Some Things My Institution Should Know About Accessibility

Facilitator:

Devon Cancilla

Chief Knowledge Officer
Online Learning Consortium

The online classroom is only one aspect of a larger digital ecosystem that makes up an educational institution. Digital interactions with the institution begin from the moment a potential student starts the search for the perfect school to years after graduation as an alumni. Each interaction along this continuum impacts both the individual and institution and can facilitate a culture of lifelong learning. However, this requires an integrated, inclusive and accessible digital strategy and the mindful development of supporting resources across the student/faculty/staff user experience. For example, an online student needing closed captioned video lectures to succeed in an online class has the same need when viewing a video produced as part of new student orientation explaining how to register for courses. Although there will always be unintended obstacles to student success, working to understand the student experience as broadly as possible and then to develop a holistic approach to student success and accessibility in a digital environment are essential.

Student testimonials describing their experience navigating the digital campus will help set the stage for the day’s discussions. Each of the day’s speakers, through a moderated panel discussion, will have the opportunity to comment on and discuss general concerns raised through the video testimonials and how they might approach addressing these issues on their campus.

Baking In vs. Bolting On: Strategizing Accessibility

Kelly Hermann

Vice President of Accessibility and Disability Strategy
University of Phoenix

There has been increased attention and interest in digital accessibility since the first guidance related to digital products and accessibility hit the press after the Kindle lawsuits in 2010. Institutions were caught off guard and started scrambling to figure out how to ward off the coming onslaught of complaints and requests to make digital activities accessible. Many found themselves asking, “Surely, everything online should just work for students with disabilities, right?” There certainly was more that we didn’t know about accessibility than we did know. And while we have come a long way since then, the ambiguity around what exactly is and isn’t required still causes considerable anxiety and risk management concerns. So, where to start? We will identify the key components of institutional accessibility strategies and share best practices for integrating accessibility throughout the institution from procurement to course design to professional development and accommodating students’ individual needs.

Let’s Get Personal: Individualizing the Online Learning Experience for ALL Learners

Sean Smith

Professor, School of Education
University of Kansas

The promise of online learning often echoes the idea that digital online learning is personalized and offers data informed pathways that are flexible and meet the needs of individual learners. Sounds too good to be true, right? Sadly, many of the current online and blended learning initiatives are not as personalized as one would expect. While focusing on accessibility, many learning and content management platforms are not necessarily designed to address the variability of learners. That is, they are accessible but not adaptable to individual learning. How did this come about? Today, online learning is often seen as an inclusive environment based on its accessibility. Developers and instructors will highlight closed captioned videos and digital text, available for text-to-speech, as features to facilitate access for all learners; yet, the cognitive demands of the curriculum, the design of the content, and similar online elements often present barriers to the learner.

In this session, participants will explore the personalized nature of the online learning experience that extends beyond basic access. Designed for all learners (e.g., English language learners, first generation, struggling learners) we will explore ways to develop and implement learning experiences that align with the essential principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL offer instructors a Framework from which to guide the design, development, and implementation of the online learning experience. Together, we will explore critical elements, available tools/features, and the overall benefits of the UDL Framework to facilitate further online learning experiences for ALL learners.

A primary promise of online learning is that it is designed to be flexible and aligned with the needs of the individual. The idea is that the varied pathways and just-in-time supports are personalizing the learning experience for all learners, particularly those that need additional supports. Furthermore,

• Accessibility and the limitation to accessibility
• Appropriate and available
• UDL is a system to do this…

Clearly technical team members will need retooling for their work in accessibility. Yet these web developers and designers are only the tip of the iceberg. Faculty and staff are content creators for much of the web in education. For example, in online learning it is typically faculty that upload Word and PowerPoint files for their courses. It is often staff that develop and upload student resources or policies as PDFs. It is institutional researchers that share Excel or Stata data files and charts they produced with one another. Simply put, if you do not focus on broad-based professional development, your accessibility initiatives are doomed from the start.

This session will focus on strategies others are using as they implement professional development systems across the enterprise on accessibility. This task has been likened to herding cats. Let’s talk about ways that can lead you to success.

Digital Accessibility and Institutional Improvement. Professional Development is a Key

Cyndi Rowland

Executive Director
WebAIM at Utah State University

Once you have committed to making digital accessibility a reality, there are many things that must occur within your institution. Certainly, you need a policy and implementation roadmap to get started. Of course, you will also need to figure out that pesky procurement issue too. Finally, you will want to monitor your successes and challenges over time. Yet at the core of all of this work to shift, and sustain, web accessibility is getting a workforce who have the skills they need. As such, professional development will be key to your success.

Clearly technical team members will need retooling for their work in accessibility. Yet these web developers and designers are only the tip of the iceberg. Faculty and staff are content creators for much of the web in education. For example, in online learning it is typically faculty that upload Word and PowerPoint files for their courses. It is often staff that develop and upload student resources or policies as PDFs. It is institutional researchers that share Excel or Stata data files and charts they produced with one another. Simply put, if you do not focus on broad-based professional development, your accessibility initiatives are doomed from the start.

This session will focus on strategies others are using as they implement professional development systems across the enterprise on accessibility. This task has been likened to herding cats. Let’s talk about ways that can lead you to success.