IT Accessibility: What Campus Leaders Are Saying

University presidents, CIOs, and other IT leaders discuss the importance of IT accessibility on college campuses.

(Michael Young) We are committed to
the notion that everyone should have

an opportunity to participate in
higher education

whether it be from the learning
perspective, or the research

perspective, or an opportunity
to work here at this institution.

We benefit from that because we get
to enjoy the talents and the skills

of those people who come in,
and also their perspective,

which in many cases will be different
from the perspective of others on campus.

So accessibility becomes a very
important value at the university.

(Tracy Mitrano) We're a leading
university globally.

We want the best talent in the world
for our students, our staff,

and our faculty. And we want to
be sure if that talent has a disability

that they know that we are a
welcoming community.

(Pablo Molino) We're competing with
other prestigious

and highly accomplished institutions.
We want to make sure that we can target

the right candidates to join our community
regardless of their disability status.

(Pete Siegel) We want to do everything
we can to ensure that they have

the same access to smart faculty,
to fellow students,

and to the resources at UC Davis.

(Edward Ray) In fact, we genuinely
believe that excellence

is achieved through diversity and that
a commitment to equity and inclusion

really enriches each of our lives.

(Linda Cahill) It would be inconceivable
not to have a social conscience, at least,

and be completely committed
to making our resources

at Barry University accessible
to all students.

(Edward Ray) We believe that the use of
technology can be very powerful.

It connects people to each other,

but it also enhances their
learning capabilities;

it increases what they can do through
their research and creative work;

it really makes it possible for them to
have a more powerful impact in the world

and that's basically what we're all about.

And we want that to be true
for every member of our community

regardless of limitations, of physical,
spacial, time or other dimension.

(Hernan Londono) As an IT professional,

sometimes some of us concentrate in
the technical side of the house only

and we forget that finally
the technology is to serve the people.

(Michael Young) What the university
offers and makes available

has to be offered to everybody.

We can't afford to waste the talents
or the brilliance or the minds of anybody

and making things accessible allows
everybody to engage in the university.

Equal opportunity is a part of our value
system, but it's also required by law.

(Pete Siegel) Compliance is extremely
important. Compliance is the law.

But that isn't the motivator
for most of us at universities.

Our motivation has always been
to provide easily accessible tools...

excellent experiences for our students...

and really to give them the sense that
this is a place they want to be,

a place they want to learn,
a place where they can thrive.

(Michael Young) Universal design is a very
powerful concept because what it means is

we look at the issue of accessibility
at the outset rather than buying something

or engaging something, or developing
something that we have to retrofit.

Which not only makes it cheaper
and more efficient,

it likely makes it much better in terms
of both the quality of the product

and the accessibility to those...

all the people that we want
to be able to use it.

(Tracy Mitrano) I think the other direction
that colleges and universities

could and should take is
to think about accommodation

as really the beginning

It was the appropriate measure

that was taken in the
Americans with Disabilities Act

that was passed in 1990

and that's well over a generation ago.

I think now we really have to think less
about how we're going to measure

specifically this accommodation
or that accommodation

and recognize that we can make
accessibility open and available

so that individual staff, faculty
or students

do not have to go to get an accommodation.

It will be automatically available in the webpage that they visit, in the device that they use.

(Brady Deaton) We envision a campus that has
a concept of universal design in all aspects
of information technology,

that a student is not impeded in any way,

but in fact, that technology is utilized not only directly by those who benefit because of certain challenges
they may have,

but also is illustrative to the broader student body and to the faculty and to alums

about what an inclusive learning environment is.

(Pete Seigel) We have some things we have
to learn in order to move into accessibility
space,

but the basic goals and the basic values are things we already know and love.

Then we bring in things like universal design,

the notion that if we design things well right
from the start, they actually aren't more expensive.

This is something that we can fit
into even our very, very tight budgets.

(Eileen McDonough) We make a great effort
in our graduate and our undergraduate counsel

to make sure that faculty and deans are aware
that in program design, in offering a new major,

that they take into account that they might have to have specialized software available,

and they have to build that into their program
development.

And then to certainly just be aware of all the different ways that students can learn,

to help faculty and deans understand the concept of universal design.

(Gerry Hanley) The first step really needs to be an assessment of where we are,

so we can then inform our planning process, develop plans, implement a project,

and then really assess the results of it.

(Pablo Molino) Key to our approach to making
sure that our campus and our technology is

accessible to people with disabilities, is
to ensure we do this by design.

This is not an afterthought that we do after we have implemented a new classroom.

Instead, this is something that we do from the initial conception of a new project or idea.

The same way we do this for privacy and security, we do this for accessibility.

(Bruce Maas) It is less costly, in the long
run, to be thinking through the issues of accessibility comprehensively.

Therefore, having a plan for accessibility insures that from the beginning we think through our issues

with regard to the delivery of our services.

Doing so in a strategic way means that we
can hold down costs over the long haul

and actually deliver better services in the bargain.

(Brady Deaton) It is very important that a university follows a policy and a process that is a can-do kind of process.

It assumes that we are going to undertake the investments that we need,

we're going to demonstrate the values that we need,

that not only address the needs of students who may be challenged with vision or hearing or other disabilities,

but also draw on the technology that is not only exciting for those people who are developing
the technology,

it's intellectually exciting, it provides new jobs for that matter,

and it stimulates learning in so many parts of the university.

So that attitude of the university administration, as well as faculty and staff and students,

becomes very, very important because everyone gains from this. It's a win-win situation.

(Tracy Mitrano) A policy really is an important way to go, because it will focus everyone's attention.

It's also probably the way that you have to go now that there are legal pressures on higher education in this area.

The second thing I would say about policy is there are
really two types in general.

One is a policy that you have because you have a law,

for example, the Family Education Rights Privacy Act Policy.

So you want to be clear and sure that you're going to have compliance on your campus.

There's another kind of policy that I would call aspirational policy and maybe accessibility fits a little bit in both

but you most certainly can err on the aspirational side.

An aspirational policy is something you establish for your institution as a path moving towards something, moving forward.

It does not have to have one hundred percent compliance

because it's really a direction that you're setting strategically for your institution.

(Gerry Hanley) I'd say another critical aspect around our strategy is a shared governance strategy.

Because education is a shared responsibility

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across faculty, staff, students, venders,
all of us working together have to share in

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that responsibility. Now, a shared governance
process means if you are responsible in delivering

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the service, then you have an opportunity
to share in governing how we're going to

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manage the implementation of these services.
(Brady Deaton) The administrators of the university

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must reflect the values that demonstrate the
importance of this to the learning environment

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and it has to be built in then to every aspect
of what we do.

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(Michael Young) Right now we have a number
of projects and initiatives underway at the

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UW in which we're testing new technologies.
Accessibility is an important consideration

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in these evaluations. Many of the vendors
we work with have completed

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Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates
or VPATs, which offer a checklist of accessibility

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criteria and vendors' self-assessment as to
how well they meet those criteria. It's a

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good starting point, but we go beyond that
to ask a vendor specific questions and to

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test their products with respect to accessibility.
(Gerry Hanley) We begin with our vendors saying

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(a) this is not only important, that this
is required for working with the CSU. Every

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student who comes into our institution, we
have to provide equally effective access to

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those services and you are a partner in delivering
those services to us. So we will tell you

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what we need and then we will help you inform
your staff, educate your staff, provide them

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some consultation and guidance in partnership
with us, so you can deliver the successful

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service for us.
(Pat Burns) So we work with our vendors to

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try to put pressure on them to make things
accessible. We actually have a purchasing

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process where we work through and ask the
issues about accessibility for software and

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hardware that we buy as well.
(Bruce Maas) Individual efforts really need

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to be able to scale well. If we go about things
in an ad hoc approach, one by one, we're not

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likely to get the same results as if we work
together as a community in higher education,

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to work with vendors to improve accessibility
for everyone with regard to the products that

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are offered. That's a much more pragmatic
approach rather than institution by institution.

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(Gerry Hanley) Making accessibility a priority
in their development roadmap is going to be

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driven by the market demand. And if an institution
never says a word, the vendor isn't going

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to do anything about it. So if we begin to
communicate our demands collectively, then

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the vendor will recognize the market value
of accessibility.

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(Joel Hartman) As we acquire IT resources,
we have to embed accessibility in our contracts.

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As we develop resources, we have to employ
universal design in our thinking about how

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to make these resources available and we have
to continue to monitor students to see if

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we're really delivering to them the resources
in a form that they can actually use.

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(Michael Young) Accessibility requires effort
on the part of everyone in the higher education

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community - faculty, staff, technology vendors.
If we all do our part, our institutions can

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provide everyone with an equal opportunity
to participate. And we all benefit from the

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perspectives of a diverse group.
(Hernan Londonono) Having that peace of mind

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that we are doing all we can to provide an
accessible campus is -- gives us a lot of

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pride and we feel very happy about what, what
we do.

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(Linda Cahill) Why wouldn't we make our campus
accessible to students with disabilities and

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why wouldn't we do everything we could to
see the technology is accessible to our students?

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(Tracy Mitrano) The spirit of what has made
higher education the jewel in the crown of

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American society is part and parcel of the
message of accessibility.

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(Ed Ray) Every way in which we touch the lives
of others, whether it's in the classroom,

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the laboratory, through live performances,
through events on campus, we want everyone

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who comes here and creates those experiences
to be as fully engaged and as fully benefited

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by the activity as possible. And that simply
can't be done if people have artificial challenges

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or barriers to try to overcome.

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(Ed Ray) I would say to those out there who
are just getting started or maybe struggling

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to figure out how to use technology to advance
accessibility on their campuses that there's

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no such thing as a bad time to start.