Legal Update:How to Avoid Jail-Time.

Making Digital Resources Accessible.

Ray RoseRose & Smith Associates

                        This work by Raymond Rose is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

speaks volumes 2014

Ray Rose

• Author: Access and Equity in Online Classes and Virtual Schools (2007)

• Update (Fall 2014) includes reviews of OCR Reports

Who are you?

• Higher Education• Other• K-12

What do you do?

• Administrator• Program Manager• Course Designer• Course Instructor• Other

Are there questions you’d like to get answered at this session?

Terms

• OCR – US Dept of Education, Office for Civil Rights

• DoJ – US Dept of Justice• Compliance – meeting legal requirements

Jail-time is not a penalty for creating, offering, or delivering online resources to students that are not accessible.

Non-Compliance

Extreme Situation: Loss of all Federal Funding for the institution

Typical Non-Compliance Situation: Publicity (negative) Paperwork Resolution Plan Ongoing monitoring by OCR

Standards That Include Access…

• K-12– iNACOL

• Adopted by TxVSN

– Quality Matters• Higher Ed

– Quality Matters– Online Learning Consortium (formerly

SLOAN-C)

Your obligation:

Meet legal requirements for accessibility

Become Familiar with UDL

• Universal Design for Learning– Multiple means of representation– Multiple means of Action and Expression– Multiple means of engagement

http://www.cast.org/udl/

Think Print disability

• Includes:– Visual Print-disability– Physical Print-disability– Cognitive and/or Perceptual Print-disability

OCR’s Operational Definition

“those with a disability are able to acquire the same information and engage in the same interactions — and within the same time frame — as those without disabilities.”

OCR Compliance Review 11-11-2128, 06121583, paraphrased from 11-13-5001, 10122118, 11-11-6002

Your text hereYour text here

OCR Finding

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Section 504

Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Vocational Rehabilitation Act, 1973)

– mandates that qualified people with disabilities have access to programs and services that receive federal funds

Institutional 504 Basics

• Appoint 504 Coordinator• Establish 504 Grievance Procedure• Provide annual public notice of Coordinator

and Grievance Procedure

U. S. Department of Justice (DoJ)

• Enforces: ADA, 504, IDEA, Title IV, Title IX

• if qualified individuals with disabilities enroll in online courses, these courses must be made accessible to them

ADA

Title II, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

ADA

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990)

– reinforced and extended Section 504– prohibiting institutions from excluding and

otherwise discriminating against students with disabilities in public programs and services,

– regardless of whether or not they are federally funded

http://www.ada.gov/2010_regs.htm

OCR Finding

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act 1973

• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (U.S. Department of Education, 1998), – requires that electronic and information technologies that

federal agencies procure, develop, maintain, and use – be made accessible to people with disabilities, both

employees and members of the public, – unless it would pose an undue burden to do so.

• The Vocational Rehabilitation Act Amendments (1998)– mandated the U.S. Architectural and Transportation

Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) to develop accessibility standards for electronic and information technology to which federal agencies must comply

Texas Web Accessibility

TX GOVT §2001.007

Texas Administrative Code, Title 1, Chapters 206 and 213• Electronic Info Resources Accessibility Policy/DIR

Scope of Applicability:• All State Agencies• State Commissions• State Authorities• State University and Higher Education System• Other: TX GOVT §2157.005 defines "State Agency" as "a department,

commission, board, office, council, authority, or other agency in the executive or judicial branch of state government that is created by the constitution or a statute of this state, including a university system or institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003, Education Code.

* “The use of the Accessibility Standards by OCR does not imply that conformance to Section 508, WCAG, and/or other electronic and information technology standard is either required or sufficient to comply with either Section 504 or Title II. Rather, OCR’s limited application of the Accessibility Standards served only as an investigative line of inquiry, assessing the designated website against specific technical requirements, which may indicate potential compliance concerns under Section 504 and Title II.”

*OCR Compliance Review: Docket #15-11-5002 *Boilerplate from OCR Compliance Reports

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

• Perceivable• Operable• Understandable• Robust

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

• Perceivable–Text alternatives–Time-based media alternatives–Content can be presented in different

ways–Easier for users to see and hear

content

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

• Operable–Keyboard functionality–Time constraints removed–Sensitivity to seizure-inducing design–Easily navigate and find content

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

• Understandable–Text content readable and

understandable–Web pages are predictable in

appearance and operation–Help users avoid and correct mistakes

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

• Robust –Maximize current and future user

compatibility–Including assistive technologies

OCR Finding

POLICIES

Policy Recommendation

Adopt quality standards for all online learning activities

Policy Recommendation

Review ALL courses to insure they are legally accessible

Policy Recommendation

Create process/responsibility/timeline for retrofitting or replacing non-compliant courses

Policy Recommendation

Create a Special Needs Online Learning Policy

Policy Requirement

Ensure institution has:– 504 Coordinator– 504 Grievance Policy, and – Annual 504 Notifications

Policy Requirement

There is no gateway exam required to participate in online learning

Policy Requirement

Institutional website meets legal accessibility requirements

COURSE DESIGN

Course Design

Pay attention to color (color blind)

Course Design

Graphics• Alt Tag EVERYTHING• NO Eye Candy

Course Design

Captioning for Video andTranscripts for AudioARE NOT A LUXURY

Course Design

Everything needs to be accessible -- inside and outside the LMS

Course Design

Make PDFs searchable(If a graphic, follow requirements for graphics)

Course Design

Course navigation without a mouse is possible

Course Design

Courses are reviewed with a screen reader

More..• Think UDL -- use Alternate Presentations• Live Video needs to be accessible• Caption Lecture Capture • Do NOT trust vendors’ word on

accessibility. – 6 different vendors materials cited by

OCR.

PROGRAM and

COURSE MONITORING

Monitoring

Collect disagreggregated enrollment data for all online courses and programs

Monitoring

Analyze enrollment data for comparison with sending population

Resources

FREE Video Captioning Apps• NCAM.wgbh.org

–MAGpie–CC for FLASH

Resources

Adobe and Accessibility website (PDF info)• www.adobe.com/accessibility.html

2007 Access and Equity… Publication• http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED509623.pdf

Resources

FREE website accessibility testers• http://CynthiaSays.com• https://amp.ssbbartgroup.com/

express

Resource: Free Screen Reader

NVDA http://www.nvaccess.org/

NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free “screen reader” which enables blind and vision impaired people to use computers. It reads the text on the screen in a computerised voice. You can control what is read to you by moving the cursor to the relevant area of text with a mouse or the arrows on your keyboard.

Contact Info

Raymond Rose– ray@rose-smith.com– 512.791.3100

Slides available at SlideShare.netunder RaymondRose