The Landscape of Digital Accessibility in Higher Education

Link to presentation

Charles Collick Jr, Rutgers

Pat Kogos, University of Chicago

Nate Evans, Michigan State University

Handling legacy applications

• Involve students! Paid or volunteer. They can edit captions, add alt text, etc, and have first-hand perspective on student needs & experience
• Use a priority-based approach to determine how you can make the biggest impact on faculty and students
• If anything can be sunset, retire it rather than allocating resources toward overhauling
• Anything that has high usage and directly impacts learning & research activities should be hi-pri

Securing budget for a11y & promoting culture

• Focus on storytelling and "sell" the need for a11y as much as possible. Start with the "why" before trying to secure cash
• Focus on the benefits rather than threatening with negative consequences
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion gaining traction in the higher ed world right now. Those are likely the ideal folks to partner with.
• Student experience also a more popular topic these days - tie to a11y.
• "Get in trouble" - call attention to things that aren't accessible, taking to Twitter/public forums when appropriate

Consortiums

• While the speakers on this panel don't participate in buying consortiums, lots of info sharing (if one school reviews a tool for a11y they might share the results of those audits across the consortium)
• To watch: Big 10 Alliance: Library E-Resource Accessibility

Tools used to evaluate a11y and share results back to content owners

• Enterprise tools allow for more robust reporting than free tools
• Using built-in a11y tools in Canvas, Blackboard Ally
• Axe & Deque are popular tools

Getting Faculty buy-in

• Teaching & Learning with Tech groups help with outreach
• Make a11y part of conversation about course design & pedagogy

What initiatives are you excited about for 2021? And If you could recommend ONE change to improve web a11y in higher ed, what would that be?

• Rutgers: Initiatives: New procurement process, Ally rollout, and mandatory training for IT. The one recommended change: awareness.
• U Chicago: Initiatives: Scaling up use of enterprise tool, training for IT staff & faculty. 1 Recommended change: integrating a11y into processes from beginning.
• U Mich: launching a11y audit team, including hiring students. 1 recommended change: don't think you have to be perfect to get started or make progress.