[education-wg] Introduction

[Kevin Cole]

I know I said I'd be quiet.  But a very short P.S. to the previous message:

Gallaudet is the only accredited liberal arts university for deaf and
hard of hearing students, as well as individuals wishing to work in
the deaf community.  In addition to that, which is rather unique in
itself, the campus also houses both an elementary school -- the
Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES) and a high school --
the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) for deaf students.
Part of our obligation, in return for all that federal money, is to
serve as both a source of information on the demographics and academic
trends of deaf K-12 students, and as a model for deaf education in the
U.S.

How that will play into OSA's educational efforts remains to be seen,
but some of the issues facing open source software involve
accessibility issues.  For deaf students that includes things like
video relay services and other sign-language-based information,
closed-captioning and real-time captioning, as well as issues relating
to the generally weaker literacy skills of deaf students.  Best to
think about these things during development, rather than trying to
retrofit and shoehorn them in after the fact.

-- 
Ubuntu Linux DC LoCo
Washington, DC
http://dc.ubuntu-us.org/