1 00:00:01,048 --> 00:00:05,026 (Michael Young) We are committed to the notion that everyone should have an opportunity to 2 00:00:05,026 --> 00:00:09,959 participate in higher education, whether it be from the learning perspective, or the research 3 00:00:09,959 --> 00:00:14,082 perspective, or an opportunity to work here at this institution. We benefit from that 4 00:00:14,082 --> 00:00:20,519 because we get to enjoy the talents and the skills of those people who come in, and also 5 00:00:20,519 --> 00:00:24,599 their perspective, which in many cases will be different from the perspective of others 6 00:00:24,599 --> 00:00:31,056 on campus. So accessibility becomes a very important value at the university. 7 00:00:31,056 --> 00:00:48,093 (Tracy Mitrano) We're a leading university globally. We want the best talent in the world 8 00:00:48,093 --> 00:00:54,008 for our students, our staff, and our faculty. And we want to be sure if that talent has 9 00:00:54,008 --> 00:00:57,879 a disability that they know that we are a welcoming community. 10 00:00:57,879 --> 00:01:03,076 (Pablo Molino) We're competing with other prestigious and highly accomplished institutions. 11 00:01:03,076 --> 00:01:10,091 We want to make sure that we can target the right candidates to join our community regardless 12 00:01:10,091 --> 00:01:13,075 of their disability status. (Pete Siegel) We want to do everything we 13 00:01:13,075 --> 00:01:21,009 can to insure that they have the same access to smart faculty, to fellow students, and 14 00:01:21,009 --> 00:01:25,063 to the resources at UC Davis. (Ed Ray) In fact, we genuinely believe that 15 00:01:25,063 --> 00:01:32,007 excellence is achieved through diversity and that a commitment to equity and inclusion 16 00:01:32,007 --> 00:01:38,004 really enriches each of our lives. (Linda Cahill) It would be inconceivable not 17 00:01:38,004 --> 00:01:45,088 to have a social conscience, at least, and be completely committed to making our resources 18 00:01:45,088 --> 00:01:49,025 at Barry University accessible to all students. 19 00:01:49,025 --> 00:01:55,075 (Ed Ray) We believe that the use of technology can be very powerful. It connects people to 20 00:01:55,075 --> 00:02:02,017 each other, but it also enhances their learning capabilities; it increases what they can do 21 00:02:02,017 --> 00:02:08,879 through their research and creative work; it really makes it possible for them to have 22 00:02:08,879 --> 00:02:15,043 a more powerful impact in the world and that's basically what we're all about. And we want 23 00:02:15,043 --> 00:02:23,489 that to be true for every member of our community regardless of limitations, of physical, spacial, 24 00:02:23,489 --> 00:02:30,659 time or other dimension. (Hernan Londono) As an IT professional, sometimes 25 00:02:30,659 --> 00:02:37,239 some of us concentrate in the technical side of the house only and we forget that finally 26 00:02:37,239 --> 00:02:41,159 the technology is to serve the people. (Michael Young) What the university offers 27 00:02:41,159 --> 00:02:46,039 and makes available has to be offered to everybody. We can't afford to waste the talents or 28 00:02:46,039 --> 00:02:52,014 the brilliance or the minds of anybody and making things accessible allows everybody 29 00:02:52,014 --> 00:02:57,219 to engage in the university. Equal opportunity is a part of our value system, but it's 30 00:02:57,219 --> 00:03:00,889 also required by law. (Pete Siegel) Compliance is extremely important. 31 00:03:00,889 --> 00:03:06,959 And compliance is the law. But that isn't the motivator for most of us at universities. 32 00:03:06,959 --> 00:03:14,499 Our motivation has always been to provide easily accessible tools, excellent experiences 33 00:03:14,499 --> 00:03:19,189 for our students and really to give them the sense that this is a place they want to be, 34 00:03:19,189 --> 00:03:24,659 a place they want to learn, a place where they can thrive. 35 00:03:24,659 --> 00:03:34,379 (Michael Young) Universal design is a very powerful concept because what it means is 36 00:03:34,379 --> 00:03:40,439 we look at the issue of accessibility at the outset rather than buying something or engaging 37 00:03:40,439 --> 00:03:43,087 something, or developing something that we have to retrofit. Which not only makes it 38 00:03:43,087 --> 00:03:49,639 cheaper and more efficient, it likely makes it much better in terms of both the quality 39 00:03:49,639 --> 00:03:53,579 of the product and the accessibility to those -- all the people that we want to be able 40 00:03:53,579 --> 00:03:56,299 to use it. (Tracy Mitrano) I think the other direction 41 00:03:56,299 --> 00:04:02,999 that colleges and universities could and should take is to think about accommodation as really 42 00:04:02,999 --> 00:04:08,359 the beginning of the conversation about disability . It was the appropriate measure that was 43 00:04:08,359 --> 00:04:13,939 taken in the Americans with Disabilities Act that was passed in 1990 and that's well over 44 00:04:13,939 --> 00:04:20,084 a generation ago. I think now we really have to think less about how we're going to measure 45 00:04:20,084 --> 00:04:27,009 specifically this accommodation or that accommodation and recognize that we can make accessibility 46 00:04:27,009 --> 00:04:32,007 open and available so that individual staff, faculty or students do not have to go to get 47 00:04:32,007 --> 00:04:38,004 an accommodation. It will be automatically available in the webpage that they visit, 48 00:04:38,004 --> 00:04:42,039 in the device that they use. (Brady Deaton) We envision a campus that has 49 00:04:42,039 --> 00:04:48,014 a concept of universal design in all aspects of information technology, that a student 50 00:04:48,014 --> 00:04:52,091 is not impeded in any way, but in fact, that technology is utilized not only directly by 51 00:04:52,091 --> 00:04:59,095 those who benefit because of certain challenges they may have, but also is illustrative to 52 00:04:59,095 --> 00:05:05,009 the broader student body and to the faculty and to alums about what an inclusive learning 53 00:05:05,009 --> 00:05:08,027 environment is. (Pete Seigel) We have some things we have 54 00:05:08,027 --> 00:05:13,074 to learn in order to move into accessibility space, but the basic goals and the basic values 55 00:05:13,074 --> 00:05:18,037 are things we already know and love. Then we bring in things like universal design: 56 00:05:18,037 --> 00:05:24,028 the notion that if we design things well right from the start, they actually aren't more 57 00:05:24,028 --> 00:05:31,093 expensive. This is something that we can fit into even our very, very tight budgets. 58 00:05:31,093 --> 00:05:43,096 (Eileen McDonough) We make a great effort in our graduate and our undergraduate counsel 59 00:05:43,096 --> 00:05:52,041 to make sure that faculty and deans are aware that in program design, in offering a new 60 00:05:52,041 --> 00:05:58,059 major, that they take into account that they might have to have specialized software available, 61 00:05:58,059 --> 00:06:06,025 and they have to build that into their program development. And then to certainly just be 62 00:06:06,025 --> 00:06:13,075 aware of all the different ways that students can learn, to help faculty and deans understand 63 00:06:13,075 --> 00:06:17,072 the concept of universal design. (Gerry Hanley) The first step really needs 64 00:06:17,072 --> 00:06:26,008 to be an assessment of where we are, so we can then inform our planning process, develop 65 00:06:26,008 --> 00:06:31,019 plans, implement a project, and then really assess the results of it. 66 00:06:31,019 --> 00:06:36,041 (Pablo Molino) Key to our approach to making sure that our campus and our technology is 67 00:06:36,041 --> 00:06:41,074 accessible to people with disabilities, is to ensure we do this by design. This is not 68 00:06:41,074 --> 00:06:48,000 an afterthought that we do after we have implemented a new classroom. Instead, this is something 69 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:54,002 that we do from the initial conception of new project or idea. The same we would do 70 00:06:54,002 --> 00:06:57,004 this for privacy and security, we do this for accessibility. 71 00:06:57,004 --> 00:07:02,095 (Bruce Maas) It is less costly, in the long run, to be thinking through the issues of 72 00:07:02,095 --> 00:07:09,057 accessibility comprehensively. Therefore, having a plan for accessibility insures that 73 00:07:09,057 --> 00:07:16,048 from the beginning we think through our issues with regard to the delivery of our services. 74 00:07:16,048 --> 00:07:23,001 Doing so in a strategic way means that we can hold down costs over the long haul and 75 00:07:23,001 --> 00:07:28,006 actually deliver better services in the bargain. (Brady Deaton) It is very important that a 76 00:07:28,006 --> 00:07:36,024 university follows a policy and a process that is a can-do kind of process. It assumes 77 00:07:36,024 --> 00:07:40,002 that we are going to undertake the investments that we need, we're going to demonstrate the 78 00:07:40,002 --> 00:07:45,003 values that we need - that not only address the needs of students who may be challenged 79 00:07:45,003 --> 00:07:52,036 with vision or hearing or other disabilities, but also draw on the technology that is not 80 00:07:52,036 --> 00:07:56,059 only exciting for those people who are developing the technology, it's intellectually exciting, 81 00:07:56,059 --> 00:08:01,069 it provides new jobs for that matter and it stimulates learning in so many parts of the 82 00:08:01,069 --> 00:08:08,037 university. So that attitude of the university administration, as well as faculty and staff 83 00:08:08,037 --> 00:08:13,068 and students, becomes very, very important because everyone gains from this. It's a win-win 84 00:08:13,068 --> 00:08:16,041 situation. (Tracy Mitrano) A policy really is an important 85 00:08:16,041 --> 00:08:22,027 way to go, because it will focus everyone's attention. It's also probably the way that 86 00:08:22,027 --> 00:08:27,081 you have to go now that there are legal pressures on higher education in this area. The second 87 00:08:27,081 --> 00:08:33,061 thing I would say about policy is there are really two types in general. One is a policy 88 00:08:33,061 --> 00:08:38,759 that you have because you have a law, for example, the Family Education Rights Privacy 89 00:08:38,759 --> 00:08:45,029 Act Policy, so you want to be clear and sure that you're going to have compliance on your 90 00:08:45,029 --> 00:08:49,899 campus. There's another kind of policy that I would call aspirational policy and maybe 91 00:08:49,899 --> 00:08:55,689 accessibility fits a little bit in both but you most certainly can err on the aspirational 92 00:08:55,689 --> 00:09:01,329 side. An aspirational policy is something you establish for your institution as a path 93 00:09:01,329 --> 00:09:06,004 moving towards something, moving forward. It does not have to have one hundred percent 94 00:09:06,004 --> 00:09:10,319 compliance because it's really a direction that you're setting strategically for your 95 00:09:10,319 --> 00:09:12,779 institution. (Gerry Hanley) I'd say another critical 96 00:09:12,779 --> 00:09:25,098 aspect around our strategy is a shared governance strategy. Because education is a shared responsibility 97 00:09:25,098 --> 00:09:34,389 across faculty, staff, students, venders, all of us working together have to share in 98 00:09:34,389 --> 00:09:42,189 that responsibility. Now, a shared governance process means if you are responsible in delivering 99 00:09:42,189 --> 00:09:48,024 the service, then you have an opportunity to share in governing how we're going to 100 00:09:48,024 --> 00:09:52,629 manage the implementation of these services. (Brady Deaton) The administrators of the university 101 00:09:52,629 --> 00:09:57,949 must reflect the values that demonstrate the importance of this to the learning environment 102 00:09:57,949 --> 00:10:00,779 and it has to be built in then to every aspect of what we do. 103 00:10:00,779 --> 00:10:04,139 (Michael Young) Right now we have a number of projects and initiatives underway at the 104 00:10:04,139 --> 00:10:09,269 UW in which we're testing new technologies. Accessibility is an important consideration 105 00:10:09,269 --> 00:10:13,079 in these evaluations. Many of the vendors we work with have completed 106 00:10:13,079 --> 00:10:18,569 Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates or VPATs, which offer a checklist of accessibility 107 00:10:18,569 --> 00:10:23,649 criteria and vendors' self-assessment as to how well they meet those criteria. It's a 108 00:10:23,649 --> 00:10:28,269 good starting point, but we go beyond that to ask a vendor specific questions and to 109 00:10:28,269 --> 00:10:33,569 test their products with respect to accessibility. (Gerry Hanley) We begin with our vendors saying 110 00:10:33,569 --> 00:10:42,309 (a) this is not only important, that this is required for working with the CSU. Every 111 00:10:42,309 --> 00:10:48,099 student who comes into our institution, we have to provide equally effective access to 112 00:10:48,099 --> 00:10:55,086 those services and you are a partner in delivering those services to us. So we will tell you 113 00:10:55,086 --> 00:11:03,093 what we need and then we will help you inform your staff, educate your staff, provide them 114 00:11:03,093 --> 00:11:10,699 some consultation and guidance in partnership with us, so you can deliver the successful 115 00:11:10,699 --> 00:11:13,037 service for us. (Pat Burns) So we work with our vendors to 116 00:11:13,037 --> 00:11:19,018 try to put pressure on them to make things accessible. We actually have a purchasing 117 00:11:19,018 --> 00:11:26,049 process where we work through and ask the issues about accessibility for software and 118 00:11:26,049 --> 00:11:31,529 hardware that we buy as well. (Bruce Maas) Individual efforts really need 119 00:11:31,529 --> 00:11:37,879 to be able to scale well. If we go about things in an ad hoc approach, one by one, we're not 120 00:11:37,879 --> 00:11:43,091 likely to get the same results as if we work together as a community in higher education, 121 00:11:43,091 --> 00:11:48,099 to work with vendors to improve accessibility for everyone with regard to the products that 122 00:11:48,099 --> 00:11:55,269 are offered. That's a much more pragmatic approach rather than institution by institution. 123 00:11:55,269 --> 00:12:02,003 (Gerry Hanley) Making accessibility a priority in their development roadmap is going to be 124 00:12:02,003 --> 00:12:11,059 driven by the market demand. And if an institution never says a word, the vendor isn't going 125 00:12:11,059 --> 00:12:17,269 to do anything about it. So if we begin to communicate our demands collectively, then 126 00:12:17,269 --> 00:12:20,049 the vendor will recognize the market value of accessibility. 127 00:12:20,049 --> 00:12:26,067 (Joel Hartman) As we acquire IT resources, we have to embed accessibility in our contracts. 128 00:12:26,067 --> 00:12:31,019 As we develop resources, we have to employ universal design in our thinking about how 129 00:12:31,019 --> 00:12:35,093 to make these resources available and we have to continue to monitor students to see if 130 00:12:35,093 --> 00:12:43,309 we're really delivering to them the resources in a form that they can actually use. 131 00:12:43,309 --> 00:12:53,061 (Michael Young) Accessibility requires effort on the part of everyone in the higher education 132 00:12:53,061 --> 00:12:59,209 community - faculty, staff, technology vendors. If we all do our part, our institutions can 133 00:12:59,209 --> 00:13:04,529 provide everyone with an equal opportunity to participate. And we all benefit from the 134 00:13:04,529 --> 00:13:07,709 perspectives of a diverse group. (Hernan Londonono) Having that peace of mind 135 00:13:07,709 --> 00:13:12,959 that we are doing all we can to provide an accessible campus is -- gives us a lot of 136 00:13:12,959 --> 00:13:17,067 pride and we feel very happy about what, what we do. 137 00:13:17,067 --> 00:13:22,199 (Linda Cahill) Why wouldn't we make our campus accessible to students with disabilities and 138 00:13:22,199 --> 00:13:27,439 why wouldn't we do everything we could to see the technology is accessible to our students? 139 00:13:27,439 --> 00:13:32,049 (Tracy Mitrano) The spirit of what has made higher education the jewel in the crown of 140 00:13:32,049 --> 00:13:36,939 American society is part and parcel of the message of accessibility. 141 00:13:36,939 --> 00:13:43,139 (Ed Ray) Every way in which we touch the lives of others, whether it's in the classroom, 142 00:13:43,139 --> 00:13:50,017 the laboratory, through live performances, through events on campus, we want everyone 143 00:13:50,017 --> 00:14:00,029 who comes here and creates those experiences to be as fully engaged and as fully benefited 144 00:14:00,029 --> 00:14:08,179 by the activity as possible. And that simply can't be done if people have artificial challenges 145 00:14:08,179 --> 00:14:09,889 or barriers to try to overcome. 146 00:14:09,889 --> 00:14:16,319 (Ed Ray) I would say to those out there who are just getting started or maybe struggling 147 00:14:16,319 --> 00:14:23,629 to figure out how to use technology to advance accessibility on their campuses that there's 148 00:14:23,629 --> 99:59:59,999 no such thing as a bad time to start.