[nabs-l] online tutoring

[Ben Peters]

Hi all, I have a unique question. 
 
I started my semester yesterday, and my college has changed there online course/class information system (they use to use blackboard and changed   to their own network). However, that isn’t my problem. 
The college is now offering online tutoring free of charge for all students in any subject through tutor.com which students log into the college’s online system to be connected to tutor.com and these services. I am all ready having some trouble with a little bit of math, and my campus won’t have tutors available to next week (on extremely small satellite campus). However, I tried to use the tutor.com service a few minutes ago. I had no problem with the form and putting in information to request a tutor. However, once I was connected, it was completely inaccessible; from the little vision I have it looked like an electronic book had it books turning with certain parts in bold or highlighted. I am a jaws user because my vision isn’t good enough to constantly use it and things have to be super large for me to see. So I was trying to do this jaws alone. I assumed that it would work like a chat or IM where the tutor could write back to me and I could write to them etc. But I don’t think that is the case now, or I’m not sure. I decided that the service wasn’t going to work for me because of accessibility. The idea of it is nice if I need help after hours or when physical tutors aren’t available. 
 
I am just curious if anyone has tried online tutoring for any subjects, particularly math, and if so what was your experience? Also I am curious if anyone knows if such a service is required under any laws to be accessible I.E. ADA, Rehab Act, and Education etc? I know schools have to make instructional websites accessible, but this service isn’t provided directly from the college; the college contracts out (I think) to the website for services. I am just curious if this would be something to try to improve on for accessibility and if it has to be accessible. 
 
Thank you, Hope your semesters/quarters are going awesome!
Ben
myangelblessings at hotmail.com
Visit my blog:
http://hopeinfuture.livejournal.com/ 
Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/benpeters10 
MySpace:
www.myspace.com/angelbenwithlove 
FaceBook:
http://profile.to/benpeters10/ 







 EMAILING FOR THE GREATER GOOD
Join me