SV-PAL provides technical support to help enhance the existing MVHS Internet program. SV-PAL volunteers assembled a group of parents and teachers who share interests in k5 education at Kathryn Hughes School online, and work closely with the Even Start program to encourage family literacy. Listserver Communication Majordomo listservers are maintained by SV-PAL volunteers, to encourage communication and sharing of information, for parents and teachers at Kathryn Hughes and Westwood Elementary Schools, for Adults for Independent Living, for civic organizations such as Your Voices Count, and for ham radio operators who assist the Santa Clara County Office of Emergency Preparedness. The following summarizes the responses of 373 users from questions e-mailed directly to 869 subscribers and their families who were using the network as of January 1, 1997. This group very likely includes users of low-end equipment such as Apple II who simply specified 'Mac' as the computer.
Most common use is to seek government or community information.
They and others who raised questions in their answers have been marked for direct response. Despite the fact that SV-PAL wishes to target those whose disabilities make it more difficult to be online, we do not know from this survey just how many disabled users we are serving, since some who found completing the survey to be arduous are thought not to have responded. Disabilities from quadriplegia to tremors to dyslexia were noted by 7 users, and we know directly from volunteers that several other users are blind or otherwise disabled. A direct follow-up survey of disabled subscribers is planned. Only five wrote, no or little difference.