Raymond M. RoseRose & Smith Associates

Port Aransas, TX

This work by Raymond Rose is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Why All the Attention to Accessibility?

speaks VOLumes 2015

Ray’s Background• K-12 teacher, curriculum coordinator, counselor, adminstrator• Civil Rights Specialist with Mass Dept of Education• Civil Rights Specialist/Manager New England equity assistance center• Virtual High School designer/manager• 1st virtual school special needs policy• 2007 1st publication access and equity in online education• Faculty, Instructional Technology and Distance Learning Coordinator,

Huston-Tillotson U.• Technical Working Group, Center on Online Learning and Students with

Disabilities• 2014 Access and Equity for All Learners in Blended and Online Education

First, a little history…

1973Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act

"No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or 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 . . . ."

First, a little history…

July 26, 1990

The ADA was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, to “ensure that people with disabilities are given the basic guarantees for

which they have worked so long and so hard: independence, freedom of choice, control of their lives, the opportunity to blend fully and equally

into the rich mosaic of the American mainstream.”

First, a little history…

1995/96VHS and FLVS

First, a little history…

~1998Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

First, a little history…

2007

First, a little history… 2009

Kindle and Arizona State – June 2009

First, a little history… 2009

TxVSN(Legislature established in 2007)

First, a little history… 2011

•Google Apps for Education (NYU, NU) – March 2011•Penn State – 2011 --suit

First, a little history… 2012

Florida State University – March 2012 -- suitUniversity of Montana – September 2012 -- reviewGrand Rapids Community College –November 2012 -- complaint

First, a little history… 2013South Carolina Technical College System –March 2013Crowley ISD – March 2013 – complaint Lockhart ISD – July 2013Louisiana Tech University – July 2013 --complaintVirtual Community School of Ohio – November 2013

First, a little history… 2014South Carolina Virtual Charter Schools –March 2014University of Montana-Missoula – March 2014 – complaintH&R Block – March 2014 - suitManchester School District – April 2014U. Cincinnati & Youngstown State U –December 2014

2014

http://www.inacol.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/iNACOL-Access-and-Equity-for-All-Learners-in-Blended-and-Online-Education-Oct2014.pdf

2015April 2nd.

http://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/united-states-reaches-settlement-provider-massive-open-online-courses-make-its-content

Quiz • Identify your institution’s Section 504 Coordinator?• Identify the person responsible for your online learning

program?• Has your institution adopted quality standards for online

resources/courses?• Does your institution include an accessibility check for all

technology purchases?• When was the last accessibility audit of the institutional

website?

OCR’s Operational Definition

“those with a disability are able to acquire the same information and engage in the same interactions — and within the same time frame —as those without disabilities.”

OCR Compliance Review 11-11-2128, 06121583, paraphrased from 11-13-5001, 10122118, 11-11-6002

Access and Equity Checklist

•Policies•Online Course Design•Program and Course Monitoring

Rose & Smith Associates

Policy Recommendations:Institution has adopted, as policy, a set of quality standards to

which all online learning courses adhere.

All of the institution’s online courses (including those from outside profit and non-profit vendors) are reviewed to insure they meet legal accessibility standards.

Institution has determined process, responsibility, and timeline for retrofitting accessibility or replacing courses that are not accessible.

Policy Recommendations:

Institution has a designated 504 Coordinator, Grievance Policy, and conducts annual notifications. (Required)

Institution has policy and activities to ensure organizational website meets accessibility requirements.

Institution has no gateway exam/test where a specific score is required to participate in online learning activities.

Website & Online Course Design:

Color selection does not impede students with color blindness.

All graphics have meaningful, learning-related Alt Tags.

There is no use of graphical eye-candy.

All content in PDFs is searchable (if a graphic, follow requirements for graphics).

Website & Online Course Design All audio is accompanied by text transcripts.

All video includes synchronized captioning.

Course navigation is possible without the use of a mouse.

Courses are reviewed with access by a screen reader in mind.

Content at all external links meets the same accessibility standards.

Resources for Accessible Website

and Course Design

Resources1 of 14

Access and Equity for All Learners in Blended and Online Education• http://www.inacol.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iNACOL-Access-and-

Equity-for-All-Learners-in-Blended-and-Online-Education-Oct2014.pdf

Higher Ed Accessibility Lawsuits, Complaints, and Settlements• http://www.d.umn.edu/~lcarlson/atteam/lawsuits.html

US DoE Office of Educational Technology

Ed Tech Developers Guide

A primer for software developers, startups, and entrepreneurs• http://tech.ed.gov/files/2015/04/Developer-Toolkit.pdf

Resources2 of 14

Resources 3 of 14

FREE Video Captioning Apps•NCAM.wgbh.org

•MAGpie•CC for FLASH

How to add closed captions to YouTube• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K4WJs94FfY

Resources4 of 14

Adobe and Accessibility website (PDF info)• www.adobe.com/accessibility.html

Creating Accessible Tables and Data Tables• http://webaim.org/techniques/tables/• http://webaim.org/techniques/tables/data

2014 Access and equity for all learners in blended and online education• http://inacol.org

Resource5 of 14

Color Blindness Simulator

http://www.seewald.at/en/2012/01/color_blindness_correction_and_simulator

See through the eyes of your red, green or blue colorblind student.

Android only

Resources6 of 14

Color advice for cartography• http://colorbrewer2.org/

Vischeck simulates colorblind vision.• http://www.vischeck.com/

Daltonize corrects images for colorblind viewers.• http://www.vischeck.com/daltonize/

More Color Blindness Tools

Resources7 of 14

FREE website accessibility testers•http://CynthiaSays.com•http://WAVE.webaim.org

Browser Based Accessibility Testers

Accessibility Evaluator for Firefox 1.5.7.1*

WAVE Evaluation Tool for Google Chrome

*2008 uses WCAG 1.0

Resource8 of 14

Resources9 of 14

More Browser Based Accessibility Testers

HTML CodeSniffer• http://squizlabs.github.io/HTML_CodeSniffer/

Tota11y• http://khan.github.io/tota11y/

Resources10 of 14

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List (48)

• http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/

Resource11 of 14

NVDA http://www.nvaccess.org/

NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free “screen reader” which enables blind and vision impaired people to use computers. It reads the text on the screen in a computerised voice. You can control what is read to you by moving the cursor to the relevant area of text with a mouse or the arrows on your keyboard.

Resources12 of 14

10 Free Screen Readers

http://usabilitygeek.com/10-free-screen-reader-blind-visually-impaired-users/

Upcoming Scheduled and Previously Recorded Webinars

Accessibility Tips for Effective Teaching and Learning

http://www.3playmedia.com/how-it-works/webinars/

Resource13 of 14

Resources14 of 14

SSB YouTube Video Series: Web Accessibility 101

Introductory level (short) videos demonstrating assistive technology and common accessibility challenges.

Search SSB Bart Group on YouTube

Contact Info

Raymond Rose• ray@rose-smith.com• 512.791.3100

Presentation slides on this topic are available at SlideShare.net under RaymondRoseAnd at my blog: rmrose.blogspot.com