Using Social Media in Religious Education by Will Kahn-Greene is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at bluesock.org.
If you’re planning to do slides, you’ll need to set them up for Present sections and anything else you want to cover.
Present
Accessibility issues are a bis a big problem with computers and an even bigger problem with web-sites on the Internet. Accessibility is not just about impairments–there are all kinds of people out there for whom there are barriers to using social media.
Present
We’re going to talk about different accessibility issues and what we can do about them.
For each of the following issues, state the issue and explain it, then open it up for discussion about what to do about it.
anxiety with computer usage
Many people have a severe anxiety to using computers. It’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “I’m not good with computers–I don’t understand that stuff.”
We can give them explicit directions on how to use the tools we’re using.
We can give them one-on-one training that walks them through how to use things.
We can do group trainings.
economic
Someone who has old computer equipment with software that is below the minimum requirements for social media sites can’t access the sites. If someone doesn’t have computer equipment or an Internet connection, they can’t access the site either.
Buy or borrow equipment for people.
Perhaps get dedicated equipment for roles in your RE council.
Make a list of free wireless access points in the area: cafes, McDonalds, libraries, ...
visual impairments
Screen readers don’t work very well with many social media sites. If someone has visual impairments, then it’s unlikely they can participate.
movement impairments including RSI
Some movement impairments are permanent. It’s likely that people with permanent impairments that make using a computer difficult will probably have problems using social media tools.
Some movement impairments are temporary like mild RSI, carpal tunnel, and breaking an arm. People in this group may have to pair up with someone who can type to get work done until they’re able to do it themselves.
age
Most social media sites have a minimum age requirement to create an account. It’s against the terms of use for the site to have an account if you don’t meet the minimum age requirement and if the social media site discovers this, they’ll disable the account.
Some sites don’t specify a minimum age, but have text along these lines in their Terms of Use:
“You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with ...”
In the United States, this age is 18.
One of the issues here is that minors are not legally allowed to accept a Terms of Service and their implicit acceptance is not legally binding.
Make sure to check the Terms of Use for age requirements.
job requirements prevent use
Some jobs impose restrictions on social media usage. For example, judges and lawyers can’t be Facebook friends in the state of Florida [1]. Public officials, school teachers, journalists and others are regularly fired for things they’ve posted on social media sites–even minor opinions that have no real bearing on their jobs.
| [1] | http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/us/11judges.htm |
Present
Who are your volunteers and are they comfortable with using computers and the Internet?
What services are your volunteers already using?
What services are in use by other committees at your congregation?
When you start using social media tools to run your program, how does that affect your volunteers?
Does it make it easier for working moms and dads to participate?
Does it make it harder for church elders to participate?
How do you work with people who want to help out, but can’t because they can’t use the tools?