Friday, April 01, 2011

Accessibility of Google Apps


Are Google Apps accessible enough to be relied on as the primary tools for your class or office?

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) feels they are not and has asked the Department of Justice to investigate the reliance of New York University (NYU) and Northwestern University on Google apps as a violation of the civil rights of blind faculty and students. See...

The Chronicle of Higher Education had a short article on the topic that drew a lot of comments:

Just how accessible are the various Google Apps? The Web2Access site, which evaluates interactive and collaborative e-learning tools, has been looking at the Google Apps. You can see their evaluations by going to the Web2Access site at...
...and entering "google" in the search box. Readability and accessibility of text editors seem to be common weak points.

NFB has created a set of accessibility demonstration videos to show the kinds of problems they feel raise concern. You can see the videos at...

Google itself says it is committed to improving accessibility of its products. See...
and

One response to all this buzz is to let Google know how important accessibility is for the higher education environment. Back when Apple started pushing iTunes U, the California State University system (which has 23 campuses) refused to get on board because of serious accessibility problems with the iTunes interface. CSU even sent delegations to the Apple headquarters to advocate for improvements. Apple responded by making significant improvements. So, letting the vendor know how you feel can bring about real change.