Visualpedia: an educational Wiki to support students with different disabilities

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Silvia Dini
Marco Mesiti
Marina Ribaudo

Abstract

VisualPedia is a software prototype for the deployment of accessible educational objects for users with special needs in the visual, cognitive and verbal spheres. It was developed as part of the Italian Ministry of Education’s project on new technologies and disability “Nuove Tecnologie e Disabilità”. VisualPedia is a wiki-based tool conceived according to the principles of design for all and collaborative knowledge creation; it takes account of usability requirements for end-users’ fruitful exploitation of contents. In this paper we present the main system functionalities, with special emphasis on the management of educational objects, the specification of the user profile, and the visualization and retrieval of educational objects according to the user profile.

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