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IT Accessibility: What Campus Leaders Are Saying

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    (Michael Young) We are committed to
    the notion that everyone should have
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    an opportunity to participate in
    higher education
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    whether it be from the
    learning perspective,
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    or the research perspective,
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    or an opportunity to work here
    at this institution.
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    We benefit from that because we get
    to enjoy the talents and the skills
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    of those people who come in,
    and also their perspective,
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    which in many cases will be different
    from the perspective of others on campus.
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    So accessibility becomes a very
    important value at the university.
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    (Tracy Mitrano) We're a leading
    university globally.
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    We want the best talent in the world
    for our students, our staff,
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    and our faculty. And we want to
    be sure if that talent has a disability
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    that they know that we are a
    welcoming community.
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    (Pablo Molino) We're competing
    with other prestigious
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    and highly accomplished institutions.
    We want to make sure that we can target
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    the right candidates to join our community
    regardless of their disability status.
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    (Pete Siegel) We want to do everything
    we can to ensure that they have
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    the same access to smart faculty,
    to fellow students,
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    and to the resources at UC Davis.
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    (Edward Ray) In fact,
    we genuinely believe that
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    excellence is achieved through diversity
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    and that a commitment
    to equity and inclusion
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    really enriches each of our lives.
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    (Linda Cahill) It would be inconceivable
    not to have a social conscience, at least,
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    and be completely committed to making
    our resources at Barry University
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    accessible to all students.
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    (Edward Ray) We believe that the use
    of technology can be very powerful.
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    It connects people to each other,
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    but it also enhances their
    learning capabilities;
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    it increases what they can do through
    their research and creative work;
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    it really makes it possible for them to
    have a more powerful impact in the world
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    and that's basically what we're all about.
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    And we want that to be true
    for every member of our community
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    regardless of limitations, of physical,
    spacial, time or other dimension.
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    (Hernan Londono) As an IT professional,
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    sometimes some of us concentrate in
    the technical side of the house only
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    and we forget that finally
    the technology is to serve the people.
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    (Michael Young) What the university
    offers and makes available
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    has to be offered to everybody.
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    We can't afford to waste the talents
    or the brilliance or the minds of anybody
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    and making things accessible allows
    everybody to engage in the university.
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    Equal opportunity is a part of our value
    system, but it's also required by law.
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    (Pete Siegel) Compliance is extremely
    important. Compliance is the law.
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    But that isn't the motivator
    for most of us at universities.
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    Our motivation has always been
    to provide easily accessible tools,
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    excellent experiences for our students
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    and really to give them the sense that
    this is a place they want to be,
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    a place they want to learn,
    a place where they can thrive.
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    (Michael Young) Universal design is a very
    powerful concept because what it means is
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    we look at the issue of accessibility
    at the outset rather than buying something
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    or engaging something, or developing
    something that we have to retrofit.
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    Which not only makes it cheaper
    and more efficient,
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    it likely makes it much better in terms
    of both the quality of the product
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    and the accessibility to those...
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    all the people that we want
    to be able to use it.
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    (Tracy Mitrano) I think the other direction
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    that colleges and universities
    could and should take is
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    to think about accommodation
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    as really the beginning of the
    conversation about disability.
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    It was the appropriate measure
    that was taken
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    in the Americans with Disabilities Act
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    that was passed in 1990
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    and that's well over a generation ago.
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    I think now we really have to think less
    about how we're going to measure
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    specifically this accommodation
    or that accommodation
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    and recognize that we can make
    accessibility open and available
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    so that individual staff, faculty
    or students
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    do not have to go to get an accommodation.
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    It will be automatically available
    in the webpage that they visit,
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    in the device that they use.
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    (Brady Deaton) We envision a campus
    that has a concept of universal design
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    in all aspects of information technology,
    that a student is not impeded in any way,
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    but in fact, that technology is utilized
    not only directly by those who benefit
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    because of certain challenges
    they may have,
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    but also is illustrative to
    the broader student body
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    and to the faculty and to alums
    .
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    about what an inclusive learning
    environment is.
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    (Pete Seigel) We have some things
    we have to learn
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    in order to move into
    accessibility space,
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    but the basic goals and the basic values
    are things we already know and love.
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    Then we bring in things like
    universal design,
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    the notion that if we design things
    well right from the start,
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    they actually aren't more expensive.
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    This is something that we can fit
    into even our very, very tight budgets.
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    (Eileen McDonough) We make a great effort
    in our graduate
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    and our undergraduate counsel to make sure
    that faculty and deans are aware that
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    in program design, in offering
    a new major,
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    that they take into account that
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    they might have to have specialized
    software available,
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    and they have to build that
    into their program development.
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    And then to certainly just be aware
    of all the different ways
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    that students can learn,
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    to help faculty and deans understand
    the concept of universal design.
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    (Gerry Hanley) The first step really
    needs to be an assessment
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    of where we are, so we can
    then inform our planning process,
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    develop plans, implement a project,
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    and then really assess the results of it.
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    (Pablo Molino) Key to our approach
    to making sure that
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    our campus and our technology is
    accessible to people with disabilities,
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    is to ensure we do this by design.
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    This is not an afterthought that we do
    after we have implemented a new classroom.
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    Instead, this is something that we do
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    from the initial conception
    of a new project or idea.
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    The same way we do this for privacy
    and security,
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    we do this for accessibility.
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    (Bruce Maas) It is less costly,
    in the long run,
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    to be thinking through the issues
    of accessibility comprehensively.
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    Therefore, having a plan for accessibility
    insures that from the beginning
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    we think through our issues with regard
    to the delivery of our services.
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    Doing so in a strategic way means that we
    can hold down costs over the long haul
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    and actually deliver better services in the bargain.
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    (Brady Deaton) It is very important that
    a university follows
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    a policy and a process
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    that is a can-do kind of process.
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    It assumes that we are going to
    undertake the investments that we need,
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    we're going to demonstrate the values
    that we need,
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    that not only address the needs of
    students who may be challenged with vision
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    or hearing or other disabilities,
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    but also draw on the technology
    that is not only exciting
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    for those people who are
    developing the technology,
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    it's intellectually exciting, it provides
    new jobs for that matter,
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    and it stimulates learning
    in so many parts of the university.
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    So that attitude of the university
    administration,
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    as well as faculty and staff and students,
    becomes very, very important
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    because everyone gains from this.
    It's a win-win situation.
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    (Tracy Mitrano) A policy really is an
    important way to go,
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    because it will focus everyone's attention.
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    It's also probably the way that
    you have to go now
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    that there are legal pressures
    on higher education in this area.
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    The second thing I would say about policy
    is there are really two types in general.
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    One is a policy that you have
    because you have a law,
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    for example, the Family Education Rights
    Privacy Act Policy.
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    So you want to be clear and sure that
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    you're going to have compliance
    on your campus.
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    There's another kind of policy
    that I would call aspirational policy
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    and maybe accessibility
    fits a little bit in both
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    but you most certainly
    can err on the aspirational side.
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    An aspirational policy is something
    you establish for your institution
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    as a path moving towards something,
    moving forward.
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    It does not have to have one hundred
    percent compliance
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    because it's really a direction
    that you're setting strategically
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    for your institution.
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    (Gerry Hanley) I'd say another critical
    aspect around our strategy is
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    a shared governance strategy.
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    Because education is
    a shared responsibility
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    across faculty, staff, students,
    venders,
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    all of us working together have to
    share in that responsibility.
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    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.
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    (Brady Deaton) The administrators of the
    university must reflect the values
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    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.
Title:
IT Accessibility: What Campus Leaders Are Saying
Description:

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

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Video Language:
English
Team:
DO-IT
Duration:
15:02
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English subtitles

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