the california state university’s accessible technology initiative
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The California State University’s Accessible Technology Initiative. CSUN Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference Los Angeles, California March 21, 2007. Today’s Presentation. Overview of ATI Project: Mary Cheng, Director, Accessible Technology Initiative, CSU Chancellor’s Office - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
The California State University’s Accessible Technology Initiative
CSUN Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference
Los Angeles, California
March 21, 2007
Today’s Presentation Overview of ATI Project: Mary Cheng, Director, Accessible
Technology Initiative, CSU Chancellor’s Office Web Accessibility: Wayne Dick, Professor and Chair of Computer
Science & Engineering, CSULB and Academic Technology Accessibility Coordinator
Instructional Materials Accessibility: Gene Chelberg, Campus Executive Sponsor and Director of Disability Services, San Francisco State.
Procurement: John Charles, CIO and Executive Sponsor, CSU East Bay
Licensing Digital Collections: Lisa Moske, Director, Systemwide Electronic Information Resources, CSU Chancellor’s Office
The CSU Center for Accessible Media (CAM): Mark Turner, Director, CAM, CSU Chancellor’s Office
Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI)www.calstate.edu/accessibility
Reflects CSU commitment to provide equal access to information resources and technologies to individuals with disabilities.
"It is the policy of the CSU to make information technology resources and services accessible to all CSU students, faculty, staff and the general public regardless of disability.“ CSU Executive Order 926
www.calstate.edu/EO/EO-926.html
Goals:– Systemic change– Institutionalize accessibility– Change CSU culture
Case for Action
Federal Mandates and Recent State LegislationGovernment Code 11135
(Section 508)
Recent Office for Civil Rights Actions in 4 CSUs
Policy DirectiveEO 926 from Systemwide
Audit
ATI
ATI: Beyond Legal Mandates
Vision: To create a culture of access for an inclusive learning and working environment.
Mission: To help CSU campuses in carrying out CSU policy as articulated EO926 by developing guidelines, implementation strategies, tools and resources.
Principle: To apply universal design, an approach to the design of products and services to be usable by the greatest number of people including individuals with disabilities.
Strategy: To stimulate collaboration to effect changes that will ultimately benefit all.
The CSU System
23 diverse campusesCSU Maritime 860 FTE CSU Fullerton 36,000 FTE 417,000 students 40,000 faculty and staff Largest university
system in the nation
How do you institutionalize accessibility in this context?
ATI: Three Implementation Priorities
Web Accessibility
Procurement of Accessible E&IT
Instructional MaterialsAccessibility
Project Plan Phased-in implementation plan with specific milestones
for each of the three priorities Six-year work plan with full compliance reached by 2012 Accountability via end of year reports First year emphasis: campus assessment, planning and
training
Project Plan defined in Coded Memo AA 2007-04www.calstate.edu/ACADAFF/CodedMemos/AA-2007-04.pdf
Campus Project Structure
CampusExecutive Sponsors
Project Managers
Web AccessibilityTeam
Instructional Materials
Team
Procurement Team
Communication, Coordination and Collaboration
Procurement CoP
Web Accessibility
CoP
Instructional Materials
CoP
Executive Sponsors
ATI Director
Center for Accessible
Media (CAM) Director
AT Expert
(TBF)
Acad Tech Access
Coord & Web Specialist
Central ATI TeamCampus Teams
Vehicles of communication: Communities of Practice (CoP) teleconferences,Listservs, Blackboard site for internal communication, ATI website for external facing info
Instructional Materials (IM) Priority
Toward a universal design model
for creating and adopting instructional materials
Presented by Gene Chelberg
Executive Sponsor and Director of Disability Services
San Francisco State University
Scope Printed materials: textbooks, course
readers/course packs, articles and handouts, etc. Digital materials: instructional websites,
e-reserves, digital library materials Multimedia: audio & video
“Effective Communication” as the standard
“Equally Effective” Communication Access– Timeliness
– Accuracy
– Appropriate Manner and Medium
Challenges in meeting “Effective Communication” Standard
Current practice: Ad-hoc retrofitting of materials to make them accessible is not working
– Office for Civil Rights complaint: lack of timeliness of alternate formats of textbooks
Challenges in addressing behavioral change
Changing faculty behavior, e.g. early adoption of textbooks.
Changing business processes in the authoring of instructional content and development of digital resources (for example putting captions to multimedia, making structured Word documents, etc.)
Other factors demanding a new approach Increasing use of digital content, web-based
materials and online instruction Increasing use of multimedia (podcasting)
IM accessibility—Universal Design Model• Working Definition
– The incorporation of accessibility considerations into the design of institutional programs and services from project inception
• Benefits– Ensures usability by widest possible pool of users – Allows for persons with disabilities to gain access to IM at same time non-
disabled peers– Less time and resource-intensive to include accessibility features early-on
than to retrofit– Reduces risk management because this approach demonstrates a
systematic, rather than ad hoc approach to accessibility– Often benefits other at-risk populations such as students with ESL issues,
remedial coursework needs– Facilitates the future repurposing of content
An Example: Early Adoption of Textbook Campus plan to institutionalize a new practice to ensure
timely adoption of textbook by faculty Enlisted support from campus academic senates to adopt
resolutions supporting timely textbook identification Created video resource of student stories to help faculty
understand the need to incorporate accessibility in their classroom (“From Where I Sit”)
Sharing accessible materials via the CSU Center for Accessible Media (CAM)
Collaborate on a tool that streamlines the process for identification of textbooks
Universal Design = Universal Benefit Early textbook adoption decreases textbook cost
for all students
Licensing Digital Collections
Application of the Procurement Process to
Electronic Library Materials Acquisition
By Lisa Moske, Director
Systemwide Electronic Information Resources
California State University, Office of the Chancellor
Scope CSU-SEIR (Systemwide Electronic Information Resources) manages
over 60 systemwide agreements, covering over 200 resources, for the 23 CSU libraries
Digital content for libraries is licensed from and hosted by both commercial and non-profit vendors
– Scholarly journals, index & abstracts services, statistical information, encyclopedias, general reference, directories, archives, aggregated resources
– Over 25,000 full text titles– Resources cover core programs, including Arts and Humanities,
Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and professional programs
Information is delivered and searchable on web-based platforms
Advisory Process CSU-SEIR works closely with each of the campus libraries and with
the Electronic Access to Information Resources (EAR) Committee, an advisory committee appointed by the Council of Library Directors
– SEIR, in partnership with the libraries and with EAR, engages the ongoing effort to inform vendors and providers on systemwide needs, including accessible technology
The EAR Committee recommends resources of systemwide interest, advises on systemwide collection development criteria and standards, and performs formal product reviews
– The EAR review process was revised in 2006, and includes a special evaluation form for 508 compliance and accessibility
Challenges Informing the publishers of digital content about accessibility is an ongoing and
challenging effort– In 2003, the Chair of the EAR committee invited the vendors SEIR works with to
engage in a dialog about accessibility. Only a handful of vendors responded. Vendors have varying levels of understanding of the requirements; many must make
substantial changes in their business practices and product development cycles to comply
SEIR requests that vendors fill out the VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) and discusses compliance and/or company timelines for building compliant platforms during contract negotiations for renewing agreements and when considering new resources
– Fortunately, we notice ongoing, progressive change and increased understanding
– Before new resources are considered for systemwide purchase, vendors must exhibit compliance or have a timeline for compliance in place
Positive Change The CSU’s negotiations and conversations with vendors are creating
a broader awareness that will benefit the wider community Vendors are showing more awareness and understanding of the
needs and are more responsive to requests for information and for change
Accessibility and/or compliance clauses or statements are being included in publishers’ licenses
– Adding compliance statements to current and new systemwide agreements is progressively building the record, and will eventually allow campuses to track accessible products and services
CSU Center for Accessible Media (CAM)
Supporting campus efforts to provide timely alternate formats of instructional materials
By Mark Turner, Director
CSU Center for Accessible Media
California State University, Office of the Chancellor
CAM Background Significant growth in alternate media requests in
late 1990’s Even following passage of AB 422 in 2000
– Difficulties securing files from publishers
– Most etext was still produced in-house
– Production costs were high
– System was not leveraging or sharing resources
CAM Development Established as CSU authorized center in 2004
– Centralizes listings of etext holdings for CSU
– Coordinates requests of etext from CSU
– Facilitates intra-campus distribution of etext to CSU campuses
– Systematizes tracking of alternate media requests and fulfillments
CAM Structure Technology
– Web-based interface– Database back-end– Hosted on Chancellor’s Office network
Staffing– Campus Authorized Agents– Project Director– Campus Liaison
CAM Goals General goals
– Increase timeliness of delivery– Increase operational efficiencies– Increase cost-savings– Leverage CSU resources
Specific goals– Increase publisher compliance– Eliminate redundant requests to publishers– Eliminate redundant in-house production– Decrease in-house production of alternate media
CAM Usage 20,000 logins 90 active users across most campuses 6,400 titles 3,000 publisher requests 1,400 inter-campus requests 1,100 entries for publisher contact/request info
CAM Strategic Goals (1 of 3) Integrate with system-wide ATI initiative
– Evaluate emerging technologies
– Serve as CSU lead on accessible instructional materials
– Evaluate current technology infrastructure
– Consult on technology procurements and projects
– System-wide promotion of universal design concepts
– Conduct training sessions emphasizing promising practices, tools, and templates
CAM Strategic Goals (2 of 3) Expand/improve functionality of CAM infrastructure
– Establish central repository for alternate media materials
– Incorporate federated search capabilities
– Expand list of supportive alternate media formats
– Provide automate lookup/validation of holdings information
– Explore central resources for production of specialized alternate media formats
CAM Strategic Goals (3 of 3) Connect with industry stakeholders
– Media publishers– Technology manufacturers– Bookstores
Explore partnerships/collaborations– Educational systems– Alternate Media repositories
Impact national and State policy– Technology standards groups– Legislation
Presenter Contact Information Mary Cheng: [email protected]
Gene Chelberg: [email protected]
Lisa Moske: [email protected] Mark Turner: [email protected]
References: Related Resolutions of the Academic Senate of the CSU Support of SB 302 (Kuehl), AS-2614-03, May 5-6, 2005
http://www.calstate.edu/AcadSen/Records/Resolutions/2002-2003/2614.shtml
Students’ Access to Academic Information Technology, AS-2700-05 FA, May 5-6, 2005 http://www.calstate.edu/AcadSen/Records/Resolutions/2004-2005/2700.pdf
Provision of Accessible Electronic Material by Publishers, AS-2730-06/AA, January 26-27, 2006 www.calstate.edu/AcadSen/Records/Resolutions/2005-2006/2730.shtml
Faculty Role in Mitigating the Costs of Textbooks, May 4-5, 2006 www.calstate.edu/AcadSen/Records/Resolutions/2005-2006/2747.pdf
References: Legislative Links Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act (Federal)
– No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States …shall 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 ”http://ericec.org/sect504.html
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (Federal)– Provides a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with
disabilitieshttp://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/pubs/ada.txt
California Education Code § 67302 (AB 422) (1999) (State)– Requires publishers to provide e-text to eligible students with print-related disabilities
http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/99-00/bill/asm/ab_0401-0450/ab_422_bill_19990915_chaptered.html Section 508 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act (1998) (Federal)
– Applies accessibility standards to procurement and development of electronic and information technologies by federal government agencieswww.section508.gov
• SB 105 (Burton), 2002 (State)• applied section 508 of the federal Rehabilitation Act to state governmental entities regarding accessibility of
electronic and information technologyhttp://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/01-02/bill/sen/sb_0101-0150/sb_105_bill_20020929_chaptered.html
• SB 302 (Kuehl), 2003 (State)– applies Section 508 to the CSU and codified in California Government Code 11135 (effective January 2004)
http://www.spb.ca.gov/civilrights/documents/CALIFORNIA_CODES_11.pdf
The Accessible Technology Initiativewww.calstate.edu/accessibility