Concurrent Development of EIT Accessibility Programs at Four Colleges in Western Massachusetts

1. Concurrent Development of EIT Accessibility Programs at Four Colleges in Western Massachusetts Accessing Higher Ground Conference November 18, 2016 Rob Eveleigh Five College EIT Accessibility Coordinator

2. Today’s Agenda • Five College Consortium & Position • EIT Accessibility Environmental Scan and Questionnaire • Programs, Committees, and Subcommittees • Some Lessons Learned

3. Today’s Handouts *Handout #1EIT Accessibility Questionnaire (blank sample) *Handout #2Vendor/Bidder EIT Accessibility Questions *Handout #3EIT Accessibility Roadmap(blank sample) *Handout #4EIT Accessibility Committee Charge(sample)

4. Lawyer

5. Five College Consortium • established in 1965 (50 years!) • four private, liberal arts colleges and the Amherst campus of the state university • Amherst College • Hampshire College • Mount Holyoke College • Smith College • UMass Amherst

6. Five College Consortium • Shared use of resources/facilities: • open cross registration • departments and programs • library system • inter-campus transportation

7. Five College Consortium2014-15 • Cross-registered courses: 5,204 • Professors teaching on multiple campuses: 81 • Certificate programs: 16 • Graduates from both Five College majors: 35

8. Five College Consortium2014-15 • Rides on Five College bus routes: 1,001,883 • Campus investments in collaboration: $9 million • Collective return on investment: $40 million

9. Five College Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Coordinator • “Four College” position • Amherst CollegeAmherst, MA • Hampshire CollegeAmherst, MA • Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA • Smith College Northampton, MA

10. Five College Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Coordinator • New position posted June 2015 • Position filled September 2015 • Partiallygrant-funded for three years by the Davis Educational Foundation

11. Four College EIT Accessibility Questionnaire and Environmental Scan • Data gathering methods • Interviews • Attendance at Standing Meetings • Questionnaire

12. 1. Interviews • Chief Information Officers • IT Directors • Instructional Technologists • IT Specialists • Disability/Accessibility Services Directors/Managers/Coordinators • 504 Coordinators • Librarians • General Counsel • Director of Compliance and Risk Management

13. 2. Attendance at Standing Meetings • Academic/Educational Technology Services • Administrative Technology • IT Accessibility • IT All Staff • Moodle/LMS • Research & Instructional Librarians • Software Cross Functional Task Force

14. 2. Attendance at Standing Meetings (cont.) • Five College Technology Access • Five College ADA Task Force • Five College Library Resource Management • Five College Library Discovery

15. 3. EIT A11y Questionnaire*handout #1 (blank) • IT Accessibility Policy • IT Accessibility Program • Course/Learning Management Systems • Classrooms, Learning Spaces, and Computer Labs • Procurement • Library • IT Accessibility Audit • Additional Questions

16. Campus EIT Accessibility Programs and Committees • Tech Access Committee • Tech Access Committee • IT Accessibility Working Group • IT Accessibility Task Force

17. Source: CSUN Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, Los Angeles, California, March 21, 2007

18. Campus EIT Accessibility Subcommittees • Accessible Instructional Materials • Procurement of Accessible EIT Products & Services • Web Accessibility

19. Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) Subcommittee • MOOC (& existing guidance docs) • Kurzweil 3000 – campus-wide, consortia rate • 3Play Media captioning – consortia rate • Shared repository of AIM (just lists!)

20. Procurement of Accessible EIT Products & Services Subcommittee • Identify procurement workflows • Who receives purchase requests? • Who signs contracts? • Enterprise service acquisition? • Created vendor questionnaire*handout #2 (blank) • Proposed budget for testing

21. Web Accessibility Subcommittee • Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool • Developed Open-source Web app at Hampshire College • Utilizes WebAIM WAVE API • https://github.com/hampshirecollege • Identify, scan, and remedy “Top 100 URLs” (highest impact pages)

23. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List Number 10 Consider conducting a contractinventory (identify upcoming contract renewals that will need to have accessibility addressed).

24. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List Number 9 Continue to press for national sharing of vendor accessibility testing results.

25. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List Number 8 Prioritize the future. Focus accessibility evaluations on procurement of high-impact accessible EIT products and services.

26. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List Number 7 Evaluate how EIT Accessibility overlaps/interfaces with campus Strategic Plans.

27. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List Number 6 Generate and utilize an EIT Accessibility Roadmap with a partner Priorities document.*handout #3 (blank)

28. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List Number 5 Develop resources and staff allocation. Document resource needs for implementation of growing EIT Accessibility Programs. [Growing EIT Accessibility rate = expertise x labor]Geitar = E x L

29. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List Number 4 Address if/how EIT Accessibility is represented on IT Organizational Chart.

30. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List Number 3 Present a Charge for a Campus Technology Access Committee to be approved by the highest level of the campus (President or President’s Cabinet/Officers).*handout #4 (sample)

31. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List Number 2 Generate, approve, and disseminate an IT Accessibility Policy.

32. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List Number 1 Both executive sponsorship andengagement are critical.

33. “1) You cannot develop and implement a university-wide plan without executive sponsorship.” - John Harwood, Associate Vice Provost for Information Technology, Penn State University [Slide, “Lessons Learned”, from John Harwood’s Educause presentation November 7, 2012.]

34. “...the greatest success factor at Temple was having the CIO be a strong leader on the effort.” - Paul Paire, Executive Director of Special Projects, Temple University [“Building University-Wide IT Accessibility,” CampusTechnology, March 18, 2015, http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2015/03/18/Building-University-Wide-IT-Accessibility]

35. “1) Must have executive buy-in. The higher level your support, the better your chance of success.” - Jill Sieben-Schneider, Assistant Director of Disability Services - Mark Werner, Associate Director of Academic Technology - John Meister, Director of Disability Services - Paul O’Brian, OIT Supervisor [Slide, “Lessons Learned: How the University of Colorado Boulder is Addressing Digital Accessibility”, AHEAD Conference June 2015.]

36. Some Lessons LearnedTop Ten List • Executive Sponsorship and Engagement • IT Accessibility Policy • Charge for a Campus Tech Access Committee • IT Organizational Chart includes EIT A11y • Develop Resources and Staff (ongoing budget requests) • EIT A11y Roadmap with a partner Priorities Document • Evaluate Strategic Plans for EIT A11y Opportunities • Prioritize the Future • National Sharing of Vendor EIT A11y Testing Results? • Conduct a Contract Inventory

37. Thanks! Questions? Rob Eveleigh Five College EIT Accessibility Coordinator reveleig@mtholyoke.edu