An Overview of Current Processes for Addressing Accessibility in Classrooms Pam Rea, Student Accessibility Services Don Merritt, Office of Instructional Resources University of Central Florida

About UCF Orlando, Florida Fall 2015 Enrollment: 63,002 2 nd largest in the US 11,000 faculty and staff 13 Colleges

About the Presenters Pam Rea, Assistant Director Student Accessibility Services – Connect and work with students – Consult with faculty – Supervise Deaf and Hard of Hearing services – – sas.sdes.ucf.edu sas.sdes.ucf.edu Don Merritt, Director Office of Instructional Resources – Classroom support – Multimedia system design and installation – Faculty multimedia support – – oir.ucf.edu oir.ucf.edu

ABCs of UCF SAS:Student Accessibility Services CDL:Center for Distributed Learning OIR:Office of Instructional Resources FCTL:Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning MTI:Message to Instructor SDES:Student Development and Enrollment Services Webcourses:UCF’s branded implementation of Canvas (LMS)

Challenges Ever-growing student population Emerging technologies Increasing number of online courses and materials Increasing amount of video material to address semester by semester – Most done retroactively, need to become more proactive More aggressive building code review required new renovation processes

A Step Towards Solutions: Partnerships! All campus organizations have a role to play in student success No single organization – is resourced adequately – has all of the skillsets necessary to accomplish the overarching goal – has all of the relationships necessary to be successful – has all of the information necessary to be successful Blended and reduced seat time courses mean online and learning space accommodations often required in the same course

Partnerships and Processes SAS & OIR SAS & Bookstore SAS & Library SAS & Center for Distributed Learning SAS & Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning SAS & Faculty SAS & Facilities SAS & SDES IT OIR & Facilities Central & College IT groups Classroom & Lab Standards Group

SAS & OIR Elevated the conversation regarding accommodation in both digital and physical environments Impact on faculty tools and classrooms – Classroom design – Faculty Multimedia Center Joint projects and presentations – Group visit to Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine – National Conference Presentations and Webinars Greater awareness of how the other can help achieve goals

SAS & Campus Bookstore Text book loan for captionists and interpreters Advanced purchasing and discounted prices for text books in order to provide alternate print format – etext Provide SAS updated book list each semester Promotes technology tools – Read & Write Stock specialized notebooks for SmartPens

SAS & Campus Library Library liaison for specific accessibility needs and requests Sorenson Video-phone Special collections of captioned videos Accessible computer station Research assistance HathiTrust available for electronic books or journals HathiTrust Six computers with 40 in. monitors KIC scanner (4)

SAS & Center for Distributed Learning Message to Instructor letters (MTI) UDOIT on every webcourse IDL Webcourse accessibility training Tech Rangers - Webcourse accessibility assistance National presentations and webinars Database and reporting for online courses with students with disabilities

SAS & FCTL & Faculty Faculty Development Summer and Winter workshops Classroom Tools Accessibility (clickers) New faculty orientation SAS Faculty Advisory Board Faculty Liaisons Knights Access (AIM) Faculty portal Course Policy Accommodation

OIR & SAS & Facilities Architectural review of egress in learning spaces done when AV upgrades are done – Review now a part of the regular business process for renovations and upgrades, must be complete before project can start – Older buildings reviewed under more modern building code – Over 100 learning spaces reviewed since Summer 2015 Teaching furniture made more consistent across campus Building walk-throughs to identify inaccessible areas

Central and College IT Accessibility and access put on the agendas of regular meetings Awareness training and education done with technology staff – Digital media and web accessibility Increased the frequency of questions regarding the accessibility of technology choices SDES IT support C-Print captionists’ equipment & technology

Classroom & Lab Standards Group Accessibility and accommodation needs incorporated into computer standards – Accessibility folder placed on the desktop of all lab work stations Narrator, magnifier, on screen keyboard – Recommended software Text to speech (Read & Write), screen reader (JAWS)

No Partnership is THE Solution As technology, staff, and students change, so too will the approach we need to take to provide universal access Partnerships are relationships and must be nurtured in the same way Incorporating accessibility review into processes helps bridge transitions between staff and organizational changes

Continued Challenges Resources – Funding, personnel, equipment, technology, space Policy – Comprehensive university policy for electronic and information technology accessibility Staff & faculty training and awareness on accessibility Student awareness of resources and how to report inaccessibility Intra-student awareness on inclusion

Questions Pam Rea, Assistant Director Student Accessibility Services – Connect and work with students – Consult with faculty – Supervise Deaf and Hard of Hearing services – – sas.sdes.ucf.edu sas.sdes.ucf.edu Don Merritt, Director Office of Instructional Resources – Classroom support – Multimedia system design and installation – Faculty multimedia support – – oir.ucf.edu oir.ucf.edu