Accessible computing

One of the key things you need to be able to write about is how users with specific needs can make use of ICT.

Specific needs means users who need some form of assistance to use ICT. They might be partially sighted or blind for example. Other key specific needs might include hearing loss or some form of motor (or movement) disability. All of these needs can make some ICT devices or applications difficult, or impossible, to use to their full potential - a YouTube video, for example, may not be effective without subtitles for a hearing impaired user, whilst a visually impaired user may find it difficult to use the keys on a phone keypad to send an SMS.

In order to use ICT more effectively it sometimes needs to be adapted to meet a users needs.

There are a range of ways this can happen - sometimes content can be adapted, for example by adding subtitles - whilst at other times specific software or hardware needs to be used. Examples include screen reader software for visually impaired users or adapted pointing devices to replace a mouse for users with motor disabilities.

It's important to find out a bit more about this sort of stuff, so here are some quite useful places to start looking, maybe...

• How disabled users access the Internet - Webcredible has a pretty useful summary of some internet related stuff
• Screenreaders at See The Difference - a very short summary
• Smartphone cameras bring independence to blind people - a recent article from the BBC
• The RNIB has some helpful guidance on using film, TV and radio, with examples of adaptive technology
• The BBC website has an accessibility guide which might be both useful and interesting

Designing - detail, detail, detail...

The key test for designs (and this is true for exams and portfolios) is:

could I (a skilled user) implement your design exactly as you have presented it working only from your designs and without having to make decisions myself?

In other words: does it tell me everything I need to know?

Everything.

Size, font, location, colours, macros, formulae. The whole banana. In enough detail.

It's fine to use more than one sheet of paper for each page. You might want one for the GUI and one for formulas for a spreadsheet. You might need another form macros. For a newsletter you may need one for layout and one for style.

The key is: is there enough detail (through annotations) for me to be able to produce it.

Here's one that someone, let's call her "Grace", made earlier.

Yeah, click it: it gets bigger...

It's *just* for the GUI - the layout of the sheet. The detail's OK - but she now needs to go on and get the details of the size for the boxes (by right clicking on her sheet she's designed and getting properties and the size tab), the width of the lines, the colour of the lines and the colour (a bright yellow) of the button.

To define the colour it'd be best to use a quantitative method - like using the RGB. You should be able to find a way of doing this (ask if you can't). In this case you can go to the lines/colors tab and go to more colors and you should be able to get the RGB from there:

The Internet and Global Security

Interesting story over on the BBC website about how the UK Home Office is set to require (ask?) your friendly ISP to monitor exactly what you do on the interwebz (UK surveillance plan to go ahead).

Hmm, so there'll presumably find out that the vast majority of internet users are boring geeks then?

Interesting article though, useful for the Jan 2010 exam paper. The links off of it are a good starting point as well.

And there's Radio too...
On a similar theme, it looks like the wireless might be a good source of useful stuff as well.

Radio 4 (yes, I know, I know - I'm old though...) has a programme called Click On. The last two series seem to be available online. The most recent episode happened to be on this evening as I was driving home and had something about some kind of e-fit system which would make identifying criminals (and other nasty people) so much easier. Might be used by the police and all. You can podcast that one.

I also see that an episode from last April (series 4, episode 6) is titled "Clare English explores some of the ways in which technology is being used to tackle crime". Might be useful again for that Unit 1 exam?

Over on the World Service (yes, I know that as well...) Digital Planet might be worth a look as well. There are summaries of each episode available.

I'm thinking: useful way of getting more than one type of source.

Students, students, students...

Some places to look for ideas about the target audience - and their take on careers in the police, legal and regulatory organisations:

The National Union of Students - clearly aimed at students. There is a careers section under Student Life. I'd use this to get some ideas about the way to write for that target audience - the NUS is writing for it's members so they should be hitting that audience spot on shouldn't they?

Prospects is a careers guidance site which is the official partner of the NUS. There may be some helpful content which gives you some ideas about the careers specified in the project brief.

Walkden school's magazine was the thing I used in class and might be worth getting some ideas from.

Target Audience Analysis - Section B

Questions you need to ask:

1. Who is the Target Audience? - describe them in this section. Age, gender, literacy, specific needs, interests, technical knolwedge etc... may all be important

2. What do they need? In terms of the content for the newsletter, the layout and the style. This should stem directly from your analysis of who they are and be specicially linked to points you made

3. How will I give them that in their newsletter? What will you do specifically to meet these needs. Again, everything needs to be linked back to the analysis of the TA. What will it contain? How will it be presented? How, specifically, does this meet their needs?

Again - think content, layout and style.