September - October 2014
- Details
- Category: Editorial
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 November 2014 14:02
- Written by Stavros
- Hits: 5579
After the standard period of the summer interruption, me and my collaborators are back on line. During last June and July we had the opportunity to exchange some opinions on the possible directions the OAE Portal might take. The Portal this year celebrates 13 years (from June 2001) and as such new insights and future directions are sought out.
The material in the Portal was designed with the Hearing Scientist / Audiologist in mind . The last few years the FORUM space was opened to a greater non-professional public, but only this year we have realized that we need more information for the ordinary non professional people, mainly for families who seek information on hearing deficits and intervention strategies (hearing aids, rehab, cochlear implants, speech therapy approaches etc).
We STILL don't have a definite answer on how to assist this important category of users. Some colleagues of mine have suggested the separation of the material for professional and non-professional users , but this division is very artificial and personally I am against it. The Portal material has to be expanded .. and the task of the Portal user is to find it . Of course we need to make the exposure of non-technical material an easy process not buried in endless menus ... and although this seems very straight-forward .. it is difficult to implement easily. Nevertheless this is going to be our objective for the remaining 2014 and for the whole 2015.
It would be nice to hear your opinion in this issue, since the OAE Portal is a Open Access depository of Knowledge. It would be a great privilege for me and my collaborators to listen what you have to say.
So please drop us a line and tell us what you think about the non-professional entries in the Portal pages.