Professional Year in IT Course: IT Write-up Assignment Analysis

This IT write-up assignment addresses key concepts in IT, focusing on accessibility for users with visual impairments and color blindness, along with strategies for Green ICT and project management. The assignment explores how to enhance software and web applications for blind/visually impaired clients, including screen reader integration and accessible UI elements. It also discusses considerations for color blind users, such as the use of color and symbols. The assignment further delves into Green ICT practices, emphasizing cloud-based document management, server virtualization to reduce carbon footprint, and automated PC management to control energy consumption. Finally, it differentiates between projects and processes through scenarios, highlighting the temporary nature and specific goals of projects versus the repetitive nature of processes. The student compares and contrasts different approaches to these topics, demonstrating an understanding of the course materials and practical applications.

IT Write-up
Professional Year in IT
6/11/2019

IT Write-up
Table of Contents
Answer 1...............................................................................................................................................2
Blind/Visually Impaired Clients........................................................................................................2
Colour Blind......................................................................................................................................2
Comparison.......................................................................................................................................2
Answer 2...............................................................................................................................................2
Comparison.......................................................................................................................................3
Answer 3...............................................................................................................................................3
Scenario 1..........................................................................................................................................3
Scenario 2..........................................................................................................................................3
Scenario 3..........................................................................................................................................3
Scenario 4..........................................................................................................................................4
Comparison.......................................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................5
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IT Write-up
Answer 1
Blind/Visually Impaired Clients
There are functionalities that can be integrated in the software and web applications to
enhance the accessibility for blind/visually impaired clients. There are screen magnifiers that
come with screen reader capabilities that may be used. The use of such features can turn the
on-screen content in to speech with the aid of the Text to Speech engine. Such features are
already integrated in some of the web browsers, such as VoiceOver with Safari (Jain,
Begrajka and Pathak, 2014).
The UI elements shall also have accessible description attached to them so that the screen
readers may describe the element adequately.
Colour Blind
The use of colors as well as symbols shall be done on the screen elements that may require
little or significant user attention. For instance, the Facebook form fields use such an
approach. There shall be use of fewer colors in the design of the web application and the
consistency shall be maintained all throughout. The graphical elements shall be supported
with textual content. For example, the graphs or bar charts shall have the textual display and
description (Zhou and Zhao, 2011).
Comparison
The other classmate highlighted the use of screen readers and speech recognition software for
blind or visually impaired users. The use of contrast sensitivity is also recommended for the
blind/visually impaired; however, that might not be of much use. For the color blind, it is
suggested by the classmate that bad color combinations, such as use of all the dark shades or
the use of all the light shades shall be avoided. It may be helpful for the color blind users.
References
Jain, S., Begrajka, D. and Pathak, S. (2014). HCI Guidelines for Designing Website for
Blinds. International Journal of Computer Applications, 103(11), pp.29-33.
Zhou, X. and Zhao, Q. (2011). Key Technologies of Computer Aided Color Design System
for the Color Blind. Advanced Materials Research, 411, pp.617-621.
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IT Write-up
Answer 2
Green printing is one of the measures that may be adopted to contribute towards Green ICT.
There are cloud-based document management tools, such as Dropbox and Google Drive
available. The same document can be accessed at the same time by multiple users. The
changes in the document shall be made online and the printing of various copies will be
eliminated as a result. The final approved document can be printed and shared with the
concerned parties (Uddin, Okai and Saba, 2017).
There is a lot of carbon footprint generated from the data centres that can be controlled with
the tactful implementation of the technology. Server virtualization shall be done that will
allow the partitioning of one virtual server. There are different applications that may run on
one server and it will result in the reduction of power consumption. The physical space
captured by the servers and the energy released will also be limited and controlled.
In the business organizations, it has been seen that the employees leave their computer
systems on stand-by mode for too long. There are emissions released by such machines. The
use of automated PC management software, such as night watchmen may be done to control
these emissions and shut down the systems after a specific time of inactivity (Suryawanshi
and Narkhede, 2015).
Comparison
The other classmate has discussed the use of cloud computing as the technology for reducing
the carbon emissions and footprint. The virtualization of the computing processes will
eliminate the emissions and the power consumption as well. Another method that is stated is
the use of network analysers that may route the data packets on the best possible route. This
may have limited contribution in terms of the reduction of the carbon footprint. The
discussion on green ICT and computing is not done in detail by the classmate.
References
Suryawanshi, K. and Narkhede, S. (2015). Green ICT for Sustainable Development: A
Higher Education Perspective. Procedia Computer Science, 70, pp.701-707.
Uddin, M., Okai, S. and Saba, T. (2017). Green ICT framework to reduce carbon footprints in
universities. Advances in Energy Research, 5(1), pp.1-12.
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IT Write-up
Answer 3
Scenario 1
The scenario that is described is a process as a defined approach will be followed for the
manufacturing of the computer and a set of general guidelines will be adopted and
implemented to achieve the outcomes (Harvey and Aubry, 2018).
Scenario 2
The building of the house as per the pattern of identical houses in Australia is a process. This
is because the same set of guidelines and norms will be followed to create the house as the
rest of the houses in the series.
Scenario 3
The upgrade is a project as there is a fresh activity being performed and there will be further
upgrades that will happen in the future (Lambert, 2015).
Scenario 4
The scenario describes a process as the upgrade will be done for all of the computers on the
same pattern.
Comparison
One of the students has described all of the scenarios as the project while the response of the
other student is the same as per the classification done above. The difference is because of the
variations in the interpretation of the tasks and the mapping of the properties of the project or
a process to the scenario.
References
Harvey, J. and Aubry, M. (2018). Project and processes: a convenient but simplistic
dichotomy. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 38(6), pp.1289-
1311.
Lambert, L. (2015). Book Review: Project Management: The Managerial Process. Project
Management Journal, 32(4), pp.61-61.
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