[Year 12 IT Apps] ITA exam - B2 - accessibility

[Mark]

Please forgive me for replying to my own posts  :-)

Five minutes' research on "accessibility in IT"
(which I *should* have done *before* the first post, but never mind, let's
move on)
yielded many hits like this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_accessibility
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/How-to-Ensure-IT-Accessibility-in-Applications-and-Websites/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php
http://www.strategicaccessibility.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
http://a11yproject.com/about.html

all of which agree that 'accessibility' refers to special needs.

And http://vceit.com/p/accessibility.htm agrees too, which is *quite* nice.

But I still can't find a VCAA reference to 'accessibility'.
I'll keep looking, but I'm quite convinced now that I don't need to:
The Real World™ has a consistent interpretation of the word, and exam
question B2 is misguided.


On 9 November 2014 13:17, Mark <mark at vceit.com> wrote:

> Does anyone else have a sneaking fear that this second question in section
> B is misinterpreting the word "accessibility"?
>
> We in VCE IT have (AFAIK) always understood 'accessibility' as referring
> to catering for special needs or disabilities.
>
> This question smells to me as if it's referring to "ease of
> loading/finding". Try answering it with a "special needs" view of
> accessibility, and see how far you get.
>
> Frustratingly, the current study design does not define accessibility, and
> it even muddies the water by including this in the glossary's definition of
> 'design elements'...
>
> *"In this study the elements related to functionality are structure,
> usability and accessibility, including navigation and load time,
> appropriateness and relevance."*
>
> This makes it sound like accessibility includes navigation and load time
> (curse their ambiguous punctuation) which is definitely not related to
> disabilities.
>
> Yet the Nelson/Potts textbooks seems to agree that 'accessibility' relates
> to factors like colour blindness, reduced language skills etc.
>
> The problem is that I can't find a VCE IT source for this 'accessibility'
> convention.
> Does anyone remember where this interpretation of accessibility came from
> years ago?
>
> Or have I slipped several cogs and is question B2 quite appropriate and
> right? Has the exam question writer read the study design and made a quite
> valid (but wrong) interpretation of the word?
>

> --
>
> Mark Kelly
>
>
-- 

Mark Kelly
mark AT vceit DOT com
http://vceit.com

*I love the sound of people's voices after they stop talking.*

I, Mark Kelly, am entirely responsible for the offensive verbiage I spew
forth.
Have I offended anyone with this post?  I would not be surprised.
If offended, please whinge to me at the email address above.
Please leave poor Kevork alone.  It is not his fault.
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