Cognitive accessibility to information on the Web: insights from a system for teaching and learning Architecture through the Net

The question of accessibility to the Web takes on a special meaning in educational settings where access to information requires cognitive elaboration of the page contents. It is, therefore, a matter of "cognitive access" to the Web. The main efforts of the designers of Web Based Instruction (WBI) environments to encourage cognitive access are usually aimed at the organisation and presentation of Web documents and at specific cues which can improve the user's interaction, orientation and navigation through the pages. However, it is possible to improve this high-level access to the information by supporting study activities through specific "Working tools" which can be implemented in the Web environment. In this paper we report on the design solutions we have adopted to provide cognitive access to a WBI environment for university students studying Architecture and Town Planning. In particular, we introduce "Working tools" that can be used to support flexible and effective study activities. The adopted design solutions provide different classes of users (not only students) with different access facilities. Finally, it should be noted that the methodologies of the design of WBI systems should deal with this kind of high level access and support it through specific solutions at interface and implementation levels