[nabs-l] google docs

[Katie Wang]

Hi Ashley,

Google Docs is a popular file-sharing tool tied to your Google
account. Once you create a file on Google Docs (Word documents, Excel
spreadsheets, or PowerPoint presentations), you can share it with a
group of people by their email addresses, who can then edit or comment
on your work. You are right that it is  currently inaccessible in
Internet Explorer, although I have heard that it now works with JAWS
in Firefox. I'm also aware that Google is working on improving the
accessibility of their various products, although I'm not sure how
much progress they have made so far.

For the purpose of your class, it might be worthwhile for you to check
if Google Docs indeed works in Firefox, especially considering that
the browser is free and fairly easy to install. If that route does not
work, you may need to talk to your instructor/classmates to work out
an alternative solution. What do you mostly use Google Docs for in
your class? If the work mostly involves peer editing in a small group
(which sounds like what you are describing), perhaps you could talk to
your fellow editing group members to see if you could all email around
your assignments and add comments directly in Microsoft Word. A
similar, but perfectly accessible, alternative to Google Docs is
Dropbox, a desktop client that also allows you to share files with
others, so that might be something worth considering as well. Hope
this helps!

Katie

On 3/26/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Well, I have a hybrid class for english; that means half online work and
> half in class meetings.
> What exactly is google docs and how does it work?
> Do you attach documents to it or something?
>
> I realize it is inaccessible to us. How do you get around that? Do you write
> assignments in word and/or email?
> I ask because I encountered google docs in our online class when we were
> supposed to comment on introductions for articles.
> Obviously, I couldn’t read the comments. Jaws only read names of classmates,
> not text.
> So I’ll have to have  a sighted reader and hand in my comments on paper.
>
> And most importantly, has either consumer advocacy group done anything about
> this lack of accessibility? I fail to see how blind students take online
> classes with so much inaccesssibility.
> PDFS, flash based content, multi media presentations and um now google docs
> are just a few accessibility challenges in the online class experience.
>
> Ashley
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> nabs-l:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/bunnykatie6%40gmail.com
>