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Accessibility in Practice: Frequently Asked Questions

This article discusses frequently asked questions about accessibility in practice, including WSU's agreement with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the requirements of the agreement. It also addresses primary accessibility concerns, the difference between accessibility and accommodations, who pays for accessibility, who is responsible for it, disability harassment, the accuracy of automatic captions, and the challenges with PDF accessibility. The article provides possible solutions and strategies for getting faculty on board with accessibility initiatives.

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Accessibility in Practice: Frequently Asked Questions

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  1. Accessibility in Practice: Frequently Asked Questions John Jones Director, Media Resources Center Wichita State University May 14, 2019

  2. WSU’s agreement with the NFB • Agreement: March 14, 2016 • With the National Federation of the Blind • Complaint addressing timely accommodation of on-campus, face-to-face courses

  3. Requirements of the agreement • Train instructors in the requirements of the ADA, the agreement itself, available resources, grievance processes, and the creation of accessible materials. • Adopt or revise and disseminate policies regarding accessibility, accommodations, and related grievances. • Perform an accessibility audit of all digital content, student-facing computer programs, apps used for classes, library resources, computer interfaces, and any student-facing websites.

  4. WSU’s agreement continued • Ensure all inaccessible technologies are accessible by 2020. • Ensure that all instructional materials, co-curricular materials, and online courses used in connection with any WSU course offering are accessible by July 29, 2020. • Provide print textbooks in alternate accessible formats as necessary. • Ensure that WSU’s public website is accessible in accordance with WCAG 2.0 level AA standards.

  5. WSU’s Agreement in Context • Atlantic Coast Community College • WSU • Southern Oregon • (others coming)

  6. Who are we trying to serve?

  7. Primary Accessibility Concerns • Users who can’t see the visuals • Users who can’t hear the audio • Users who can’t control the tools the way we expect them to

  8. What’s the difference between accessibility and accommodations?

  9. Accessibility vs Accommodations • Accommodations are for individuals and are reactive • Accessibility is for populations, and is proactive • Accessibility should make content available to all, in equally effective ways, at the same time. • Accessibility is not typically as specific or demanding as an accommodation

  10. Who pays for all this?

  11. Who Pays? • We’ve already been paid • The financial expense is manageable • Time and effort are the challenge at first, but that fades as processes adapt

  12. Whose job is this?

  13. Whose job is this, really? • This line of resistance is understandable: It’s based on our past working patterns • Accommodations have been provided by dedicated staff • Accessibility is about being open to diversity: Non-discrimination is everyone’s work. • Presenting content that is inherently discriminatory is a major problem we need to avoid

  14. Who needs training?

  15. Who should get training? • Everyone

  16. What is Disability Harrassment?

  17. Disability Harassment? • Unwelcome conduct based on a disability • From students, employees, or visitors • Can take many forms: • Verbal threats or slurs • Physical threats or attacks • Stereotypes

  18. Examples of potential problems • Advising a student not to take a particular course or enter a program on the basis of the student’s disability alone. • Teasing or otherwise marginalizing someone for receiving/using accommodations. • Refusing to grant an accommodation deemed necessary by the Office of Disability Services. • Refusing class-related opportunities on the grounds that accommodations would have to be given. • Allowing other students to engage in harassing behaviors.

  19. Are automatic Captions accurate enough? What is the standard?

  20. Captions and Accuracy • The easy part: WCAG requires captions or transcripts for any time-based media, live or recorded. • The level of accuracy and detail for those captions is less clearly defined. • Caption Service Providers like to quote a percentage that is sufficient, but the FCC standards (which now apply to online video) call for: • Accuracy (no percentage, just accurate) • Punctuation • Identification of speakers.

  21. But Complete Accuracy is a high standard! • Yes. • Errors are inevitable. • That does not mean that we should consider errors acceptable • Choosing a less accurate solution because it’s less expensive puts us at legal risk. • ACS solutions will be acceptable when they are as accurate and full-featured as human captioning, and not until then.

  22. What do we do with PDFs?

  23. The PDF Problem • PDFs can be very accessible, if they’re created properly. • They aren’t. Really. Almost none of them are. • And using the accessibility tools in Adobe Acrobat can be challenging • PDFs have many uses – and the solution depends upon the use case • Possible Solutions (and there aren’t many) • Equally effective alternatives • Taking the time to create the PDF accessibility features

  24. PDF Problem Part 2 • This is a critical “Who’s Work is this” question area • Do you have people on campus whose job it is to help you create documents? • For academic use? • For non-academic use? • Who will review this and ensure compliance? • What are the consequences for not being compliant?

  25. How do you get your faculty on board?

  26. Getting Faculty On Board • This is a major culture change • Perceived as extra work for students who may never exist • Seems very similar to work that has traditionally been done by support staff (accommodations work) • What about my Academic Freedom? (next slide) • Keys to Success • Persistence • Provide resources and training • Build incentives that align with this work • Recognize success

  27. Academic Freedom and Accessibility • Inside Higher Ed: “Defining Academic Freedom” (Dec 21,2010) • What it does do (highlights): • “1. Academic freedom means that both faculty members and students can engage in intellectual debate without fear of censorship or retaliation.” • “11. Academic freedom gives faculty members substantial latitude in deciding how to teach the courses for which they are responsible.” • What it does not do (highlights) • “6. Academic freedom does not give students or faculty the right to ignore college or university regulations, though it does give faculty and students the right to criticize regulations they believe are unfair.”

  28. How do you make document remediation reasonable?

  29. Your Document Remediation Plan • Make it clear that this is everyone’s work • Get people trained • Start now; move forward in an accessible way • Limit your exposure • Recreate, don’t remediate

  30. How do you teach a face-to-face class in an accessible way?

  31. Face-to-Face Accessibility • Evaluate your class for: • Same content, same time access • Present important information in multiple cognitive channels • Avoid forcing students to self-identify • Lay responsible groundwork for future accommodations

  32. How should we get started?

  33. Getting Started • Can vary by institution • Start with your technology (EIT Audit) • Talk to vendors and publishers (request VPAT from everyone) • Train early adopters and field experts • Web accessibility (especially public) is critical • Stop creating inaccessible content and interactions. • Legacy content will continue to be a problem • But you can stop making it worse today.

  34. Who can help us?

  35. Getting Help • You’re (primarily) the people who help in OK • Other places: • AHEAD • IAAP • WebAim and WCAG • And us up north – KSARN.org would love to help you

  36. Questions?

  37. Thank you! John P Jones john.jones@wichita.edu Twitter:radiatinggnome Linkedin: johnpricejones

  38. Resources

  39. Resources – WSU & KSARN • KSARN.org • Free Training • WSU Accessibility Site • Resources Page | Legal Landscape | Accessibility for F2F instruction • WSU Policies • Discrimination Review Procedures for Students, Employees, and Visitors (Policy 3.47) • Students With Disabilities (Policy 8.10) • Accessible Content (Policy 8.11)

  40. WebAimResources • PDF • Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions • Real-time Captioning • Flash • Alternative Text • Tables • Accessibility > Compliance • Cognitive Disabilities Part 1: We Still Know Too Little, and We Do Even Less • Cognitive Disabilities Part 2: Conceptualizing Design Considerations

  41. CSS for All • Aural style sheets • CSS and JavaScript accessibility best practices • WAI-ARIA 1.1

  42. Social Media and Accessibility • Social media for people with a disability (Media Access Australia) • Improving the Accessibility of Social Media in Government • Federal Social Media Accessibility Toolkit Hackpad • Captions and subtitles with Facebook video (3Play Media) • Adding subtitles and closed captioning on Youtube • Adding alt text to images on Twitter

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