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Accessibility, Tech Support, & the Academic Tech Life Cycle
Who Is Most Likely Involved Directly:
- TLS Academic Technology and Media Services Group
Goal
Technologies We Support: In addition to the direct links provided to VPAT documentation of our supported resources via the Online Accessibility TE, we expand on this to also provide concrete, best practices for faculty on how to ensure they are using these tools accessibility. I think we need to glean the essential accessibility features of our technologies and offer best practices in such a way that's more user-friendly and easier to follow. This type of information could be added to the existing TLS-supported Technologies resources and would probably entail that each of these technologies has its own landing page. Currently some of the tools link directly to wiki documentation but by creating a more transparent 'entry point' that offers a high level overview, links to corresponding TE's (if any), accessibility info, best practices and where to find how-to's. Academic Tech Life Cycle: As we continue to investigate new technology, we could devise a decision tree or checklist that ensures we are considering unique accessibility concerns and issues that may relate to a particular tool. For instance, determining whether the hardware or software (in question) can be accessed via assistive technologies or facilitate accessible experiences (i.e., closed captioning live stream captioning etc.).
The following steps and process documentation details are for TLS-internal use only.
The Online Accessibility Teaching Element is an online resources that is meant to provide a high level overview of what online accessibility is and what it means in relation to those with disabilities. It includes a brief introduction video, links to GOALS project cheats sheets, and TLS-related links on services and VPATs for supported academic technologies.
Who's Responsible for Accessibility will be an adaptation of PCC's Who's Responsible document (permissions granted). The intent of this document is to clarify for faculty who they can contribute to implementing accessible practices and who else can help them.
See Katie Bush's Accessibility Checklist from GCC
The TLS Accessibility Checklist is currently in draft form. This is a item-by-item reminder of the considerations faculty should keep in mind as they develop their online course materials. The purpose of this resource is to provide faculty with a list of the most common accessibility considerations to factor into their course planning and development. Although originally intended for online courses, this could apply to f2f courses and well as blended courses. It's intended that any faculty member developing electronic content and/or using academic technology in a course of any mode could find this relevant. It is a 'starting point' for addressing those most 'high-level', online accessibility considerations. There is a Online Course Quality Rubric which provides some criteria as well, but this expands on that. Another goals for this type of resources would be to create one for the EdX course development process as well, which has its own unique considerations and processes.
An Accessibility Clinic series was one idea for outreaching to faculty to provide in-person, step-by-step instructions on how to develop accessible course content delivered through the most common kinds of materials: MS Word, PDF, PowerPoint, D2L HTML, Math/Science Related resources, Alt Text and Complex Images, and Video/Multimedia. The purpose of this series would be to take the DIY resources that faculty would have access to via the web (i.e., Online Accessibility TE, Checklist, and CheatSheets) and provide them hands-on practice, creation, or revision of their materials with designated TLS staff to provide a brief overview and instruction followed by support. So far the following resources have been under development. The idea is to model PCCC's Accessibility Handbook and web resources.
(George Mason University's Guide to Creating Accessible Electronic Materials is a detailed, 60-page reference book for faculty and students who are managing, developing, or distributing electronic learning materials. This "just-in-time" guide was developed by GMU's Assistive Technology Initiative for individuals creating electronic materials. It has been made available from the ATI's website. IN this documentation, GMU also references the GOALS Project Cheatsheets.
One other DIY resources idea was to have a template and checklist for each type of document type. The checklist would outline basic accessibility steps as well as basic design steps. The templates would offer a guide from which an instructor would have a contextual examples of what an accessible Word, PDF, PPT, etc., would look like. They could also edit these templates to making creating their own, customized materials more convenient. So far, here are some examples of these kinds of resources:
- Templates: PDF and Word (source: SFSU)
- Best Practices (see PowerPoint Clinic, Section III. Best Practices that Factor into Accessibility and Design Elements
- how to create engaging and accessible PPT
- how to create engaging and accessible videos
- designing and organizing your syllabus to be accessible
- brainstorming sessions with faculty or groups of faculty whereby they consider how they might factor in the UDL principles into their existing course.
- a visual workflow and/or decision tree for implementing UDL practices in the design of your content. This could be in the form of a video and printed document.
- curating a list of national and international webinars that address UDL
1. Examining and Revising our Current Academic Technology Life Cycle
2. Augmenting Existing Technology Resources with Relevant UDL and Accessibility Best Practices That Apply (some will certainly overlap)