Collaborating toward Better IT Accessibility (236682483)

8/11/2019 Collaborating toward Better IT Accessibility (236682483)

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Collaborating Toward Better

IT Accessibility

Kara Zirkle, IT Accessibility

CoordinatorAssistive Technology Initiative Office



Roles and Responsibilities

Roles

• CIO

• Deans and Directors

•Managers

• Developers

• Content Managers

• Instructional Designers

•Library

• Admin Staff

• Teaching Faculty

Responsibilities

• What “tools” do you

have in your tool belt

that help buildaccessibility into

responsibilities you may

already have?



Areas of Accessibility in Higher

Education

• Web Compliance – Ex: NC State Global Accessibility Awareness Day Website

Challenge

• Policy – Ex: Example policies in higher education

• Procurement – Ex: George Mason University Procurement – ASC Review

Board

• Training/Awareness – Ex: University of Wisconsin-Madison Web Accessibility 101

• Buy-In – Ex: Are you the next example?

http://accessibility.oit.ncsu.edu/blog/2014/04/14/2014-nc-state-global-accessibility-awareness-day-website-challenge/


http://www.washington.edu/accessibility/requirements/example-policies/

http://ati.gmu.edu/policies_procedures.cfm





http://www.doit.wisc.edu/outside-cms/accessibility/online-course/index.htm









http://www.washington.edu/accessibility/requirements/example-policies/





Web Compliance

• Accessibility of

websites

• Content

• Documents

• Videos

• Applications

• E-learning



Policy

Do you sign off onpolicy?

Do you help writepolicy?

What current policiesapply to you?





Training and Awareness

If you’d askcoworkers what

accessibilitymeant, how

many differentanswers would

you hear?

When we shareknowledge – we

can all have abetter

understanding

of accessibility.

What doesaccessibility

mean to

you?



Buy-In

H

i g h L e v e l S u

p p o r t

Communication

ConsistentLanguage

AccessibilitySupport



Scenario

• Allegations:

Inaccessibility of Web

content and services

(class assignments, livechat and discussion

board, videos without

captions, and an

inaccessible registrationsystem)

• Issues:Students were

frustrated by lack of

progress after 5 years,

the impact of these

accessibility barriers on

their learning &

resulting delays ingraduation.



Lessons Learned?

• Identify barriers and prepare plans before

EIT adoption.

• Accessibility can’t be automated – effective

accessibility solutions require human judgment and involvement.

• Staff/faculty need training and services to

select, author, and deliver content.





Is this something that could really

happen?

• In May 2012, theAlliance for Disabilityand Students at theUniversity of Montana

filed a complaint withthe U.S. Department ofEducation’s Office forCivil Rights, citingvarious problems of

accessibility oncampus for studentswith disabilities.

• The Universitysubmitted a resolutionagreement to the OCRin March 2014 which

confirms the problemsit needs to furtheraddress. Part of theUniversity’s resolutionagreement is a self-

study examining howaccessible onlinematerial is to studentswith disabilities.



Any Volunteers?

• Name off 3

responsibilities you

have within yourrole.

• Identify where

accessibility might

fall into theseresponsibilities.



Thank you for attending!

• Kara Zirkle, IT Accessibility Coordinator

Assistive Technology Initiative Office

George Mason University• Email: [email protected]

• Web: http://ati.gmu.edu

• Twitter: @AccessibleMason

mailto:[email protected]

http://ati.gmu.edu/

http://ati.gmu.edu/

mailto:[email protected]