Exploring Accessibility and Green ICT in the Digital Age

The assignment investigates the use of accessibility tools like Serotek System Access and Visolve for blind or visually impaired users, enhancing their interaction with digital content. It also addresses ways to minimize carbon emissions in ICT by reducing screen time, turning off unused PCs, and using monitoring software such as NightWatchman. A comparative analysis highlights differences between student approaches, emphasizing the importance of both electricity consumption reduction and its effective management.

Running head: ICT PROFESSIONAL YEAR
ICT PROFESSIONAL YEAR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Question 1..................................................................................................................................3
Question 2..................................................................................................................................3
Question 3..................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

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Question 1
Blind or visually impaired client
It can be very much difficult for a sighted person to take into account and imagine
how much it is difficult for blind and visually impaired person to use a computer. In order for
them to use software and applications there can be different technics, which can be
incorporated. A screen reader in this concept can be considered an essential software for the
blind and visually impaired person. This concept is achieved by putting a screen reader,
which transmits whatever text is on the screen of the computer into a form that a visually
impaired person can process. This is usually auditory, tactile or combination of both. The
Serotek System access is another tool, which can be downloaded and used even outside the
browser. This makes it one of the quickest way of running a computer for the blind people
(Voykinska et al. 2014)
The color blindness concept normally effect one of 20 users who are not able to see
the website with its full beauty. Taking into consideration this type of users the images and
the text may be seen a bit unrecognizable and fuzzy. There are few software’s which helps in
assisting this type of user. Visolve can be considered as a software that uses filters, which
allow better differentiation between colors making the colors light and darker or increase in
the saturation level. This enhances the usability and the accessibility of the content which is
digital. Daltap is also a software that comes with many features, which are useful. The
software’s naming feature gives the name of the color at the tip of the cursor, which enables
the user to zoom or enlarge in the mouse area (Gelenbe and Caseau 2015).
Question 2
Three ways by which ICT can be used for the reduction of the carbon Footprints and
contribute to Green ICT are:

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 Limit the use of screensavers: The concept of screensaver can be used for personalizing
the computer. However, it can be stated that using a screensaver provides a shield for the
computer screen from the aspect of prying eyes. Taking into consideration the concern
related to power saving option, it should be activated to eventually switch off the
monitors if the PC remains idle for an extended period.
 Turning of the PCs when not in use: This can be considered an obvious
recommendation, a desktop, which consist of a CRT monitor, consumes the electricity,
which is equal to four bright light on full power. If both the CPU and the monitors are
kept on for 8 hours, it can result in a monthly consumption of 58 kWh of electricity
(Tidrow, Boyce and Shapiro 2017). The aspect can be reduced by turning off the PC
when not in use.
 Monitoring of consumption: There are different type of software, which aim at the
monitoring of the power consumption of the computer. They target at enterprise network
environment for example NightWatchman and Joulex. There is also a social network
called Welectrcity, which is a free online service that helps their member to track and
reduce the electrical consumption at home (Dialameh et al. 2017)
Response comparison
In the aspect of the reduction of reduction of the carbon footprints most of the
classmates have mainly put focus on the consumption of the electricity and how it can be
reduced. In this report, the electricity is taken into consideration but also the monitoring
issue, which is related to it, are also discussed. It can be more beneficial when the electricity
consumption and the monitoring aspect are taken together which can be more beneficial.
Question 3
Part 1

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Building a computer on the production line of identical computers can be considered
as a process. This is due to the factor that labor involvement in the process is small or
restricted to one person (Ranathungage, Fernando and Perera 2017).
Part 2
Building a house as one of the series of identical houses all over Australia can be
considered as a process because it consist of mainly one type of activity.
Part 3
This can be considered as a process. This is mainly due to the factor that up gradation
of windows 7 to windows 10 consist of very small task which is process oriented.
Part 4
Upgrading all the 120 computers can be considered as a project because it would
involve time and involvement of more than one human activity in order to reduce the time
concept. It involves planning on how the project would be started and the work force, which
has to be involved into it (Anand et al. 2017)
Comparison with Classmates
Comparison 1
Most of the classmates considered the up gradation of the computer to windows 10 as
a project. In this context, it can be stated that a project mainly involve more than one activity
but over the concept, it is just one activity, which has to be done. So it should have been
stated as a process rather than project
Comparison 2

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The upgrading concept in most of the cases are stated as a process. In this context, it
can be a process as well as a project as it can be considered as a single task including multiple
activity or in a whole a single activity ignoring the individual activity and taking them as one
process.

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References
Anand, A., Das, S., Aggrawal, D. and Kapur, P.K., 2017. Reliability Analysis for Upgraded
Software with Updates. In Quality, IT and Business Operations (pp. 323-333). Springer,
Singapore.
Dialameh, O., Miller, D., Blanchard, C., Dorcey, T.C. and Sudol, J.M., Nant Holdings IP
LLC, 2017. Augmented Reality Panorama Supporting Visually Impaired Individuals. U.S.
Patent Application 15/353,016.
Gelenbe, E. and Caseau, Y., 2015. The impact of information technology on energy
consumption and carbon emissions. Ubiquity, 2015(June), p.1.
Ranathungage, A., Fernando, N. and Perera, S., 2017. Estimating Whole Life Cycle Carbon
Emissions of Buildings: a literature review.
Tidrow, R., Boyce, J. and Shapiro, J.R., 2017. Getting around the Windows
Desktop. Windows® 10 Anniversary Update Bible, pp.37-66.
Voykinska, V., Azenkot, S., Wu, S. and Leshed, G., 2016, February. How blind people
interact with visual content on social networking services. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM
Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 1584-
1595). ACM.