2. IT Accessibility: The Big Picture Writ Mid-sized
Terrill Thompson
Technology Accessibility Specialist
University of Washington
Robert Squires
Director, UMOnline
University of Montana
Marlene Zentz
Accessibility Specialist & Instructional Design Consultant
University of Montana

3. Outline Introductions Audience Poll Historical Background
Today’s Technology Landscape
Culture, Policy and Vendors
Strategies & Solutions
Next Steps

4. Introductions

5. University of Washington
Accessible Technology Services, part of UW-IT
Interest Group
IT Accessibility Task Force
Distributed services
E&IT Accessibility Task Force
Montana Accessibility Interest Group
University of Montana
AT in Microcomputer labs since 1984; started in 2003
Task Force = VP for IT, Ext Affairs, including Disability Services, Purchasing, Faculty

6. Audience Poll

7. Live Poll Results

8. Historical Background

9. Legal Accessibility Requirements
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, Amended in 1998

10. Standards and Guidelines
W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 (1999)
Section 508 Accessibility Standards (2000)
W3C WCAG 2.0 (2008)
W3C Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) specification

11. EDUCAUSE Core Data Service Survey 2013
Question: Did your institution have a web accessibility policy and if so, upon what standards or guidelines was it based?

12. Preliminary Survey Results (n=550)
49% No, my institution did not have a web accessibility policy
36% Yes, based on Section 508 standards
7% Yes, based on WCAG 2.0
3% Yes, based on WCAG 1.0
6% Yes, based on other standards or guidelines
Other = state, in-house, international, combination
Final results will be published here: educause.edu/cds

13. Future: Updated Laws and Standards
Information & Communication Standards (Sec 508)
ADA Regulations for Web Accessibility
ICT:
Access Board’s refresh of Sec 508 & 255 standards
Two public drafts have been released
Most recent draft in December 2011
Draft is harmonized with WCAG 2.0 Level AA
Public comment period ended March 2012
ADA:
U.S. Department of Justice proposed new regs in June 2010
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was expected in July 2013

14. Meanwhile… June 2009 – NFB vs Arizona State University (and 5 others)
November 2010 – NFB vs Penn State University
March 2011 – NFB vs Northwestern and NYU
March 2012 – NFB vs Florida State University
And numerous other complaints filed with the U.S Dept of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
Arizona State – Amazon Kindle
Penn State – OCR complaint, multiple violations including LMS, classroom tech, third party vendors (financial)
Northwestern & NYU – Google Apps
Florida State – multiple violations, including math software, clickers

15. Today’s Technology Landscape

16. Accessibility of Websites
77.9% of pages include HTML headings
60.4% of images have alternate text
39.3% of form fields have labels
3.3% of pages use ARIA landmark roles
Sample: 31,701 web pages at 3251 higher education institutions in the U.S.
Source: itd.athenpro.org (April 2013)

17. PDF Accessibility 33.8% of PDFs in higher education are “tagged”
Only 20.7% of PDFs at doctorate-granting universities are “tagged”
“Tagged” = the foundation for accessibility is in place
But a tiny fraction of tagged PDFs are truly accessible (with headings, semantic structure, alt text, etc.)

18. Accessibility of Vendors’ Products
“Making accessibility a priority in (vendors’) development roadmap is going to be driven by market demand. And if an institution never says a word, the vendor isn’t going to do anything about it. So if we begin to communicate our demands collectively, then the vendor will recognize the market value of accessibility.”
Gerry Hanley, Senior Director of Academic Technology Services California State University Chancellor’s Office

19. Accessibility of Video
1.6 million videos on YouTube have captions (2012)
100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute (estimated 1 billion videos)
0.16% of videos are captioned on YouTube
0.00% of video on are captioned on Vimeo
0.00% of video anywhere is audio described.

20. A Mid-Sized Case in Point

21. Culture Before the Office of Civil Rights Complaint…
How to engage the institution and our statewide affiliates around issues of accessibility?
Montana Accessibility Interest Group:
Roles of various cultural groups,
Sustaianble sociaaly just learning experiences

22. Policy Senior Leadership Commitment IT Accessibility Constituent Group
UM Electronic and Information Technology Task Force

23. Vendors Culture revisited Moodlerooms
Moodle Accessibility Collaboration Group

24. Strategies & Solutions

25. Strategies and Solutions
What accessibility strategies and solutions have you used at your institution?

26. Next Steps Creating an Accessible Campus: Login information
Select Non-NetID Login
Username: educause
Password: educause

27. Next Steps Add ideas to the Moodle Shell
Join the Montana Accessibility Interest Group
Follow the accessibility track at EDUCAUSE
Communicate demands for accessibility with vendors
Join the IT Accessibility Constituent Group:
Friday, 9.10am-10.00am, 207B