Nancy Egan, CUNY Electronic Resources Librarian, and Adina Mulliken, Hunter College Social Work Librarian May 6, 2016 CUNY Accessibility Conference Digital Accessibility: Introduction to Evaluating Resources

What is digital accessibility? Practical examples for spot checking accessibility What are ethical and legal responsibilities for institutions of higher education? How do we make this part of our selection and acquisitions processes? Today we will talk about

Hearing Deafness and hard-of-hearing Visual Blindness, low vision, color-blindness Motor Inability to use a mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor control Cognitive Learning disabilities, distractibility, inability to remember or focus on large amounts of information From Webaim Some major categories of disability types relevant to using computers are:

Without a disability 31.2% With a disability 12.5% With a visual disability 11.6% From Cornell University Disability Statistics (Accessed November 20, 2013) Non-institutionalized persons aged 21 to 64 years in the United States whose educational attainment was a BA degree or higher in 2011:

Practical Spot Checking Short Cheat Sheet from National Center on Disability and Access to Education Short Cheat Sheet Keyboard Accessibility Test: In IE, Tab/Shift Tab, Enter Look for Captioning WAVE automated accessibility checker. Read explanations of errors. WAVE

Webaim CUNY IT Accessibility Statement CUNY Making Content Accessible help pages CUNY Making Content Accessible help pages Resource for more information

What are the legal responsibilities for institutions of higher education?

“Discusses requirements of longstanding accessibility law –ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act” Dear Colleague Letter and FAQ

“The law applies to all faculty and staff, not just a Section 504 or ADA coordinator or staff members designated to assist students with disabilities…. the school can be held legally responsible….” “Therefore, schools should provide, and faculty and staff should participate in, professional development about accessibility and emerging technology, and about the role of faculty and staff in helping the school to comply with disability discrimination laws.” Dear Colleague FAQDear Colleague FAQ - Training

“Schools should begin by considering accessibility issues up front, when they are deciding whether to create or acquire emerging technology and when they are planning how the technology will be used. To that end, schools should include accessibility requirements and analysis as part of their acquisitions procedures.” Dear Colleague FAQ- Acquisitions/Procurement

Dear Colleague Letter leaves it to schools to understand what technology would afford students with disabilities “the educational opportunities and benefits in a timely, equally effective, and equally integrated manner.” BUT… “Equally effective” requirement versus rote technical compliance

University of Montana resolution agreement: Accessibility training for all faculty/staff. Monthly automated accessibility scans of website; notify content authors if corrections are needed In Practice

University of Montana resolution agreement: “the University shall develop and institute procedures that require the University to purchase or recommend only EITs [Electronic Information Technologies] that will provide the same programs, benefits, and services as they do to individuals without disabilities, except when it would fundamentally alter a program or when it is not technically feasible to do so, in which case the procedures will require the University to provide accessible alternate EITs” In Practice, continued

Most schools have agreed to adhere to WCAG 2.0 Advanced Notice of Public Rulemaking for ADA also intends to issue regulations along the lines of WCAG 2.0 and Section 508 Advanced Notice of Public Rulemaking for ADA WC3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0)

Support for 21 colleges’ libraries and a new science center library Negotiate licenses and procure electronic resources centrally Electronic Resources Page. Electronic Resources Page Over 100 resources (research). This does not include our systems Approximately 30 vendors Approximately 70 platforms 1 electronic resources librarian and a plan Office of Library Services

What should vendors do? Why are vendors not promoting accessibility and what does that mean?* What should we do to change that? *Dermody, K. and Majekodunmi, N. (2011). “Online Databases and the research experience for university students with print disabilities.” Library High Tech, Vol. 29, 1 ( ). Vendor Responsibility

1.Talk to your accessibility services department. Find out what adaptive technology is available. 2.Talk to your procurement department. 3.Talk to your legal department. 4.There should be some basic training for all those involved in the selection and acquisitions functions, but ultimately, try to centralize the workflow. Make accessibility part of our selection criteria and acquisitions process.

5. If you’re in a library, you should make accessibility part of your collection development statement: Here’s a good example—The Montana State University Library is committed to providing web accessible resources to individuals with disabilities. We make every effort to gather information and prioritize the acquisitions of web accessible electronic resources, except in cases where a product or service would be fundamentally altered. Collection Development Statement

Ask to speak to their accessibility person. The rep may not know about their product’s accessibility. You’ll get a sense of where this vendor is on the accessibility continuum from whether or not they have an accessibility person. The vendor will know that you think they should have an accessibility person and that this is a priority for you. Communications with Vendors

Do your product developers have training in accessibility? Did you do usability testing? Describe. What were the results. Do you have a VPAT? Before your assessment…..

Voluntary Product Accessibility Template. A VPAT is a self disclosing checklist that the vendor fills out in order to assess their compliance to Section 508. It is voluntary. Vendors don’t always fill it out properly. And if they do fill it out, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they comply! What is a VPAT

Get the VPAT if they have one. But use your own checklist. There is a good one from The Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies: ernetwebguidelines ASCLA also has a checklist for software: mputerguidelines Assessment

Share your checklist with the vendor. Discuss problem areas. Let the vendor know if you are selecting or not selecting their product based on your findings. It is important in either case! After your assessment…

Tell them you’d like language in the license. Sample language from the American Research Libraries: “Licensor shall comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), by supporting assistive software or devices such as large print interfaces, text-to-speech output, voice- activated input, refreshable braille displays, and alternate keyboard or pointer interfaces, in a manner consistent with the Web Accessibility… The License

…Initiative Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 AA ( tech.html). Licensor shall provide to Licensee a current completed Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) to demonstrate compliance with the federal Section 508 standards ( ). If the product does not comply, the Licensor shall adapt the Licensed Materials in a timely manner and at no cost to the Licensee in order to comply with applicable law.” tech.htmlhttp:// The License, continued

Some libraries are asking for an indemnity statement: Licensor further agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Customer from any claims arising out of its failure to comply with the requirements of this section. Indemnity Statements

Licensing Guide The Plan: 2016) New Licenses to begin in fiscal year ) New Licenses to begin in fiscal year 2018 and renewals of most costly vendors 2018) New Licenses to begin in fiscal year 2019 and renewals of other vendors 2019)…And so on, and so on… Office of Library Services Plan