Last Updated on: 22nd August 2016, 09:00 am
You know how I like to post info about studies. Here’s another one.
Study on the Use and Accessibility of Social Media by College and University Students with Disabilities in Canada
The Adaptech Research Network, in partnership with the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS), has launched a national, cross-disability empirical study examining the use and accessibility of social media by college and university students with visible and invisible disabilities. For the purposes of this research, social media includes social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, online gaming, virtual worlds such as SecondLife, along with instant messaging services, blogs, wikis and sites such as YouTube, RateMyProfessor.com, and Classmates.com. Issues to be investigated include: understanding what social media postsecondary students with disabilities currently use and why; what, if any accessibility-related issues these users face; and for those who do not use social media, why.
As colleges and universities, along with sectors such as government, employers and all manner of commerce turn to social media to reach prospective, current and graduating college and university students broadly, it is more important then ever to have data on who is using what social media, and understand and address any accessibility barriers. Failure to do so could result in denying full participation by all college and university students, including those with disabilities, in the full range of opportunities that engaging with social media offers.
For more information on the study, contact Project Leader, Jennison Asuncion jennison@adaptech.org
Since 1996, the Adaptech Research Network has been publishing and presenting empirical, Canadian research primarily into the use and accessibility of information and communication technologies by college and university students with disabilities. This includes a recently completed three-year study looking at the accessibility of e-Learning, and the development of evaluation tools that campuses can use to assess their ICT accessibility from either the service provider or students with disabilities perspective. We have further extended our research scope, exploring the persistence of college and university students with disabilities (stay tuned for a separate announcement on another study). Based at Dawson College in Montreal, the team is Co-Directed by Catherine Fichten, Maria Barile, and Jennison Asuncion. Our website (to be refreshed over the summer) is located at www.adaptech.org
so there ya have it. If you feel inclined, send him an email.