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Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
Opportunity:
How often do you get the chance to work with heroes? SpryData had that opportunity after submitting the winning bid in an RFP
from Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind.
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind is the world’s most comprehensive
educational and rehabilitation system, serving children and adults who are
deaf, blind and multidisabled. Click here to learn more about AIDB.
Every student at AIDB is a hero. Not only do the students grow intellectually
with a challenging curriculum but also they participate in
extracurricular activities including sports, drama, social clubs and
music. In fact, in November 2000 Alabama School for the Deaf Silent Warriors were named
national champions in football among schools for the deaf.
Every staff member at AIDB is a hero, showing devotion to the institution and
especially to the students.
Every teacher at AIDB is a hero. Many of the teachers have doctoral degrees in their
fields of study, and some even have two Ph.D.s. Uncompromisingly capable and
completely compassionate: what a combination!
But this is supposed to be about AIDB’s Internet needs. We get a bit
carried away when we talk about AIDB.
Challenges:
- Planning - AIDB’s vast reservoir of resources and information had to be compiled and organized into a user-friendly, yet attractive, site.
- Development - Given the target markets, the site needed to be accessible by deaf/hard of hearing and blind/visually impaired surfers.
- Maintenance - While AIDB had a capable IT staff, their work load prevented their involvement in site development or maintenance.
Solutions:
 Site organization and layout allow a user to get from any page on the
site to any other page within three clicks. A site map and search tool
provide even easier ways to navigate the site.- The W3C Accessibility Guidelines provided direction for developing a
site that is easily navigated by a blind or deaf person. Text versions
of video and audio clips, effective use of alt tags for images,
and a complete text version of the site are just some of the elements we
used.
- To help keep the site up to date, we created a browser-based
administrative area so that nonprogrammers could update the site.
AIDB has full control over 11 areas of the site, including scrolling
announcements on the index page, feature articles, calendars, book
referrals and job postings.
Results:
- Within three months of launch, the site generated more than three times the traffic of AIDB’s previous site.
- Parents of deaf, blind and multidisabled children have a resource for information, not only about AIDB but also about dealing with the challenges that these families face daily.
- Featured on CNN and in People magazine, AIDB attracts media attention. Now, the media has a rich source of information about AIDB and about deafness and blindness.
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