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 h3BNe3U05268; Fri, 11 Apr 2003 19:40:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 19:40:03 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3E9751C9.1020204@theworld.com> 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: "David J. Rosen" <DJRosen@theworld.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2800] Re: Question: Research on Webpages for X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Status: O Content-Length: 5802 Lines: 131 Hello Emily and others, I have read the article and recommend it highly. It's great that you have asked Christina Zarcadoolas to join the NIFL-Technology list as a guest. Web design for low-literate adults is a very important topic and I will eagerly participate in this discussion. David J. Rosen Hacker, Emily wrote: > 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. 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