1. Digital Accessibility and Compliance
Building LEA Capacity
December 13, 2016
Alise Crossland and Devon Wellington
American Institutes for Research

2. About the Center on Technology & Disability
The Center on Technology and Disability (CTD) is a user-centered learning and technical assistance center designed to increase the capacity of families, school systems, technical assistance providers, SEA and LEA leaders, and other key stakeholders to understand, assess, acquire, and implement appropriate assistive and instructional technology strategies and tools. CTD is administered by FHI 360, American Institutes for Research, PACER Center, and Adirondack Accessibility and funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education.

3. Accessibility Overview
What do we mean when we’re talking about accessibility?

4. What Do We Mean When We Talk About Accessibility?
Equal access and equal opportunity to access content, programs, resources, learning platforms
Born accessible
Digital is not always accessible
Students and parents

5. Everyone is Responsible for Accessibility
Commitment, vision, and leadership is critical
Accessibility considerations must be a priority at all levels
SCHOOL
DISTRICT
INSTITUTION
AGENCY
BOARD
TEACHERS/
PROFESSORS
WEB DEVELOPERS
CONTENT CREATORS
TECH COORDINATORS
ADMINISTRATORS

6. Why Do We Care About Accessibility?
Seven states:
Alaska (Juneau)
Guam Dept of Ed
Montana (School for Deaf and Blind)
New Mexico (Santa Fe)
Nevada (Washoe County, Davidson Academy, Dept of Ed)
Oregon Dept of Ed
Utah (Granite School District)
Washington (Bellingham School District, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction)

7. OCR Review & Approval
The 11 education groups voluntarily committed to make their websites accessible through a range of actions, including:
COMMIT
CONDUCT A THOROUGH AUDIT
DEVELOP CORRECTIVE ACTION PLAN
ADOPT POLICIES & PROCEDURES
MAKE WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBLE
POST INFORMATION ABOUT ACCESS
PROVIDE TRAINING
SELECT AN AUDITOR
The 11 education groups voluntarily committed to make their websites accessible through a range of actions, including:
Affirming their commitment to ensuring that people with disabilities have opportunities equal to those of others to enjoy the recipients’ programs, services, and activities, including those delivered online;
Selecting an auditor who has the requisite knowledge and experience to audit content and functionality and identify barriers to access on the existing website for people with disabilities;
Conducting a thorough audit of existing online content and functionality;
Adopting policies and procedures to ensure that all new, newly added or modified online content and functionality will be accessible to people with disabilities;
Making all new website content and functionality accessible to people with disabilities;
Developing a corrective action plan to prioritize the removal of online barriers;
Posting a notice to persons with disabilities about how to request access to online information or functionality that is currently inaccessible; and
Providing website accessibility training to all appropriate personnel.

8. Definition of Accessible Content
Content that people with disabilities can navigate, perceive, understand and interact with
Content that considers physical, visual, speech, auditory, neurological, and cognitive disabilities

9. Potential Barriers for Your Users
Disability
Examples
Potential Barriers
Auditory
Hard of hearing
Deafness
Deaf-blindness
Audio content that lacks captions or transcript
Audio content that lacks the ability to control volume
Vison
Low-vision
Blindness
Color blindness
Color used as the sole means of conveying information
Images and charts that lack meaningful text alternatives (alt text)
Lack of clear and consistent navigational structure
Site does not allow full keyboard navigation
Images or text that cannot be resized

10. Potential Barriers for Your Users
Disability
Examples
Potential Barriers
Cognitive and Neurological
Seizure disorders
Learning disabilities
Autism spectrum disorders
Memory disorders
Long and overly complex sentences and paragraphs of text
Websites or digital content with moving, flashing, or blinking elements that cannot be turned off
Sites with difficult or confusing navigation
Insufficient time to respond to tasks and prompts
Speech
Apraxia
Aphasia
Disorders or injuries that can affect speech (e.g. brain injury, oral cancer, Huntington’s Disease)
Applications or websites that require speech to interact
Contact information on website is telephone only

11. Potential Barriers for Your Users
Disability
Examples
Potential Barriers
Physical
Arthritis
Cerebral Palsy
Head injury
Spinal cord injury
Repetitive stress injuries
Websites without full keyboard access
Insufficient time to respond to tasks and prompts
Confusing or overly complex navigation
Learn more about how people with disabilities access the web and digital content:

12. Guidelines for Accessibility
Shifting guidelines and growing understanding of expectations for digital access

13. Clear Shift to Include Digital Access
Proposed changes to Section 508 would move to WCAG 2.0 and require compliance at both A and AA level
Changes have been delayed; U.S. Department of Justice has provided guidance in two statements of interest in Harvard and MIT cases (2015):
Existing case law and federal regulations make clear that accessibility is mandatory
Schools, institutions, public accommodations, etc. are required to provide equal access to web-based services, programs, activities
ADA explicitly written to keep pace with developing technologies

14. What is WCAG 2.0? Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Emerging as international standard for web accessibility
Developed by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to promote web accessibility
3 tiers of compliance: Levels A, AA, and AAA
AAA level is advanced, and not likely to be necessary for most applications
Proposed changes to Section 508 reference WCAG levels A and AA as standard for web accessibility in the United States

15. WCAG 2.0: PRINCIPLES & GUIDELINES
Consists of 4 principles and 12 guidelines
Perceivable (guidelines )
Operable (guidelines )
Understandable (guidelines )
Robust (guideline 4.1)
CONFORMANCE LEVELS
Three levels of conformance (from lowest to highest): A, AA, AAA
NOTE: Conformance to a standard means that you meet or satisfy the 'requirements' of the standard. Under each guideline, there are Success Criteria that describe what must be achieved to conform to the standard.

16. Implications for Education Leaders
What does this mean for you?

17. Who is Responsible for Accessibility?
TEACHERS
WEB DEVELOPERS
CONTENT CREATORS
TECH COORDINATORS
ADMINISTRATORS
Ensuring equal access to learning opportunities and programs is a system-wide responsibility that requires commitment, leadership and vision
Accessibility considerations must be a priority at all levels
Everyone is responsible for accessibility!
Ensuring equal access to learning opportunities and programs is a system-wide (school, district, institution) responsibility; commitment, vision, and leadership is critical
Accessibility considerations must be a priority at all levels, not just thought about when problems arise or special educators must make accommodations

18. How Do We Get There?
WEB DEVELOPERS
CONTENT CREATORS
EDUCATORS
STAKEHOLDERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERSHIPS
Be proactive in addressing accessibility, not reactive when a problem arises
Work together to create a system-wide plan for addressing accessibility

19. Plant the Accessibility Seed…
Moving towards accessible digital content is a process. As technologies continue to change, we’ll be faced with new challenges for ensuring that none of our users are digitally excluded.
Ask:
Do we have a clear accessibility policy posted on our website?
How are people with disabilities currently using our content? What barriers do they encounter? What assistive technologies are they using?
Are all of our staff aware of the need for accessibility?
What are our primary needs and concerns around accessibility?

20. Considerations for Creating Accessible Content
Resources for Training LEAs

21. Considerations: Accessibility Statement
Schools and organizations should have a broad accessibility statement to address the needs of all users publicly displayed on homepage along with information about to access accommodations
Example from disability.gov
Accessibility Statement Generator
Example Accessibility Statement from Disability.gov:
Accessibility Statement Generator:

22. Considerations: Software Functionality
Use the built-in functionalities of your software to build accessible content
Semantic styles and structures should consider all kinds of disabilities in their formatting
HTML, Word files, PDFs, PowerPoints, etc., can all be made accessible
Use the formatting tools to provide structure – this will make it easier for screen readers to capture the content
Use the software to create lists, columns, tables, change margins, insert a new page, and more

23. Considerations: Software Functionality
HTML, Word files, PDFs, PowerPoints, etc., can all be made accessible
CAST (center for applied special technology) page includes tutorials, checklists, policy briefs, guidelines for creating accessible online content and courses, 2016 Fed & state accessibility guidelines , best practices for social media:

24. Considerations: Color
Color should not be the sole means of conveying meaning
When creating a document or website, avoid using red and green colors or highlighting text
Pass: 2B363C
Fail: 60B8CE

25. Considerations: Cognitive Accessibility
Turn large chunks of text into manageable sections
Shorten sentences to ensure they’re not unnecessarily complex
Use sans-serif fonts and nothing smaller than 12 point font
Serif fonts have structural details and some extra flourishes
Times New Roman v.
Serif fonts can be more difficult to process for those with visual and cognitive disabilities

26. Considerations: Alternative Text
Alt text is required for non-text content such as pictures, graphs, and charts
Should be 120 characters or less that relays the meaning or purpose of the image (in an instance when more information or context is needed to provide meaning, an accompanying document or descriptive text surrounding the image may be included)
Have a picture that’s just decorative? Use: alt “”
Think about the context!
NOT use the phrases "image of ..." or "graphic of ..." to describe the image. It usually apparent to the user that it is an image. And if the image is conveying content, it is typically not necessary that the user know that it is an image that is conveying the content, as opposed to text. If the fact that an image is a photograph or illustration, etc. is important content, it may be useful to include this in alternative text

27. Considerations: Alternative Text
If the picture is on its own, with no contextual information, then for sure need alt text:

28. Considerations: Caption and Describe Videos
Videos should be captioned (this can be helpful for all people, not just those who are hard of hearing or deaf)
Describe videos for people who are unable to see the video
Video content should include a transcript
YouTube video captions on CTD:
Being able to speed up and slow down is important for people with cognitive or neurological delays

29. Considerations: Descriptive Hyperlinks
Hyperlinked text should describe content to which it is linked and describe the destination
Avoid terms like “click here” or “ ”
Users must be able to navigate hyperlinked text through the keyboard alone

30. Considerations: Working with Developers
Resources for developers to build accessible, cross-device, interactive sites that are useable via mouse, keyboard, & touch screens
Menus
Tabs
Sliders
Modal dialogs
Column & grid layouts
Color schemes

31. Training Resources Accessibility training organizations:
SSB Bart group
Cryptzone
WebAIM WCAG 2.0 Checklist:
Perceivable: Web content is made available to the senses - sight, hearing, and/or touch
Operable: Interface forms, controls, and navigation are operable
Understandable: Content and interface are understandable
Robust: Content can be used reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies
Within each of the checklist sections, there are resources that can be used for training. For example, under perceivable, it details the need for alt text. Here’s a Youtube clip that shows how to do that:

32. Action Steps
Learn more about your users with disabilities and how they currently use your content, the barriers they experience, and the assistive technology tools they use
Incorporate personas with disabilities (fictional representations of your users) into your technology decision-making to help you think about potential barriers ( VVf1PFqrD644W2r)

33. Action Steps
Ensure your teams understand accessibility legislation at state and federal level
Use checklists and guides (ex: WCAG 2.0 checklist) to perform an accessibility audit of your website, instructional materials, etc. and to review existing accessibility policies
Request VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) statement in all contracts and purchases for electronic content
Review accessibility policies at other districts, schools, universities

34. Action Steps
Develop and communicate institution-wide vision of accessibility for all and commitment to Universal Design for Learning
Set goals and benchmarks with clear timelines for success
Carry out regular accessibility audits and solicit feedback from students and stakeholders

35. Suggested Resources
Accessibility Toolkit: What Education Leaders Need to Know: education-leaders-need-know
Accessibility Tools and Resources: 8.pdf
Accessible Distance Learning:
Accessibility Statement Generator:
CANnect:
CAST Figuration:

36. Suggested Resources
CAST: Best Practices for Educators & Instructors: practices-educators-instructors.html#.WE8GHrIrLIV
Examples of accessibility policies in higher education:
Example Accessibility Statement from Disability.gov:
Getting Started with Accessibility: 11/getting-started-accessibility
How to Meet WCAG 2.0:
Making Accessible Documents:
National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials:

37. Suggested Resources
National Center on Online Learning for Students with Disabilities:
Temple University Guide to Accessible Purchasing:
The PALM (Purchasing Accessible Learning Materials) Initiative:
Web Accessibility Perspectives:
WebAIM: Introduction to Links and Hypertext:
WebAIM Color Contrast Checker:
Writing Effective Alt Text for Images: effective-alt-text-images/?_sm_au_=iVVsncFmjR6DhVhV