1. Content and Cultural Change at a Higher Education Learning Company
A year of remediation
Content and Cultural Change at a Higher Education Learning Company

2. Content Standards and Accessibility
How do Content Standards and accessibility relate?
Accessibility training and policy development
Work with content teams to develop accessible materials
Accessibility partnerships and new product workflows
Rachel Comerford
Director of Content Standards

3. The Challenge
We receive hundreds of requests in a single year from accessibility offices, students, instructors, and parents.
Requests range from need for a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template), to files for an accessibility office to remediate, to a full course worth of accessible materials.
Changes in state legislation, introduction of new school policies, and ever-changing technology make it difficult to keep products up to date.

4. Agenda
Lessons Learned – Everything we (think) we’ve figured out so far
Methods for Better Results – How we’re trying to do better in the future
Keeping the Dialogue Open – How publishers and schools can work together to get the best results for students and professors
Shared Experiences – What’s your input on what we can do?

5. Three Customers Students/Teachers Colleagues Students/Teachers
Current Users – How can we remediate content/platforms quickly to meet needs?
How can we teach colleagues what accessibility IS?
How can we teach colleagues to build accessible products?
How can we better understand our customers needs?
Students/Teachers
Future Users – How can we build accessibly so we never need to remediate again?

6. Lessons Learned
What We Talk About When We Talk About Accessibility

7. conformance is not enough

8. Example: The Periodic table
Before
After
One of our Most Used/Most Popular features
Originally Programmed in Flash
Relied heavily on hover functionality
Passed conformance testing
HTML5
Color contrast improved
Keyboard navigable
Screen reader compatible
Failed Usability Testing
At AccessU we experimented with screen reader users
They were able to navigate the table, but told us that there was not enough context to perceive the layout/function of the table

9. Nothing is obvious
Saying “accessibility” isn’t enough – your results will be different every time.
“We’ll make it accessible.” – How?
“Accessibility is a part of the acceptance criteria.” – What does this mean?
“We’ll look at accessibility after the initial programming is complete.” – Why wait?
Define accessibility and share that definition
WCAG 2.0 AA
IDPF
PDF/UA
Specifications for every product type

10. Practice what you preach
Every deck, document, etc produced by the groups that I work with is expected to be accessible.
At the end of the day, we’re all educators – we’re responsible for making sure anyone can learn from the materials we create.

11. Keep looking for answers
We haven’t solved the problem but we can keep working toward solutions every day. This is a learning experience for us, our customers, and our partners, which means that every day we can and do get a little bit better at what we do.

12. Methods for better results

13. Change the language
By addressing the language, you change the culture – making accessibility about people, not the rules.
Training
Host webinars about most used products and how to make them accessible.
Show accessible examples wherever you can.
Show examples from your own products – keep it close to home.
Use the resources available to you:
Appoint accessibility ambassadors that can help answer questions

14. Be consistent
Ask your colleagues and partners the same questions – Every. Single. Time.
What do you ask? This will vary depending on your needs, your audience, and your definition of accessible.
When working with vendors, schools, etc. make sure your approach is consistent.
For example
Has alt text been authored for this project?
Are you documenting accessibility as you go?
What standards are you aiming to meet?
Did you consider color contrast for this palette?
Why?
The most rewarding experience you’ll have is when you hear someone else ask those questions first.

15. Accessibility from the ground up
Accessibility as a part of product development… every new product we build is accessible from the ground up.
How? Bring accessibility into
every department.
Ex: LearningCurve revision
Early planning editors
User experience testing
Quality Assurance testing
Customer Service training

16. Change the way you work Production workflows
Make every eBook an accessible eBook, starting with design.
Standardize IDD tagging.
Institute design training and review processes.
Template where possible.
Don’t be afraid of fresh starts
Sometimes, revising is more difficult than starting over.
Consider the volume of work to be revised and ask if there is an alternate approach that could be taken.

17. Document everything
Create a place that your colleagues can go for help.
Create guidelines for most created products – PDFs, PPTs, Word documents, Videos, etc.
Establish a place that questions can be asked and answered without judgment.

18. Examine your backlist
Prepare in Advance – Go into most-used products and start to update content before requests are made.
We picked 150 eBooks to re-release over this summer and fall as accessible eBooks.
What are students/instructors asking for most?
Set internal expectations for response – what we can provide, when, and how.
Make sure everyone is following the same requirements and the same policies.
Communicate those policies out in a clear manner both internally and to customers.

19. Find partners
Find partners that can help educate you and help you meet your goals.
Distribution partners that share your goals
Accessibility experts that can answer the questions you can’t
Colleagues in working groups that are facing the same challenges

20. Test… then test more Create a common testing plan for all products.
Use iterative testing processes – don’t wait until the end of the development cycle.
Make sure your testing plan aligns with your accessibility statement AS WELL AS your customers expectations.
Partner user testing with accessibility user testing.
Train your UX/UI team to look out for potential accessibility pitfalls.
Get a broad range of partners for this testing.
Students with and without impairments
Professors with and without impairments

21. Build Personas

22. Keeping the dialogue open

23. Provide a broader view
Are your students always asking you for something that we might be able to help with?
Is there specific AT you want us to test against?
Work with us if we’re not quite right the first time around – we want to learn from you and your students.
Try to be as specific as possible in telling us what you need.

24. Communicating your needs
Why is this a problem?
This title has a large media package attached to it and a wide variety of supplemental materials.
Tell us WHAT you need – it’s as important as why you need it.

25. Questions and Shared Experiences