Return-Path: <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h3BKOoU01119; Fri, 11 Apr 2003 16:24:50 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 16:24:50 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <4B02634A34EE6043B56B6CA32CAB722DE55B9B@exchange2.apsu.edu> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Moseley, Tom" <MoseleyT@apsu.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2798] Re: Question: Research on Webpages for X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 5705 Lines: 126 I, too, would be interested in joining this discussion. I do not work directly with a literacy program, but I do coordinate distance delivery modes for our campus and would enjoy understanding more about "comfort levels" of our diverse population. tm -----Original Message----- From: Hacker, Emily [mailto:EHacker@fegs.org] Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 10:44 AM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2791] Re: Question: Research on Webpages for Thank you Jeff for making us aware of the article, "Unweaving the Web: An Exploratory Study of Low-Literate Adults' Navigation Skills on the World Wide Web." I got in touch with one of the authors, Christina Zarcadoolas. She can make the full text of the article available to us in PDF format and would be very interested in joining us for a discussion! I think this is a great opportunity, as this is one of a very limited number of research studies focused specifically on low-literate adults' web use. Here is a preview from the policy section of the article: "Ignoring fundamental principles of "low-barrier" design further disenfranchises a significant portion of the population who are already compromised in our society. Improving Web access and navigation can substantially empower that same group to obtain the information they need to manage their daily affairs and improve their health and well-being." I need to hear back from you whether you are interested in reading the article and inviting Christina to discuss it with us. Attachments are not allowed on the NIFL discussion lists, but if enough of us are interested I can work out an alternative solution for distributing the article. Please respond to me or to the list about your interest within the next few days and we'll take it from there. Best, --Emily ************************************************************ Emily Hacker Moderator - NIFL Technology Director, Learning Technologies F.E.G.S (212)366-8122 ehacker@fegs.org -----Original Message----- From: Jeff Carter [mailto:jeff_carter@jsi.com] Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 9:59 AM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2790] Re: Question: Research on Webpages for low-intermediate Folks, About a month ago, David Rosen queried the list about research on web design for low-intermediate literacy adults. A couple of folks from my office spent some time responding to the same query privately, but it occurred to me a little while ago that what we found never made it onto this list, so I thought I would share it. I know many of you on this list are interested in the topic. Turns out that NCSALL's Health Literacy Studies web site has annotated bibliographies (organized by year) for health and literacy articles, and that the 2002 bibliography lists some research articles that are related to design and content issues for low-literate adults. Thanks to Karen Rowe of NCSALL for pointing that out. <http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy/literature/lit_2002.html>; Unfortunately, there aren't any Web links to the references. However, there is definitely one paper that is worth getting a hold of if you are interested in this subject, called "Unweaving the Web: An Exploratory Study of Low-Literate Adults' Navigation Skills on the World Wide Web." Here's the full citation: > Zarcadoolas, C., Blanco, M., Boyer, J. (2002) Unweaving the Web: An > Exploratory Study of Low-Literate Adults' Navigation Skills on the > World Wide Web. Journal of Health Communication, Vol. 7: 309-324. For this study, they looked at how a group of 24 low-literate adults (average reading level of 5th-7th grade) navigated the Web. Some of the problems they found: people needed to be reminded about scrolling down to see more of the page; and had often had trouble finding key "action" buttons; working with pull-down menus are sometimes a problem; also using the back button. Moving from the body of the page to the address bar to ype a URL was often a problem, one that I've noticed when training Web novices, whatever the reading level. In fact, one of the things I thought while I was reading this was that many of the barriers cited might also be listed as barriers to anyone using a Web browser for the first time, whatever level they read at. Although of course there are language barriers as well. Anyway, it was an interesting study -- I'm not representing it well with this quick summary. I would encourage anyone else who has read it to comment. Jeff Jeff Carter World Education Boston, MA (617) 482-9485 -------------- e-mail: jcarter@worlded.org <http://www.worlded.org> ******************************************************************* Please List Your Job Openings with FEGS at (212)366-8039 If You Are interested in Making a Donation to FEGS to Help Us Continue To Provide Essential Crisis Support Services, please contact Gail Magaliff, COO at (212)366-8551 or send an e-email to gmagaliff@fegs.org PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT www.fegs.org ************************NOTE************************************** The information contained in this email message is intended only for use of the addressee(s) named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. 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