1. Digital Accessibility and Institutional Improvement: Professional Development is a Key
Cyndi Rowland, Ph.D
WebAIM, NCDAE; Utah State University
9/26/18 OLC Accelerate, KC MO

2. KEYS to Your Success Leadership Support Policy Strategy Resources
Communications
Monitoring
. . . and next Faculty supports

3. KEYS to Your Success (cont.)
Professional Development

4. The criticality of professional development
What percentage of your online content is controlled by someone at your institution?
How will they know to do something different?

5. Professional Development Challenges
Who needs what?
Is this added to their plate?
Effectiveness of professional development efforts
Logistics
Ongoing efforts
Motivation
Monitoring outcomes

6. If everyone in the enterprise has some responsibility,
Who Needs What?
If everyone in the enterprise has some responsibility,
you must provide them with training and supports
Administration –laws and risk, changes in standards, leadership motivation
Faculty (including adjuncts) –Word, PPT, PDF, Excel, others
Staff – specific issues like faculty, procurement or HR have different needs
Students – are they employees? Do they create collaborate materials and share with other students in class?

7. Who needs what? (continued)
How deep do you expect them to go?
expectations/

8. Who Needs What? ( . . .continued)
Be explicit
Portland Community College Web Accessibility Guidelines 2015
content/uploads/sites/17/2017/11/WebA11Y- HB2_Print-HiRes.pdf

9. Is training added to their plate?
Institutions are doing this differently
Some add training completion to role statements
Some provide extra compensation or release time

10. Effectiveness of professional development efforts
Training can only be effective if it is a match to what they need
Match content taught to what they do
HTML
Office products (Word, PPT, Excel)
PDF
Stats programs
Design programs
Evaluation of products for procurement

11. Effectiveness of professional development efforts (continued)
Training can only be effective if it is a match to what they need
Match training to your expectations
Knowledge
Skill
Match pedagogy to your desired level
Know that some are information only (e.g., curated resources)
Evaluation (e.g., Quizzes or tests? Application?)
Feedback from experts (on knowledge or skill?)

12. Logistics Face-to face or online? Internal capacity
external expert (what about longterm?)
outsourced/purchased (shelf life?)
Internal development (time, cost, ongoing updates)
Do you need verification?
Certification or badges
A paper trail of the completers (for your “good faith” file, or for a legal issue?).
Scale?
Is it accessible?

13. Ongoing Efforts Not a “one and done”
Need to create technical assistance supports
Add accessibility to help desk?
Place or assign accessibility point persons in units or departments
Regularly share tips or other info at department meetings
Available for support individually
Establish accessibility mentors amongst peer groups
Online community of practice
Need to keep training alive
New faculty and staff
Additional training when performance is not as intended

14. Do do vs Can do Motivation Police model Gatekeeper model
Good citizen model

15. Motivation (continued)
Recommendation
Create “carrot” environment
Positive reasons to do the work
Adequate supports for success
Create a policy environment: everyone knows the expectations
Know your response BEFORE any violations occur

16. Monitoring Outcomes Don’t just ask about training satisfaction
How is training tied into accessibility outcomes?
Know how the data you collect will be used to improve accessibility

17. What’s out there? SO MUCH! Examples Search for what you need
Take it and evaluate based on your own criteria
Examples
LMS (Canvas, Blackboard)
Systems (Texas, Washington, California)
Consultancies (WebAIM, Deque, Interactive Accessibility)
Other (Udacity, Lynda, Future Learn)

18. Here’s to Training that Supports your Efforts!