Media Accessibility Project February School of Professional Studies

Thanks to Christopher Leydon and SPS The CUNY Assistive Technology team CATSweb.edu

What are the issues as we understand them? Video and audio content is not always accessible to SWD More courses are incorporating audio-video content CUNY has vastly increased on-line course offerings Future of higher ed has more content is moving online

I never think of the future - it comes soon enough. Albert Einstein

The future has arrived As Universities nationwide adapt to rapidly changing models of course and content delivery, students with disabilities are encountering new opportunities and new barriers. Since 2001, with major investments from the Sloan Foundation, a CUNY- wide commitment to online courses has led to rapid growth in the number of courses that are offered either fully or partially online throughout CUNY. Fully online Bachelor’s, Master’s and Certificate programs are now offered by the CUNY School of Professional Studies. CUNY online courses and programs rely on learning management systems (i.e. Blackboard) and use audio and/or video (a/v) content and instructional materials.

Since 2009, more than $600, has been invested into this effort by CUNY. “In December 2009, responding to the Chancellor's call for the expansion of hybrid (partly online, partly in-class) instruction at CUNY, the central Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) issued a request for proposals (RFP) to ready significant numbers of hybrid courses” ridinitiative.html ridinitiative.html

Blackboard, CUNY’s online learning management system “CUNY has reached a point where over half of all its degree students are users of its online course management system,” tion.html tion.html

Top LMS in education space Blackboard Moodle Desire2Learn

Long standing situation with much inaccessible content This issue has been percolating for many years. IT and Instructional design staff are not charged or versed with accessibility issues or strategies. AT are not LMS or ID savvy and must respond after the creation of content.

Universal Design Key Ideas: Drawing from brain research and using new media, the UDL framework proposes that educators strive for three kinds of flexibility: To represent information in multiple formats and media. To provide multiple pathways for students action and expression. To provide multiple ways to engage students interest and motivation.

Universal Design The three UDL principles, implemented with new media, can help us improve how we set goals, individualize instruction, and assess students progress.

So who is responsible for captioning?

We all should be captioning: Content creators: Faculty?, Distance Learning / Instructional Technologists, Marketing Tech Center, College/University/Disability Services QCC SSD created several in-house videos and we captioned them Ideally, the entire system should incorporate principles of Universal Design

Legal requirements: The Americans with Disabilities Act, covers federal, state, and local jurisdictions. It applies to a range of domains, including employment, public entities, telecommunications, and places of public accommodation. This act ensures equal access to those with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008 broadened the definition of disability, meaning those with a vast array of cognitive, psychological and physical disabilities are now covered by the ADA. Title III of ADA mandates online accommodation

Legal requirements: All federally funded institutions must comply with Section 504 and 508 Section 508 is part of the Rehabilitation Act and requires that all federal electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities, including employees and the general public.

Legal requirements: Section 504, also of the Rehabilitation Act, entitles people with disabilities equal access to any program or activity that receives federal subsidy. Web- based communications for educational institutions and government agencies are covered by this as well.

Legal Precedents National Association of the Deaf and Netflix has broadened the concept of a “place of public accommodation.” A precedent has been set that could have implications for online video interfaces, particularly for education or enterprise organizations. It is worth noting that states, such as California, have enacted legislation mirroring Section 504 and 508.

Legal Precedents Netflix Inc. has reached an agreement (in 2012)with the National Association of the Deaf to ensure that all movies and television shows it streams on the Internet will be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired within two years.

Legal Precedents In 2013 The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) filed a lawsuit against the University of Maryland College Park over the university’s long-standing and continuing failure to provide captioning of announcements and commentary made over the public address systems during athletic events at Byrd Stadium and the Comcast Center. The lawsuit asks the court to order that captioning be provided as required under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.

Legal Precedents During the past five years inaccessible Information Technology (IT) has increasingly impacted higher education. Louisiana Tech, South Carolina Technical College System, University of Montana, Florida State University, Northwestern University, New York University, Penn State University, Law School Admissions Council, Arizona State, Princeton, Reed, Pace, Darden School of Business, and Case Western have all faced litigation for inaccessible Web content and technologies.

Leading Universities have moved to address these concerns and have in-house captioning services Penn State Boston College Gallaudet University California State University Georgia Tech Oklahoma State University George Mason University Harvard School of Public Health

CUNY needs to catch up March a task force will meet to discuss how CUNY web accessibility issues. Members include CUNY IT, Legal, CATS, IT VP’s, others.

What is the Media Accessibility Project?

Funded by COSDI as a Special Project ie: CATS, LD Project Charged with addressing accessibility of audio-video course content Not a CART service Definitely not a replacement of the CSI Multi-Media Project

Media Accessibility Project production support education

What does MAP propose to do? Stage I: Provide an audio and video captioning service to provide timely a/v captioning for use by deaf and hard of hearing students;

What does MAP propose to do? Stage II: Provide captions and transcripts of a/v materials for use by students with learning disabilities;

What does MAP propose to do? Stage III: Provide audio description for videos for use by visually impaired students;

What does MAP propose to do? Stage I: Provide training to campus DS/AT staff and other relevant parties on best practices in this area

What does MAP propose to do? Stage I: Develop an on-line archive of resources for dissemination and campus support.

What does MAP propose to do? Stage I: Increase awareness across CUNY on this issue and promote solutions and services

Media Accessibility Project production

Production MAP will caption your videos Create transcripts Move into audio description

Media Accessibility Project support

Support Train you Provide software and tech support Serve as a resource of information and tools

Media Accessibility Project education

Education Measure the actual need Raise awareness across CUNY Meet with anyone interested in this area to craft strategies

Policies and Protocols

Policies and Guidelines Usage permissions – Fair use only. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Policies and Guidelines Make sure you have rights to use video Check your resources first!! i.e. library, alternate video sources DVD, etc

Protocols For DS/AT staff; don’t tell your Faculty to call us, you call us. Requests for service: call or Delivery and pick-up: MAP will be providing online Dropbox space Turn around: 3 work days after delivery (average)

Media Accessibility Project Survey Do any of your current students require captioning services? Have you ever needed to caption videos for any of your students? Did you caption only for deaf or hard of hearing students?

Media Accessibility Project Survey Have you considered providing transcripts for students with learning disabilities? Have you ever provided audio descriptions for blind or low vision students?

Media Accessibility Project Survey How did you obtain the captioning? What content did you need to have captioned? How quickly was the material captioned? Were you satisfied with the final product of the captioned materials? If not, why not? How much did you pay to caption the materials? If not, why not?

Media Accessibility Project Survey Does any of your staff know how to caption videos? Does your campus instructional design or academic computing department caption videos? Do you anticipate any need in the coming semester for captioning?

Online Training on Blackboard

Training on Blackboard