OCW4ALL: Automatic Accessible Learning Materials

Eric Stokes's picture
As I was waiting for the presentation to begin I was slightly confused by the acronym OCW4ALL. Thankfully before it started I understood it stood for “Open Courseware for All”. The ideas that were presented focused on making recourses accessible to those who are deaf, blind, or can’t speak the same language as the material is presented in. Those who were presenting explained that they knew they were taking accessibility to an extreme of sorts yet explained how they felt it was an important step. 
 
I was impressed with the technology they presented, and its possibilities. They showed how you can have multiple language subtitles in videos online and how you can use a Google program to translate written documents into many different languages. While these ideas do take open access to an extreme I loved the idea of being able to access information and resources from all over the world. Many positive things are coming out of Europe and Asia that we as American’s currently don’t have access to because of our language barrier.  If these types of ideas are put into action Universities, groups and individuals around the world will be able to help each other learn and progress at an accelerated rate.     
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Submitted by Eric Stokes on Thu, 10/02/2008 - 9:53am

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