Towards Accessibility of Online Content and Services for Everyone

The internet offers huge opportunities for all people, of course also people with disabilities. But a lot of barriers complicate their use of online content and services and make it difficult or even impossible to access (some of) them. Consequently, people with disabilities and especially children are often excluded from online media, content and services altogether and are not offered the opportunity to use them freely and self-determined for information, education, entertainment, communication as well as participation within society.

Therefore, the network of POSCON aims at raising awareness for accessibility for all users, especially children with disabilities, to enable them to fully use and participate through online content and services. Most importantly we will work towards concrete tips and guidelines to developers and providers of online content and services for children on how to make their products as accessible as possible. These recommendations will be included into our Checklist & Concrete Criteria for Positive Content publication (http://www.positivecontent.eu/positive-content-criteria/) as an additional chapter.

Furthermore we want to encourage everyone involved in producing and promoting positive online content for children to learn more about accessibility through the work of relevant initiatives and organizations as well as already existing international standards and guidelines!

We have started a collection of link tips and online tools on the topic of accessibility and special needs of people with disabilities, which is meant to promote existing initiatives, standards and recommendations all over the world.
This so-called "knowledge database" based on input by experts and research still has very much potential to be expanded. As we strive to include more information and resources, we want to invite the public send us more ideas and examples to be included as well as to share and spread this document to colleagues and experts! Everyone is very welcome to send in additions and ideas via poscon@lmk-online.de.

Toca Boca, wonderful and successful apps for children

Remco Pijpers, POSCON-member and working for Kennisnet and Mijn Kind Online, visited head quarts of Toca Boca in Stockholm to interview the makers of the wonderful and very popular children’s apps. What is their secret? 

Toca Boca was only founded in 2010, yet has since grown into a prominent player in the children’s app market. With a total of 68 million apps downloaded in 169 different countries, the company is clearly on to something. Their secret? Game designer Chris Lindgren has been with Toca Boca since the start and sums up the core philosophy: “We make toys, not games,” she says. It’s an important distinction. She goes on to explain that toys, as opposed to games, are more open-ended in their approach. They are materials to play with and fantasies around. “The best toys have a strong replay value; kids can keep finding new ways of playing with them,” Chris adds. That is what Toca Boca strives for in its apps. Also, where other apps may focus on learning cognitive skills in a more traditional sense, the focus here is on fun. Why? Because at Toca Boca, playing and having fun are considered “the best way to learn about the world”. Their aim is to stimulate young children’s imagination and support their creativity in a non-competitive digital environment, coupled with a child-friendly usability.

A lack of spoken language or written instructions is a further feature defining Toca Boca apps. This was a conscious decision made early on and has two benefits. Firstly, it makes the products more international and therefore, more financially viable. You can reach a global market without having to translate so much as a single word. Secondly, as Chris points out, it can help to make kids feel empowered: they don’t need their parents’ help to play the apps. At the same time, Toca Boca purpose-builds many of its apps as shared experiences, incorporating multi-touch features so children can play with others if they want to, be it with siblings, friends or parents. It’s a way to practice valuable social skills such as turn taking.

The complete story about Toca Boca will be published in a book in English made by Mijn Kind Online and POSCON. It will be available in November 2014. 

POSCON at the FOSI 2014 European Forum – Creating a Better Internet

Remco Pijpers from My Child Online and POSCON Network Member represented the Thematic Network POSCON at the FOSI conference about safer internet for children in Paris, on May 22. 

The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) is an international, non-profit organization which works to make the online world safer for kids and their families. FOSI convenes leaders in industry, government and the non-profit sectors to collaborate and innovate new solutions and policies in the field of online safety.

Remco participated in the panel discussion ‘Doing Good Online, Making a Better Internet’. This panel covered best practices for creating more positive content for children. Remco talked about the work of the Thematic Network POSCON and stressed the need for more positive content, making that a priority for companies and the need for more research into the positive use of the Internet. 

The panel expressed the need to get more children competing and learning to code as well as opening up the education system to allow creativity. Remco provided an example of the King of the Netherlands inviting children to produce content and handing out prizes as a way to encourage more content for kids. The panel agreed that high-profile individuals can help incentivize content creation. 

One of the POSCON Network Members also joined the panel: Filip Rožánek from Czech Radio as winner of the European Award for Best Content For Kids with the website "Webík Rádia Junior" . He explained how he divides content for age groups including pre-schoolers and older kids and said the key to making the Internet better is more education and less regulation.  

Read more about the conference:http://www.fosi.org/european-forum-2014-event-summary.html

Paxel123.com - Icelandic website for children

Paxel123.com http://paxel123.com/ is an Icelandic website with educational games for children, about 4-8 years old. The owner and author of all the games is Anna Margrét Ólafsdóttir, POSCON Network Member and headteacher at the preschool Nóaborg in Reykjavík, Iceland.    

The games on paxel123.com are based on Anna Margrét's work with the children in her preschool. Most of the games focus on math and language but one game is about safty on the internet. The games can be played in 9 languages. Access is free, there are no ads, no registration and no personal information is gathered about the users. All you need to play the games is to have Flash and Java installed. Paxel123.com has been online for about two and a half years. Anna´s aim is to translate the games into more languages in the near future. 

Paxel123.com is created through funding provided by grants from the following: Nordplus, The ministry of Education in Iceland, The board of Human rights in Reykjavik, The Developing Fund of the Union of Preschool Teachers in Iceland, an Icelandic government developing fund for teaching material and a stipend from "Barnavinafélagið Sumargjöf", a charity that founded the first preschools in Iceland and operated all  preschools in the city of Reykjavik until 1973.

 
Best content for kids in Europe

Paxel123.com was awarded 1st price for the best content for kids in the non-professionals category in an European competition held in connection with the international Safer Internet Day on February 11th 2014.  More than 1.100 projects were entered into this competition. The award ceremony was held in Brussels at a high-level event hosted by the European Commission.

 

Games from paxel123.com for iPads

Two games from Paxel123.com have been developed for iPads and more are on the way. The first of these was released in the Appstore at the end of 2013 and is called Pattern Puzzle Game. It is the iPad version of one of the most popular games from the Paxel123.com website. Another game, just released in the Appstore, is called Magic Shape Pictures, also developed from a popular Paxel123.com game. The third game for iPad is called Get Shapes, and will be available in Appstore shortly. Get Shapes has been developed in cooperation with a group of six five year old pre-schoolers from Anna Margrét's preschool. The kids drew figures and planned the rules for that games. Hopefully more games from the Paxel123.com website will be available for iPads in the near future.

Pattern Puzzle Game

https://itunes.apple.com/app/pattern-puzzle-game/id741471947?ls=1&mt=8 
The game is designed to be fun and educational for kids, from age four. It is designed by kindergarten teachers and tested by kids! There are four levels of difficulty and the pictures you have to make, using geometrical shapes, get more complicated as you progress through the levels. When each level is done an congratulatory star will appear. As in all games associated with Paxel123.com you will find no advertisments, no social links, no pop-ups or  distractions/links that can divert children. This app has been very well received and has got great reviews e.g  from the specialist website a4cwsn.com (apps for children with special needs) where they tested the app and made a video about it which you can watch if you click onto this link here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdKFKHvEnxM


Paxel Magic Shape Pictures

The second game was released two weeks ago and is called Paxel Magic Shape Pictures. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paxel-magic-shape-pictures/id858006396?mt=8   

It is fun and educational for kids as young as three years old. The goal is to arrange a number of shapes correctly to match a given image. When all the shapes are in place, a beautiful picture with the same theme appears. Three levels are free but parents can buy ten extra levels for 99c. A "parent gate" is installed to ensure that children cannot make a purchase by accident.