Hi Liz,

Due to different timezone, I couldn't attend the hangout. However, I watched its recording and thorougly enjoyed the sharing of ideas and especially hwo to make the article more engaging. 

I also started with my students in Pakistan, and I have this student who is hard of hearing and facing issues with English language at times. There was an introductory video prior to reading Electronic Oasis. The video lacked captioning and made it difficult for her to understand. At the end of viewing, she asked me, ' why is Paul walking on foot?' and also, 'Why is taking a walking journey around the world?' So ideally I as a teacher I could have explained what she missed, but the accessibility factor was there for me as well since I am also hard of hearing! I guess we need to be more inclusive and think about accessibility factors that hinder students' learning and for that we could start with making most sections of the website accessible and convenient for all types of learners.

Dear Khaula,

Thank you so much for your comment. We really appreciate your thoughts and we are glad you enjoyed viewing the Google+ Hangout.  We are currently in communication with our partners to see what we can do about making videos like the introductory video more accessible.  We are hoping to be able to either get a version of the video with subtitles or have the video uploaded to YouTube where the "closed caption," or subtitle, option is available. This option is a "cc" located at the bottom right corner of the Youtube Video. We will keep you updated. Thank you again for your thoughtful inquiry.

Best Wishes,

Sheya
Project Coordinator at OOEL

Hi Khaula,

Thanks very much for your message. We have passed on your suggestion regarding captioning to our partners who run the Out of Eden Walk website and who have control of that particular video which introduces Paul's walk. They are very busy right now as they prepare to make Paul's work accessible in several different languages (although Urdu is not one of them unfortunately) but they will look into different captioning options soon. We would also like to point out that if you click on the CC button you will automatically get captions on the Youtube videos of our Google+ Hangouts.

But I think the broader point you make about making Out of Eden Learn accessible to as many different types of learners as possible is well taken and something we need to be more mindful of moving forward. We welcome suggestions from you and other members of our learning community.

Can I also add that we are thrilled to welcome you and your students into our community.

Best wishes, Liz