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 insure that they have the same access
to smart faculty, to fellow students, and

to the resources at UC Davis.
(Ed 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.

(Ed 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.

And 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 of the conversation about disability
. 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
new project or idea. The same we would 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

driven by the 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

or barriers to try to overcome.

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

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

no such thing as a bad time to start.