinent content regarding their specific needs, the World Wide
Web has not lived up to its promise in offering equal access
to its information. Assistive devices are available for users
with specific disabilities to access the Web, and provide additional
support and independence for its audience. However, in order
to achieve equal access on a global scale that is both interactive
and resourceful, the sites themselves need to deliver information
in a more accessible format.
Internet Users
As the population of internet users has grown to include
an increasing number of persons with disabilities, universal
access to the Web has become of paramount concern. Approximately
20 percent of the United States population has some type of disability
(McNeil, 1997; U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID],
2000). Multiple disabilities include visual, cognitive, auditory,
and physical impairments, which may or may not be present at
birth.
Findings from the U.S. Department of Commerce indicate that 21
% of individuals with disabilities use the internet, compared
to 51 % of persons without disabilities. Results also suggest
that persons with disabilities have lower incomes, are older,
and are less likely to be employed, than those persons without
disabilities (U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics, and Statistics
Administration, & National Telecommunications and Information
Administration, 2000). In order to reduce the number of obstacles
a person with disabilities may incur in retrieving content from
the Web, efforts toward revising past laws and amendments have
been undertaken by both federal and state organizations to enhance
accessibility of the Internet.
