Accessibility Compliance: One State, Two Approaches Stephanie J. Adams Tennessee Tech University Jennifer Mezick Pellissippi State Community College Corey Halaychik The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Overview Accessibility defined Types of disabilities and accessible design features Laws and lawsuits Task Force formation Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) Libraries Accessibility Task Force activities and plans Accessibility documentation standards University of Tennessee System process, results, and plans

Accessible vs. Accommodation “Accessible means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. The person with a disability must be able to obtain the information as fully, equally and independently as a person without a disability.” -U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR resolutions with South Carolina Technical College System, University of Cincinnati, and Youngstown State) https://dso.dasa.ncsu.edu/what-does-accessible-mean/ “Accommodations are reasonable academic adjustments or auxiliary aids that provide equal access to programs and services on an individual basis.” -Tennessee Tech University Accessibility Initiative https://www.tntech.edu/accessibility/accessibility-vs.-accommodation

Examples of Accessible Design Features Types of Disabilities Accessible Features Visual Auditory Neurological Motor/Mobility Cognitive Speech Alternate text for images Captioning for audio/video Absence of flickering images Full keyboard support for navigation Simple navigation tools and page layouts, conceptual explanations Help or tech support via a variety of methods (not just telephone) WebAIM: Introduction to Web Accessibility: http://webaim.org/intro/ W3C Web Accessibility Initiative: Diversity of Web Users: https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/people-use-web/diversity

Laws Related to Accessibility in Higher Education Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended (in 1998) Title II of the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 Title III of the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 In Tennessee: Senate Bill No. 1692 (signed into law on April 16, 2014) K. Ostergard’s “Accessibility from Scratch” – Table 1 DOI: 10.1080/0361526X.2015.1069777 Implementing Accessibility at UTM: https://www.utm.edu/departments/acadaff/_pdfs/Implementing_Accessibility_at_UTM.pdf

Complaints in Libraries and Higher Education Public Libraries: NOOK eReaders Higher Education: Websites Course management/learning management systems and online learning platforms Kindle DX eReaders Videos without captioning Course registration systems Textbooks and other course materials Technology (including classroom clickers) Gmail and Google Apps Library systems and databases

Legal Action in Higher Education: Library Materials Penn State University (Resolution Agreement) National Federation of the Blind (NFB) filed a complaint regarding inaccessible websites. University of California at Berkeley (Lawsuit settled in 2013) Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) filed lawsuit citing inaccessibility of library materials for students with print-related disabilities University of Montana-Missoula (Resolution Agreement) Investigated by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education for complaints including inaccessible library database materials. Higher Ed Accessibility Lawsuits, Complaints, and Settlements http://www.d.umn.edu/~lcarlson/atteam/lawsuits.html

Tennessee Board of Regents System: Who We Are One of two systems of Tennessee public higher education Largest system of higher education in Tennessee 13 Community Colleges 27 Colleges of Applied Technology TN eCampus (46 partner institutions, 500+ certificates and degrees) Serves 100,000+ students 6 Universities Serve 88,000 students (75,000 undergraduate & 13,000 graduate and professional students) https://www.tbr.edu/

Tennessee Board of Regents Libraries Accessibility Task Force Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) Accessibility Task Force charged TBR and UT with creating policies for accessible IMT (information materials and technologies) TBR Accessibility Task Force formed in Spring 2015 TBR Libraries Accessibility Task Force formed in Spring 2016 Members: interested library staff from any of the TBR and UT schools Purpose: deliver a plan for an accessibility audit of library resources

TBR Libraries Accessibility Task Force: Initial Goals Initial audit of library instructional materials and technology (IMT) Challenges Selecting tools/developing audit rubric (WAVE, WebAIM checklist) Interpreting results Recruiting end-user testers Develop a collaborative process for procurement of AIMT (Accessible IMT) Master list of eResources (divide and conquer approach) Vendor form letter Accessibility document roundup AIMT database contributions

Accessible Product Documentation: Standard Forms Accessibility Statement: statement of commitment to ensuring equal access to all users VPAT: Voluntary Product Accessibility Template WCAG 2.0 Checklist EPUB 3 Accessibility Checklist

Standard Compliance Forms: Accessibility Statement ProQuest Academic Accessibility Statement http://support.proquest.com/articleviewpdf?id=kA140000000GuuQCAS&l=en_US

VPAT: Voluntary Product Accessibility Template Developed by ITI (Information Technology Industry Council) and the GSA (U.S. General Services Administration) Provides information on how EIT conforms to the Section 508 Accessibility Standards Form is to be completed by vendors or publishers Template available at: http://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/ LUA (Libraries for Universal Access) maintains a VPAT Repository at: http://uniaccessig.org/lua/vpat-repository/

Standard Compliance Forms: VPAT

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 2.0 – Levels A through AAA Key Principles Perceivable: Information must be presented in a manner that users can perceive (Example: captions for audio) Operable: User must be able to navigate and operate the interface (Example: Keyboard shortcuts in place of using the mouse) Understandable: User must be able to understand how to use the interface (Example: Consistent navigation on each page) Robust: Content must be able to be interpreted by assistive technology (Example: Markup language contains start and end tags for screen readers) WC3: Web Accessibility Initiative https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/

Standard Compliance Forms: WCAG 2.0 Checklist Blank checklist used by TBR available at: https://www.tbr.edu/sites/tbr.edu/files/media/2016/02/WCAG2.0-Checklist_0.doc

Standard Compliance Forms: EPUB 3 Checklist EPUB 3 Accessibility Guidelines: Accessibility QA Checklist http://www.idpf.org/accessibility/guidelines/content/qa/qa-checklist.php

Accessible Product Documentation: Additional TBR Forms Conformance and Remediation Form: identifies accessibility issues/gaps and indicates a timeline for conformance Alternate Access Plan: describes the process for accessing AIMT when it does not conform to accepted accessibility guidelines (for example: WCAG 2.0 Level AA)

Additional TBR Forms: Conformance and Remediation Form Blank forms available at: https://www.tbr.edu/sites/tbr.edu/files/media/2016/02/Conformance%20and%20Remediation%20Form.docx

Additional TBR Forms: Alternate Access Plan Blank forms available at: https://www.tbr.edu/sites/tbr.edu/files/media/2016/02/Alternate%20Access%20Plan_1.doc

Additional TBR Forms: Alternate Access Plan

Task Force Activities: Document Collection Vendor Form Letter Created by the TBR Libraries Accessibility Task Force.

Task Force Activities: AIMT database https://aimt.tbr.edu/

Task Force Activities: Audit Checklist created by Brittany Richardson and Sandra Wilford at Chattanooga State Community College and Livy Simpson at Volunteer State Community College.

TBR Task Force: Moving Forward Finalize audit checklist Audit a sampling of databases Continue to gather and share documents Work with TBR to improve AIMT database format & features Develop and share Alternate Access Plans Follow-up on Conformance and Remediation Form timelines

TBR Licensing Language Service and Software Accessibility Standards. The Contractor warrants and represents that the service and software, including any updates, provided to the Institution will meet the accessibility standards set forth in WCAG 2.0 AA (also known as ISO standard, ISO/IEC 40500:2012) and will be compliant with Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with exceptions, if applicable. Copies of Contractor’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (“VPATs”) for the various products and other accessibility information are available at URL.”

University of Tennessee: Who We Are Public university system 4 Campuses (Chattanooga, Knoxville, Martin, & Memphis) 3 Institutes (Agriculture-Veterinary, Public Service, & Space) 1 Medical library (UT Medical Center) Serves 49,000 students (38,000 undergraduate & 11,000 graduate) http://tennessee.edu/

University of Tennessee: Status UT Schools TBR Schools

University of Tennessee: Process Libraries have been largely absent No combined effort System Office of General Counsel System Procurement Office Campus task forces Libraries (internal & external) Limited proactivity No documentation, auditing, or testing

University of Tennessee: Language

University of Tennessee: Results Lengthy drafting process No standard language at outset Vendors apprehensive Walked away from a couple of purchases Newer agreements contain some form of the language Older agreements still need to be amended No proof of compliance collected

University of Tennessee: Moving Forward System Supplied language but otherwise not involved Campuses Have task forces looking at all accessibility issues Libraries Electronic Resources Group is identifying ways we can work together to: Audit for compliance Compile documentation Modify language to include clauses for remedies, protections, and reporting

Additional Resources Recommendations of the [Tennessee] Higher Education Accessibility Task Force https://www.tbr.edu/sites/tbr.edu/files/media/2015/08/Accessibility%20Task%2 0Force%20Recs-Final.pdf TBR Libraries: Accessibility Audit Plan (as of April 2016) http://www.tbr.edu/sites/tbr.edu/files/media/2016/05/AccessibilityAuditPlanTB RLibraries_2016apr26.docx Tennessee Board of Regents: Accessibility Initiative https://www.tbr.edu/academics/accessibility-initiative

Questions? Tennessee Board of Regents System Stephanie J. Adams Tennessee Tech University sjadams@tntech.edu Jennifer Mezick Pellissippi State Community College jamezick@pstcc.edu University of Tennessee System Corey Halaychik The University of Tennessee, Knoxville chalaych@utk.edu