Twitter+and+Physical+Barriers

**Section-Topic**
With all the technology that is being created every minute, why is it that there are still physical barriers stopping people from using the Web 2.0 tools? There are many types of assistive technologies, but there are quite a few of them that don’t work with Web 2.0 tools. Is this fair? Is there really a complete solution? Sometimes just using the internet can cause trouble for people with physical disabilities. According to Making Web 2.0 Accessibility Mainstream, people with physical disabilities will struggle with the following barriers. · trying to use a mouse to navigate around a website or to use a Web 2.0 tool · PDF, FLASH, Ajax and JAVA are inaccessible by people with physical disabilities · video and graphic displays can sometimes not be translated using assistive technology · assistive technology isn’t always compatible for all webpages · security issues when logging onto certain sites Twitter.com understood these physical barriers, among others. Twitter.com is a great Web 2.0 tool that can help with social networking and is being used in classrooms and businesses around the world. Every person should have the opportunity to atleast benefit from Twitter.com. So, Twitter.com created a website called Accessible Twitter. According to the website, it is an alternative to the Twitter.com website. Accessible Twitter was designed just for a disabled user. Some of the benefits of the site are that it works great without JAVA, it is easy to navigate, and the text can be resized to many different levels. Accessible Twitter worked hard to lessen the above barriers. Instead of having to use a mouse, there are many shortcut keys that can be used to navigate around their site. It also works on mobile devices such as iphone and droids. A person only needs to have a Twitter.com account to use Accessible Twitter. A few things that I noticed when I logged on is that the colors are very basic, white background and black letter, making it easier for people to see. Still, there are barriers that will cause troubles. People that cannot type at all would benefit from a voice tool instead of typing. I am not sure if Accessible Twitter would support voice tools. Resources: Making Web 2.0 Accessibility Mainstream, [] Slideshow, Accessible Twitter, [] Accessible Twitter, []