October 30, 2007
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR A STUDY OF CARMEN AND WEB ACCESSIBILITY
My name is Joe Wheaton, and I am an associate professor in Special Education at The Ohio State University. Together with
Who can participate?
Participation is voluntary and anyone with a disability that affects access to the Web and is 18 years old or older can participate. We will need to know information about how your disability affects your ability to use the Web. We will also need to know about your expertise with the assistive technology that you will use to access the Web, and your general computer skill level. We will NOT ask you personal questions about your health nor will we ask about the cause of your disability.
How will we do the study?
Our study will give you some web pages to examine and ask you to do several tasks on them. For example, you might be asked to go to the Discussion section and open a message, reply to that message, and then create a new message. We will watch and make an audio recording as you describe how you navigate the pages and complete the tasks. Finally, we ask you some questions about the overall experience. We want to know things like, How easy was it to get to the page you needed to find? How easy was it to find your way around on the page? "What problems did you have?" What would have made this task easier? As you can see, we want to identify the problems that people have and how these Web pages can be made better. We will compare your answers to the answers of others, but your name will never be used and you will never be personally identified in any reports or summaries of the project. All participants will only be referred to by a code number. Your participation will take between one and two hours, although most sessions will only be about one hour.
Study participants will receive a $25.00 gift certificate from Barnes and Noble Bookstores once they have completed the session.
How to volunteer and receive more information:
If you wish to be considered for participation in the study or just want more information, contact Dr. Joe Wheaton, at 292-8313 or via e-mail at wheaton.3@osu.edu. Please note that not all volunteers will be included in the study. Selection will be based on the number of volunteers and the type and severity of their disability (persons with severe disabilities are more likely to be included in the study). Thank you.
Joe Wheaton
Associate Professor
College of Education
The
614-292-3307