Partnerships for Accessible Course Materials

Invitations to Collaborate with Accessible Ed & Disability Resources

"Designing for Accessibility" by AEM is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Disability is Common

…and natural…and normal…

The Largest Minority - and anyone can join!

“Most of us will move in and out of disability in our lifetimes, whether we do so through illness, an injury or merely the process of aging. Still, most Americans don’t know how to be disabled.”

-- Rosemarie Garland-Thomson� founding director of Emory University's Disability Studies Initiative

Comparing Models

Historical/Dominant Perspective - Medical/Rehabilitation Model

Functional limitations are tragedies that are suffered or endured. People request “special assistance” to gain access, and are often pitied, unless they are able to heroically “overcome” their disability.

Current/Critical Perspective - Social/Cultural Model

Functional limitations are normal and natural. Disability is political. Accommodation does not (can not) actually “level the playing field.” Access is a civil right and barrier removal is a shared responsibility.

Human Experience

The Impact of Inaccessible Course Materials

"Shared path closed sign" by Orderinchaos is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

The impact of inaccessible materials

• Students & employees have a right to accessible materials in classes or jobs
• When materials are not already accessible, there is remediation that must be done — often this takes considerable time and resources
• Remediation is typically triggered by a specific request — but an individual rights based approach can be burdensome, and can carry risks, especially for those who have less privilege within the system they are navigating
• Many times, when people hit a barrier, rather than requesting individual accommodation, they simply don’t access the resources they need

Partnership Opportunity - Evaluating Content

Accessible Technology Policy - Compliance Requirement

• We developed our policy proactively (not in response to a complaint or lawsuit)
• Comprehensive in scope - includes web, enterprise tech, courseware, etc
• Must be operationalized through procedures - alignment with WCAG has always been important but recent updates to the ADA have created new deadlines

Accessibility Reviews of Course Materials

• The review process is triggered by contracts or requested proactively
• People who use AT everyday do testing (complemented by conformance review)
• When barriers are identified we develop Equally Effective Alternative Access Plans

Benefits of Accessible Materials

• Reduced need for disability disclosure or accommodation requests
• Fewer delays for students to access materials
• Resources can focus on training and specialized outputs rather than basic remediation
• Everyone can benefit from well structured accessible electronic formats - change contrast to reduce eye strain, magnify equations, access image descriptions, look up definitions or translations, etc.

Alt Formats &

Inclusive Authoring

transforming inaccessible content

Comparing Workflows

Print-centric model - Published as hard copy - e-files often lack structure

The expectation is for materials to be consumed by reading information visually. When people need to hear information, or access content in tactile formats, there is often a LOT of work that needs to be done.

Structure-centric model - Published as electronic files - multiple outputs

The expectation is for materials to be consumed in flexible ways. Digital and print outputs are both viable options. Many access needs are met by design. Individualized formats are created as needed.

Extreme Variability

Fall Term Example (2022):

• 847 eText requests
• 61 subjects
• 298 Titles
• 80+ unique publishers

What We Often Get

• PDFs made for printing
• No tags or image descriptions
• Tables/text as images
• Shape collages
• Wingdings
• Image-only PDFs
• No text data - information must be manually restored with AI assistance.

Examples

Simple, text-based, tagged

Complex, image-rich, untagged

Tactile Materials

Supplements for one accounting text, awaiting binding

ESOL Interline with Tactiles

Tactile Production Process

• Decide which graphics need to be embossed
• Design a tactile representation digitally - Simplify the content
• Add braille labels, keys, transcribers notes
• Emboss, bind, and deliver

For this one graph, we produced four tactiles

Other Considerations

• Homework systems
• Interactive material
• Accessible media Showcase

Accessible materials can be fun, engaging, and beautiful

Toward Greater Access

what we’re aiming for

Quality Educational Resources = Accessible

OER is Made Accessible

• When PCC staff and faculty create materials, we use professional development opportunities and collaborations to ensure those materials are accessible
• When PCC instructors leverage openly licensed materials that are not yet accessible, we make improvements, and those improvements benefit everyone

Licensed Content Conforms to WCAG

• Content that is protected by copyright needs to conform to WCAG
• We must minimize use of inaccessible publisher content because permission for alternate formats are restricted to formal requests by students with disabilities

PCC OER Collaborations

two impactful examples

Math - Students using Math OER such as ORCCA not only save money, but also get fully accessible online content, braille ready files, and low cost print. -reduced need for accommodation!

ESOL - The highly visual nature of the content in these courses led to the creation of tactile learning objects and exploration of voice-it (there are 6 of these made so far, new video TBD).

Bringing Student Voice into Focus

Disability Cultural Alliance

www.pcc.edu/dca

Let’s Talk Podcast Collective!

Program Consultations

Invite feedback from students &

track participation and outcomes

email: dca-leads-group@pcc.edu

Partnership Opportunity - Inclusive Authoring

Examples of processes we can help with

• Connection to Professional Development - we can help folks find training
• Captioning - automatic captions can be improved by humans on our team
• Graphics - complex images may need descriptions or tactile formats
• Engagement - want to hear what disabled students think?

Contact information

• To request a review use this form or email a11y-review-group@pcc.edu
• To request captioning or alt format advice email access-tech-group@pcc.edu
• To request communication access guidance email cap@pcc.edu
• To connect with student advocates reach out to dca-leads-group@pcc.edu

We are here for you!

Contact Page for our Team

with virtual lobby