[Athen] Request for "facts" on Peoplesoft

Teresa Wells Haven tlwells at uark.edu
Tue Apr 17 14:18:47 PDT 2007


Hi, Jean. Thanks, at least I can tell him that other campuses are also
having similar problems; his attitude so far has been "other campuses
can't be having these kinds of problems or we would have heard about it,
or someone would have done something about it by now..."

Teresa

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Jean Salzer
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 3:25 PM
To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Request for "facts" on Peoplesoft


Hi Teresa. Our experience at UW-Milwaukee has been similar: while a
blind student totally reliant on a screen reader can use the software,
it is a hassle and takes forever with all the links and drop-down menus.

So, we end up assisting them, or someone in their family does so.

Jean
Teresa Wells Haven wrote:


>Hi, Gaier. I agree, and frankly that's the tactic I've been trying to

>take -- that this should be a usability and student service

>conversation rather than a "technical standards and history" debate.

>However, the system administrator is insisting on keeping it in the

>legal realm and blaming the students for the problem, and the students

>who so far have been brave enough to go up the food chain have gotten

>brow-beaten for their efforts, so I don't want to subject them to more

>of the same. At this point, I'm trying to gather evidence from every

>possible area, so any and all "facts" that folks can share would be

>appreciated. As you can imagine, this is a multi-million-dollar issue

>for the campus, so the person in charge of that feels that he has a

>great deal to defend and is reacting accordingly...

>

>Teresa

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On



>Behalf Of Gaeir Dietrich

>Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 2:26 PM

>To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'

>Subject: Re: [Athen] Request for "facts" on Peoplesoft

>

>

>It sounds like your best evidence is the students themselves, not

>reporting about the students' experiences but actually taking the

>students into the office to tell in their own words, and maybe even

>demonstrate, the problems they are having.

>

>Your administrators are asking for "facts," but I suspect that an

>actual tuition-paying student is better than pages of "old" (anything

>before

>today) cases.

>

>Good luck!

>

>******************************************************

>Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich

>High Tech Center Training Unit of the

>California Community Colleges

>De Anza College, Cupertino, CA

>www.htctu.net

>408-996-6043

>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On



>Behalf Of Teresa Wells Haven

>Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 12:08 PM

>To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'

>Subject: [Athen] Request for "facts" on Peoplesoft

>Importance: High

>

>Colleagues, I am in a "discussion" with a member of my university

>administration who does not want to believe me that PeopleSoft has a

>history of difficulties with accessibility. He would like me to

>substantiate my dislike for Peoplesoft, and not surprisingly, a Google

>search tends to come up with PeopleSoft's own statements on the matter

>("We've been working on this for years," "We conform to Section 508

>regulations") rather than anything contradictory. Does anyone have

>anything in the way of "hard evidence" of PeopleSoft's past that I

>could share with him -- records of court cases, complaints against the

>company, etc.? The more recent, the better, since he is going to take

>the stance that they may have had problems in the past but that doesn't



>mean they have a problem now, although it won't hurt to show him a long



>history of company problems.

>

>To give you a taste of this "discussion", we currently use a PeopleSoft



>product on our campus as our Student Information System. Students who

>use screen readers have so much difficulty that most of them get

>sighted people to interface with the system for them; I've been

>complaining about the system since we implemented it several years ago.



>The administrator in question downloaded a demo copy of JAWS last week

>and used it to "read" a page (he merely listened to the text while he

>visually looked at the screen), at which point he concluded that the

>program works "just fine" with JAWS and all the students are really

>just having either JAWS technical problems or don't have the necessary

>JAWS skills to interact with the program (something he didn't even try

>for himself, since "he's not a JAWS expert"). This "discussion" is

>flaming up to the Chancellor level very rapidly, so I'd appreciate

>quick responses if you have them...

>

>Thank you in advance,

>Teresa

>

>+++++++++++++++++++++

>Teresa Wells Haven, Ph.D.

>Assistant Director for Assistive Technology

>Center for Educational Access

>(Formerly Center for Students with Disabilities)

>ARKU 104

>University of Arkansas

>Fayetteville, AR 72701

>479-575-3104 (voice)

>479-575-7445 (fax)

>479-575-3646 (tdd)

>ada at uark.edu

>+++++++++++++++++++++

>

>

>

>

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