1. Next Generation Accessible Media Tracking, Exchange, and Management
AIMHub
Next Generation Accessible Media Tracking, Exchange, and Management
Cheryl Pruitt
Gaeir Dietrich
Jack Sullivan
Cheryl

2. The Need for “AIM”
About 7% of the 2.4 million California Community College (CCC) students have some declared disability
171,090 students with disabilities reported in the CCCs in 2015–2016 school year
About 1% of CCC students qualify as having a “print disability,” i.e., they have difficulty accessing standard printed materials
Most of these students have some form of learning disability
Data from California Community College Chancellor’s Office Web site (Data Mart):

3. Options for Accessible Formats
Commercial sources
Amazon audio books, Kindle books with text-to-speech enabled, VitalSource, audible.com, etc.
Alternate media producers (non-profit)
Bookshare, Learning Ally (formerly RFB&D), American Printing House (APH) etc.
In-house
From publisher files or scanned by campus

4. Traditionally
Trained disability professionals assessed needs and provided accommodations
Disability services “solved the problems”
…and the campus was happy to let you do so!

5. But… The disability services office is a method of administration…
Not a magic wand!
And when it comes to technology sometimes a miracle would come in handy…because we are legally required to provide access!

6. Not Equal Digital does not mean accessible!
Just because something is digital does not mean that it is accessible to all!
And equally effective access is the legal right of students with disabilities

7. Communication
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has paid specific attention to communication, including course materials (print-based and otherwise), and requires that the communication to be as effective as that provided to nondisabled students.

8. Effective Communication
Effectiveness is defined by three components:
timeliness of delivery
accuracy of the translation
provision in a manner and medium appropriate to the significance of the message and the abilities of the individual with the disability

9. Time Counts Of those three criteria, timeliness is the hardest to meet
Obtaining electronic publisher files can take weeks
And processing may still be required
In-house production can take weeks to months
More complex formats (STEM, foreign language, music, etc.) can take even longer

10. Campus Needs A tool to find and obtain existing accessible materials.
A tool to track accessible media production.
A tool to manage the accessible material files.
A tool that provides detailed reporting.
Gaeir

11. Existing Campus Exchange Systems
Center for Accessible Media
California State University
Available to CSU and UC campuses
File upload/download
Book holdings
Automatic publisher request forms
Exchange tracking
AMXDB
Alternate Media eXchange Database
California Community Colleges
Available to all post-secondary campuses
exchange
Book and video holdings
Publisher contact information
Exchange and workflow tracking
Cheryl and Gaeir/ Current solutions and challenges
CAM exchanges approximately 1,300 titles per year, saving hours of employee time and promoting student success by ensuring timely delivery of instructional materials.

12. CAM and AMXDB Limitations
Duplicated and fractured effort
10+ years old
Focused on exchanging materials
Cheryl

13. AIMHub Goals Combine resources Modernize
Manage materials and production
Gaeir

14. Combine Resources
Increased accessible materials resources -- titles for all three systems in one easy-to-use application
Eliminate CSU/CCC parallel systems -- duplication of effort and a lack of efficiency
Shared application -- save time, money, and resources

15. Modernize Opportunity to gather user feedback and feature requests
9/12/2016
Modernize
Opportunity to gather user feedback and feature requests
User Interface built on principles of Universal Design
World Cat service automatically populates all the book information based on the ISBN number
Intercampus exchanges more efficient and secure
Users of the current applications expressed a number of concerns: (1) managing archives of alternate formats, (2) workload of exchanging formats, (3) discovery of needed materials, (4) managing student requests for alternate formats. AIMHub will address each of these issues though purpose-built tools with a desktop application that will provide the capability of managing student requests, accessing local files for exchange, managing directory structures, ensuring that sensitive information remains within a campus, and automatically interacting with Internet systems.

16. Manage materials and production
9/12/2016
Manage materials and production
Desktop management application
Organize and manage student requests
Automatic fulfillment of accessible materials request
Users of the current applications expressed a number of concerns: (1) managing archives of alternate formats, (2) workload of exchanging formats, (3) discovery of needed materials, (4) managing student requests for alternate formats. AIMHub will address each of these issues though purpose-built tools with a desktop application that will provide the capability of managing student requests, accessing local files for exchange, managing directory structures, ensuring that sensitive information remains within a campus, and automatically interacting with Internet systems.

17. Accessible Material Lifecycle
Request
Acquisition
Production
Delivery
Storage
CAM and AMXDB focus on acquisition via campus exchange.
AIMHub also focuses on production tracking and storage management.
Jack

18. AIMHub Diagram
Jack

19. Roadmap Merge and import data from CAM and AMXDB.
Implement campus exchange.
Pilot with existing CAM and AMXDB campuses.
Open to all campuses (v1.0).
Production tracking (v2.0).
Holdings management (v3.0).
Integrate with other repositories and exchanges (v4.0).
Jack

20. 9/12/2016
Moving Forward
Developing nationwide subscription model to support future development and maintenance
Promoting the desktop alternative media management tool
Building larger selections of accessible materials from a broader user base
subscription model will be developed that will make AIMHub available to post-secondary institutions outside California. We project that the AIMHub desktop tool will fulfill a unique need for alternate media specialists by allowing them to organize and prioritize student alternate media requests, track alternate media workflow, schedule alternate media delivery, and streamline all aspects of the conversion process. As the number of colleges and systems in the AIMHub grows, we predict that CSU and CCC funding support will be replaced by revenue from subscription sales to outside campuses and systems. The intention is to phase out monetary support by the CSU and CCC systems, which as the initial developers, will continue to utilize the system free of charge. We anticipate the revenue will increase until AIMHub will be fully supported for on-going maintenance and development.

21. www.htctu.net  “HTCTU Listservers”  “Alt Media”
What Can You Do Now?
CAM and AMXDB members, verify contact information
Non-members, sign up for AMXDB
Subscribe to the HTCTU alt-media listserv
 “HTCTU Listservers”  “Alt Media”
Gaeir

22. Questions or Suggestions?
Cheryl