NINCHY.ORG-+Website+Review

The website [|http://www.nichcy.org]  was created to educate our society by offering a wealth of information on disabilities. NICHCY stands for the //National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities.// The site focuses on collaboration by providing a central source of resources for families, schools, and administrators, as well as state agencies. In specific, NICHCY provides resources such as research based information and articles that educate society on disabilities. Also, the website provides information regarding laws supporting disabilities such as information on IDEA, No Child Left Behind, and Section 504. This website offers links to other sites, publications, informative disability and special education news articles, as well as information on Special Education & Disability Terms. The homepage provides information to help support parents in caring for their child with a disability, as well as information regarding how to help children with disabilities achieve their full potential. **Authority** It is very clear that the site was developed by the Academy for Educational Department. All contact information such as email address, address, phone number, and fax number is clearly provided. However, a single author is not stated. The site states that AED is a nonprofit organization working globally to improve education, health, civil society and economic development. There is a link to the Academy for Educational Department that clearly states who they are. The site does not provide information regarding specific authors due to fact that the site was developed by several people who work within AED. **Purpose ** The main purpose for this website is to provide a free resource for our society in which educates people on disabilities. The domain name of the site does not indicate its purpose. However, once you get to the site the website name is clearly revealed. The website is very well organized into categories. All of the links are related to the site, however they are not evaluated. Since the website is so in depth the audience includes professionals, parents, general readers, and scholars. ** Coverage ** The website was very comprehensive in regards to disabilities and the needs of disabled people. The first reason the website was comprehensive was because one part of the website is geared towards educating families and communities in regards to understanding the laws, finding services for children and youth, and connecting with research. The second reason the website was comprehensive was that the site is also geared towards early intervention providers in which they can find information regarding family-centered care and professional development. The third reason the website was comprehensive was because it provided information for schools and administrators regarding research in education and specifics of IDEA. The fourth reason the website was comprehensive was because the site provides information for state agencies regarding leadership and change, as well as developing great staff, and data management. All four topics, families, early intervention, school and administrators, and state agencies, are explored in depth due to amount of information provided on the site. The website provides its own links to information. ** Currency ** There are not any dates in regards to when the website was published or last revised. However, the site does have internal links that link to relevant information such as “Hot Issues” and current research in education. Some of the information is timeless, however since our society is consistently becoming more educated about disabilities as a whole I suspect that the website will continue to grow. This website is fully developed with relevant information. ** Objectivity ** The information provided without a particular bias. At the bottom of the website the site does try to persuade its readers to join their social groups on Facebook, and Twitter. However, there are not any advertisements that are distracting to the information on the website. ** Accuracy ** The information provided on the site and the resources were reliable. The information on the website supports current definitions of IDEA, NCLB, Section 504 as well as definitions and acronyms regarding disabilities. The text follows the basic grammar rules such as spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. A reference list is not included on this site. **Design and Navigability** The website has the site name as a header for each page. Each header is clearly stated, therefore the site is very easy to navigate. On each of the five main pages, the information is clearly labeled and broken down into headings and subheadings. The design of the website was very professional due to the font used, color choices, and use of space. This site was very user-friendly in regards to design and navigability. ** Recommendation ** I would recommend this site to parents, teachers, and state agencies who are interested in learning about disabilities, current research, early interventions, news, and laws related to disabilities. This is a perfect resource for teachers due to the amount of professional development and researched based articles. I plan to share this website with my coworkers as well as the parents in my class who have children with a disability. It is such a great website due to the extensive amount of information and easy navigability. I can’t wait to share this website with my peers.
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