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National accessibility portal and Facebook: a case study
Last modified: 2009-09-01
Abstract
Facebook is one of the leading social networking sites on the internet. It allows people to easily share messages, links, news articles, websites, discussion forums, photographs, etc, with their friends and family. In addition to this social networking, however, Facebook can also be used as a front end to other websites. Facebook supports the creation of Facebook applications which are hosted on non-Facebook servers. Facebook users can install these applications in their Facebook profiles or bookmark them in their Facebook environments. These users can then easily execute applications on non-Facebook servers without leaving the familiar Facebook environment. This paper examines the use of Facebook applications with respect to the National Accessibility Portal of South Africa. The National Accessibility Portal is a traditional non-Facebook website which is designed to be a respository
of information for South Africans living with disabilities. It provides information such as schools for children with disabilities, interesting news articles which are of interest to South Africans living with disabilities, new innovations in science which could be of benefit to people living with disabilities, copies of relevent legistation, job opportunities, lists of vendors of assistive devices, and discussion forums. A Facebook application was developed which would link to the National Accessibility Portal and provide this information in the familiar Facebook environment. This paper examines the how this was done, the difficulties that were encountered, and how the difficulties were solved.
of information for South Africans living with disabilities. It provides information such as schools for children with disabilities, interesting news articles which are of interest to South Africans living with disabilities, new innovations in science which could be of benefit to people living with disabilities, copies of relevent legistation, job opportunities, lists of vendors of assistive devices, and discussion forums. A Facebook application was developed which would link to the National Accessibility Portal and provide this information in the familiar Facebook environment. This paper examines the how this was done, the difficulties that were encountered, and how the difficulties were solved.
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