● Can it be accessed in a brief to the point manner?

● Is the information need tied to the disability(Mental, Physical, Emotional)? 
● Does the person seeking the information need specification/context?

● Are there known accessibility issues with those information needs?

● Can the environment of 1Cademy provide the information need to people with disabilities consistently?

These Five Questions are important to ask as it identifies the who, how, and what that people with disabilities need out of information. The questions also help build a roadmap for helping these people build critical information seeking skills. This leads to the subject of accommodations that 1Cademy has/could have to help people with disabilities use 1Cademy and build information based skills.


Identifying Information Need

●	Have different formats for organizing nodes. Examples: Columns, Custom, Tier, and Document.

●	Make options for moving nodes and node threads.

●	Have a toolbar to help find reference/citations for a node without having to look for it.

●	Clear and concise instruction/display of the difference between Concept as well as Relation. The tutorial video on nodes defined relation as a “node connecting two concept nodes” and “without having a new concept between them” which while understandable on its surface seems vague. The tutorial video on nodes also gives a general definition of concept as a topic that follows a parent node and is a granular piece of information from videos, text as well as  media.

●	Possibly the ability to change the node type as people with disabilities could be put off by a mistake in the node type being permanent unless deleted and redone. This way anxiety for someone with a disability using 1Cademy can be reduced.

●	An onsite tutorial for creating/using nodes in 1Cademy as well as permanent links with full text so the reference sources can be read/understood.

●	Is the question node redundant? 1Cademy users should be on Microsoft Teams and be able to have questions answered there coupled with Microsoft Teams having a faster response rate.


Ideas for formatting nodes to reduce Intimidation

●	Chat icon that allows someone to talk to/ask directions from a 1Cademy contact or send a message.

●	Advanced Search to look at and specify data based subjects/information.
●	Tags for finding a specific field of information/data.

●	Bookmarks in order to find specific nodes or acts as a reminder for important information.

●	Nodes instructing on how to use 1Cademy as well as nodes for seeking/developing new information.

●	Voice feature for narrating nodes.

●	A question node option.




Accommodations that 1Cademy has to Communicate to People with Disabilities.

Accommodation Features that 1Cademy could add:

●	Quick Key toolbars for easier navigation, especially for physically disabled people who may need touchscreens or other means of access.

●	A voice command option(or text to speech) to navigate information without the need to touch a keyboard.

●	A contact person that specializes in accommodating those with disabilities.
●	A help/how to feature for using 1Cademy.

●	Reference Nodes that link to the Full Text as being able to read/understand the text gives valuable context to the nodes information.

●	Faster loading times as 1Cademy can be time consuming to navigate and brevity is significant to people with disabilities as some are schedule oriented.

●	Empathetic listening and interaction with users/people that have disabilities coupled with patience. Live Training.
 
●	Making the videos more accessible/how to improve it. Explain complicated terms such as the meaning of granular content, and what a prerequisite is.
 
●	Tutorial Videos are a Year old so they may need to have updated information.

●	Definitions/explanations of what Python, HTML, R, and Javascript are as well as how to use them for coding.

●	One on one scheduling within the community.

Another suggestion I would make is a way to format nodes in a more streamlined way so it does not look like a massive spider web. I say this as it is easy to get lost finding nodes if there are many of them in a weblike pattern. Being able to format nodes to different locations would be good as it decreases the likelihood of a user/user with disabilities from being intimidating.

Accommodation Features that 1Cademy could have/add

●	Commands(voice, touchscreen, buttons) to look/hear node text in different formats.

●	Easy access to viewing users nodes.

●	Clear displays of misinformation/disinformation on 1Cademy for people to avoid.

●	A possible contact for interpretation(sign language/translations).

●	Aid in identifying how to differentiate between APA and MLA citation for reference nodes. This one in particular is important as those who are unfamiliar with citation/citation styles and have a learning disability can be easily stressed that any mistake in citation could be seen as plagiarism by them. Instruction on how to do these could be helpful in giving people with disabilities greater confidence in research.

●	DOI links on references if possible so source material can be studied/looked at more easily and effectively. I find there are a lot of references that lack a link or require going outside of 1Cademy to find. I mention it in this section as it is paramount that people with disabilities/users get to the resources as fast as possible rather than being a labyrinthine process. 


Servicing Disability Needs

Communicating to People with Disabilities Project

1Cademy is responsible for servicing those who need information in various fields such as libraries. As such it is important 1Cademy be able to service and communicate to people with disabilities. I divided 1Cademy should do into 4 sections:
- Identifying Information Need
- Accommodations that 1Cademy has/could have to Communicate to People with Disabilities.
- Ideas for formatting nodes to reduce Intimidation
- Servicing Disability Needs

University of South Carolina

- Access
- Confidentiality/Privacy
- Democracy
- Diversity
- Education and Lifelong Learning
- Intellectual Freedom
- The Public Good
- Preservation
- Professionalism
- Service
- Social Responsibility
- Sustainability

Values of Librarianship

McElroy, Dylan(2021). Communicating to People With Disabilities(Project). 1-3. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tkYrsd1Z0dRQKNSyWBCOzDn0ssA3lgJxYZIpF7YKpno/edit

Communicating to People With Disabilities Citation

- Sustainable facilities and policies
- Inclusion of sustainability topics in curricula
- Accountability in the supervision of property and resources


Sustainability in Librarianship

The value in librarianship that all information resources that are provided directly or indirectly by the library, regardless of technology, format, or methods of delivery, should be readily, equally, and equitably accessible to all library users.

Access in Librarianship

Protecting user privacy and confidentiality is necessary for intellectual freedom and fundamental to the ethics and practice of librarianship.

Confidentiality/Privacy in Librarianship

A democracy presupposes an informed citizenry. The First Amendment mandates the right of all persons to free expression, and the corollary right to receive the constitutionally protected expression of others. The publicly supported library provides free and equal access to information for all people of the community the library serves.

Democracy in Librarianship

We value our nation's diversity and strive to reflect that diversity by providing a full spectrum of resources and services to the communities we serve.

Diversity in Librarianship

Librarianship promotes the creation, maintenance, and enhancement of a learning society, encouraging its members to work with educators, government officials, and organizations in coalitions to initiate and support comprehensive efforts to ensure that school, public, academic, and special libraries in every community cooperate to provide lifelong learning services to all.

Education and Lifelong Learning in Librarianship

We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources.

Intellectual Freedom in Librarianship

Librarianship reaffirms the following fundamental values of libraries in the context of discussing outsourcing and privatization of library services. These values include that libraries are an essential public good and are fundamental institutions in democratic societies.

The Public Good in Librarianship

Librarianship supports the preservation of information published in all media and formats. The association affirms that the preservation of information resources is central to libraries and librarianship.

Preservation in Librarianship

The American Library Association supports the provision of library services by professionally qualified personnel who have been educated in graduate programs within institutions of higher education. It is of vital importance that there be professional education available to meet the social needs and goals of library services.

Professionalism in Librarianship

We provide the highest level of service to all library users. We strive for excellence in the profession by maintaining and enhancing our own knowledge and skills, by encouraging the professional development of co-workers, and by fostering the aspirations of potential members of the profession.

Service in Librarianship

Librarianship recognizes its broad social responsibilities. The broad social responsibilities of the American Library Association are defined in terms of the contribution that librarianship can make in ameliorating or solving the critical problems of society; support for efforts to help inform and educate the people of the United States on these problems and to encourage them to examine the many views on and the facts regarding each problem; and the willingness of ALA to take a position on current critical issues with the relationship to libraries and library service set forth in the position statement.

Social Responsibility in Librarianship

Ethics in Librarianship is the determination of what is the best practices and decisions that can be made. What needs to be noted is that Professional Ethic in Libraries expects the exclusion of personal ethics so as to not alienate patrons and peers.

Professional Ethics

Libraries and Librarians are expected to represent their community as well as all who require their services/knowledge. An issue that is still ongoing with libraries and various information institutions is accommodating disabilities.

Accommodating Disabilities

Communicating to People with Disabilities Project

- Unavailability of libraries in poorer communities
- Varied quality, quantity and breadth of resources offered 
- Local/regional/national laws 
- Varied funding
- Harmful content 

Learn Before

Related

Learn After