CHECK 2010 Technical Views Online Accessibility CHECK 2010 Technical Views Online Accessibility: It's not what you know, it's who you know! Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson Disability/ Technology Specialist Kansas State University

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Outline Accessibility Awareness Media / Content Awareness Who authored your content? Who do you know? Where do you look? Case Study The Easy Way Out

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Accessibility Awareness Who are your students? Be prepared for what is most likely to be needed. 1 in 9 students has a disability. How committed is your institution? What are your policies. It's the law.

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Media / Content Awareness Forms of Content: Text (.html versus.docx) Audio Visual / Psuedotext Timed Styles, Organization (pull down menu) Video length Chat boards White boards Video Conferencing

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who authored your content? Faculty Designers Students Graduate Assistants Student Workers Classroom Students PUBLISHERS!

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who do you know? What offices on your campus should be involved in making material accessible? What are the politics of your campus? Do you have loose connections or strong connections between offices and IT departments? Systems that work well often have a team: disability specialist, instructional designer, webmaster, faculty, and distance education coordinator. Create a resource list; think outside the box...

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who do you know? Disability Support Make the first contact before something comes up. Contact them before they contact you. Pick a point person for accessibility and have them meet with DS regularly. Perhaps DS has a point person to work with technology!

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who do you know? Faculty Share ideas with faculty on creating content that is more easily adaptable. Make sure that you work with them on understanding their goals for teaching. Know how they feel about copyright. A fully locked down PDF is not accessible, but you can meet them half way with 40-bit encryption instead of 128. Keep them in the loop; remember, it is their class.

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who do you know? Coordinators Does your campus have coordinators who work with faculty to put content online? Do the faculty members you work with have other folks working on their courses? Do you have a department who works with distance education? Is your school part of any consortiums? GP IDEA AG IDEA

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who do you know? Instructional Designers What office works most with your LMS? Who help faculty design their courses and content? These people often balance a wealth of information on both technical aspects of your LMS and educational pedagogy. These professionals live between content ideation and content application.

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who do you know? LMS contact Who knows most about your LMS? Do they know the limits of accessibility? Has anyone called IT at the LMS and talked with them? Take NO simple answers from the LMS representatives.

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who do you know? Testing Center Make sure you know how online students take their tests. Many online students are also local and they may look to the university for a proctor. If you have a testing center, learn about their responsibilities and how students are served. What technology will be available to students?

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who do you know? Printing Services! Course packs Talk with them about capabilities of scanning and running Optical Character Recognition. Can they make a file that is: Searchable? With REAL text?

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who do you know? Advisors! Have you ever been overwhelmed with having to do transcripts two weeks prior to the semester? Learn about programs with the highest enrollment and most complicated technology. Create a plan of action that outlines the steps to take if modifications are needed for an entire program. Keep in mind: ALL STUDENTS CHANGE THEIR MINDS!

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Who do you know? STUDENTS As professionals, we often think of other professionals to help us problem solve. We often think to ask the student last. Find out what technology the student is using. Just because something can be made accessible does not mean that the student will be able to use it; they may use a different system or technology. Talk with Disability Support and work with them on which questions they need to ask the student.

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Where do you look? Listservs ATHEN ( Access Technology Higher Education Network ) Professional Associations RSS/ Blogs Eric Myer W3C WebAim 456 Berea Street EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information)

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Where do you look? 2 Podcasts EASI Conference Podcast It's about People, Not Technology Access Tech Online Training EASI DCCOL: Disability Compliance in Career and Online Learning

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 Case Study A college student with a two year associates degree transfers to your school two weeks before the fall semester. She signs up for college algebra online. She is blind. Disability Support Services calls you for help. Who do you call?

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson 2010 The Easy Way Out There is none. Thinking about a text only site? Text a friend and find some help. HTML 5 and CSS – like duct tape in a rainstorm. Flash – It can be made accessible with keystrokes. But it will take MUCH work. Retrofitting requires the most work; make an accessibility check part of your pre-design process.

Online Accessibility Online Accessibility: It's not what you know, it's who you know! K-State.edu/dss/check2010.rtf Thank you. Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson Disability Support Services Kansas State University