Documents in the Classroom A Strategy to Support Accessible Course Material

Presenter Jeff Buhse Assistive Technologist Student Accessibility Services University of Manitoba Jeff.buhse@umanitoba.ca

What To Expect Today U of M Institutional Overview Policy and Legislation What have we done and what worked? Questions

University of Manitoba Western Canada’s first university, founded 140 years ago ~30,000 students (full-time, part-time, distance) ~8,900 faculty and staff http://umanitoba.ca/about/

Student Accessibility Services (SAS) Provides support and advocacy for students with disabilities on campus 2016/2017 data (yet to be published): 1311 registered students Over 6400 scheduled tests/exams 8 full-time staff, over 100 casual/part-time staff Supports 3 separate campuses and satellite offices http://umanitoba.ca/student/saa/accessibility/about-us.html

Alternate Format Production 2016-2017 numbers – PDF, .doc, .txt, Braille Alt Format Tests – 519 Alt Format Textbooks – 491 (for 74 different students) Alt Format Documents – ~2000 pages Video/Audio Transcription – 99 requests, 3369 total minutes

Alternate Format Increases Changes in the previous 5 years Test requests increased over 500% (97 – 519) Textbook requests increased over 1300% (37 – 491) Document requests have remained similar (no detailed stats prior to 2015) Transcription requests since 2013 increased from 39 -99 requests, 679 minutes – 3369 minutes (detailed stats were not kept prior to 2013) The need to get instructors to do things on their own has increased tremendously!

Why have we seen so much growth? The Cooper Commission The Accessibility for Manitoban’s Act Educate, Educate, Educate

The Cooper Commission Recommend how to balance the University’s legal obligation to offer reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities while protecting academic standards Types of accommodations How decisions made, who must be consulted Evidence of disability Timely decisions Protect privacy

Accessibility for Manitoban’s Act Made Law, December, 2013 5 Standards Customer Service Employment Information & Communication Transportation Built Environment Required the U of M to create an Accessibility Plan, created with departmental Accessibility Audits

“7th Inning Stretch!” Take a moment to stretch Ask your neighbour what their favourite alternate format is?

How we used to educate the university community Documents on our website Courses educating faculty One-on-one training as requested NOT EFFECTIVE OR EFFICIENT Relied on “keeners”

How we educate the university community NOW Much of the same educational opportunities Since the Accessibility Audits most departments come to me directly No longer relying on people to “do the right thing” Way more need and curiosity by faculty Created much more detailed documents online Created a grading rubric for documents – “speak their language”

What was most effective? Faculty feared the legislation Speaking their language, faculty hated not receiving an “A” for their documents This opened the conversation of how to utilize accessible documents for more than accessibility (efficiency and consistency) *Right now they still have time before it is legislated so focus on new documents only, makes the job seem smaller

Thank you (thank you)