1. ACCESSIBILITY UPDATE Kirtland Community College January 2019

2. What we will cover Why is Accessibility Important
What does it mean to be an Accessible Institution
How to get started
Institution wide committee
College Policy
Implementation Plan
Resources
Procurement decisions

3. Why is Accessibility Important?
Digital accessibility allows participation and engagement of individuals who have disabilities.
It is a civil rights issue.
It is the law.

4. Why is Accessibility Important?
To Care and Comply (Portland Community College)

5. Access laws pertaining to education
Rehabilitation Act
Section “ no otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States… shall, solely by reason of his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. . .” (29 U.S.C. Section 794)
Creation of Section 508 to include Electronic and Information Technology
WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
Section “ no otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States… shall, solely by reason of his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. . .” (29 U.S.C. Section 794)

6. Access laws pertaining to education
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Bush signs law that prohibits discrimination against those with disabilities in ALL AREAS OF PUBLIC LIFE
Includes jobs, schools, transportation, all public and private areas open to the general public.
Provides protections and guarantees equal opportunity under the law
ADA didn’t mention the Internet – why?
ISPs emerged in the early 1990’s
Fully commercialized by 1995
100,000 websites
Browsers and
Amazon was created
Google was in beta
Section “ no otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States… shall, solely by reason of his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. . .” (29 U.S.C. Section 794)

7. Civil Rights Complaints
US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights have received more than 420 higher education complaints in the past 2 years
More than 60 lawsuits because of inaccessible information technologies
Civil Rights activists - One woman in Franklin Michigan has launched nearly 1500 OCR complaints in the past couple of years by putting sites through automated checkers many days a week.
Section “ no otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States… shall, solely by reason of his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. . .” (29 U.S.C. Section 794)

8. What are the legal issues?
Timeliness – Digital materials should be accessible to all from the start
Effective Communications - if within a course additional links are provided to enhance learning, etc., and those are not accessible then they lack effective communication with those students.
Reasonableness of accommodation - Can’t require a student with disability to come to campus for something that others don’t have to.
Affirmative obligation – A public entity violates it obligations under the ADA when it only responds on an ad-hoc basis to individual requests for accommodation. There is an affirmative duty to develop a comprehensive policy in advance of any requests for auxiliary aids or services.
Timeliness - working rule up to now was provide accommodations upon request. Currently the courts are saying that digital material should be available to all - from the start.
Effective Communications - if within a course additional links are provided to enhance learning, etc., and those are not accessible then they lack effective communication with those students.
Reasonableness of accommodations - Can’t require a student with disability to come to campus for something that others don’t have to. Example: 3 options to a lecture - f2f w/signer, streaming and archiving but no captions with those.
Affirmative Obligation - means to plan in advance for the need for auxiliary support and services. If it is reasonable for one to assume that a person with a disability would need services then you must plan for those.

9. Steps to become compliant
Designate a person responsible to coordinate IT accessibility
Define a policy specific to IT accessibility
Develop both a ‘Corrective Action Plan’ (Remediation) and a ‘Plan for new content’ (Implementation)
Perform a technology audit for student and public-facing solutions (when employees begin making complaints under ADA, this may also extend to institutional intranets)
Provide a public link to an Accessibility page and define a process for website complaints/feedback; some require this on all pages (i.e., in the footer)
Seek ongoing input from users with disabilities
Define a process for evaluating accessibility as part of the procurement process

10. Typical Components of Institutional Policy on Web Accessibility
Summary statement of the policy
Effective dates
Scope of the policy
A technical standard
A provision for procurement
Consequences for non-conformance to the policy
Mechanisms for ongoing review

11. Typical Components of Web Accessibility Implementation Plan
Executive summary of the plan
Provisions to
Gather baseline information and benchmarking
Identify existing institutional challenges and risks
Identify existing institutional priorities and opportunities
Communication and marketing plans
Provision to allocate budget, resources and training

12. Typical Components of Web Accessibility Implementation Plan
Milestones and measurable steps, including dates persons, and activities
Education and support plans for those who will accomplish web accessibility (i.e., staff, faculty, and students)
Responsibilities (i.e., administration, Accessibility Committee, procurement, HR, faculty, staff)
Plan to obtain and use feedback
Strategy to evaluate and revise the plan in an ongoing way

13. Support http://ncdae.org/goals/
WCAG 2.0 AA -
Perceivable - Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
Operable - User interface components and navigation must be operable.
Understandable - Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.
Robust - Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
Perceivable - text alternatives, captioning, use of color, sensory attributes, etc.
Operable - keyboard accessible, providing enough time, seizure threshold, navigable
Understandable - Readable, predictable navigation, input assistance, i.e. forms, applications
Robust - compatible with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies

14. MCO Accessibility Community of Practice
To share knowledge and review best practices that can assist colleges as they become compliant with federal regulations.
Convened monthly meetings of the group with a particular focus for each meeting.
February 7, 2018 – During this first organization meeting, the group agreed to focus subsequent meetings on the 9 key items that colleges should address immediately to begin to be compliant.
March 21, 2018 – This meeting focused on creating an accessibility policy and discussed the items that should be included in the policy along with looking at sample policies.
April 18, 2018 – The focus for this meeting was beginning an implementation plan. Topics included what should be included in the plan and a few colleges shared their process for getting the plan started.
May 23, 2018 – This meeting focused on procurement and accessibility.
June 20, 2018 – How to complete an accessible audit of college digital presence.

15. MCO Accessibility Community of Practice
MCO has engaged with Dr. Cyndi Rowland – Director of WebAIM – to assist with the convenings including answering questions and providing resources.
Created a list serve for users to ask questions and share items/resources.
Created a space for colleges to highlight and share their activities focused on the accessibility of digital materials.
Scheduling technical training for campus staff – early fall.

16. Questions?