[Athen] Working with ICL staff
ron at ahead.org
ron at ahead.org
Tue Sep 18 15:18:47 PDT 2007
Greetings
While Bob was less than tactful in his reply, but as usual there is some =
insight in his reply. I will attribute that to the fact that he has actu=
aly has never worked as a campus AT person and has no idea of the politic=
al quandry you are finding yourself in. =20
My first piece of advice is to document everything, and at this point mak=
e sure all your communications are in writting in regards to this issue. =
I have dealt with this on a number of occasions, as a campus AT person a=
nd in my work consulting with too many insitutions to count. Unfortunate=
ly this senario is way to common across the country and is often the resu=
lt of an IT ignorant adminstration. My favorite csae was the institution=
that had a CIO that was answerable to no one, I like to refer to him as =
the little king, a legend in his own mind. Things did not change there u=
ntil he left, but once he did a lot of technology progress was made that =
he had sat of for a number of years. Another is the lab staff that delib=
erately broke the AT every time we fixed it because the student using tha=
t particular lab was really a pain in the rear.
In his reply Bob is really getting to the heart of it. This is that beca=
use of the unworkable way in which your IT folks are managing their syste=
ms they are descriminating against students with disablities by not provi=
ding equal and equivelent access to the IT facilities of your campus. Wo=
rse is the fact that your campus owns the AT necessary to provide access =
but because of draconian and counterproductive IT policies it is not perf=
orming as designed or intended.
It may take a complaint to solve this, and a little quite incouragement m=
ay bein order. From your position I would carefully document the specifi=
c issues at hand, what has been done to resolve them, and what the impact=
of this has been on the access issues for your students with disablities=
. This information should be passed up your chain of command and also pr=
ovided to the Director of the ILC. That may be all you can do, and then =
resolve yourself to the situation at hand, or start looking for employmen=
t elsewhere.
If you would like to discuss this off line, I would be more than happy to.
Ron Stewart
On Sep 18 16:37, "Robert Martinengo" <accessible.text at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Subject: Re: [Athen] Working with ICL staff
>
> Larry,
>=20
> Just an opinion here, but it sounds like your administration is coming
> from a place of fear, so rational arguments will only take you so far.
> What will really shake their attitude is if they fear something else
> even more, such as a discrimination lawsuit. Short of that, you will
> be playing catchup for a long time.
>=20
> Bob Martinengo
>=20
> On 9/18/07, Larry Kiser <larry.kiser at sfcc.edu> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Folks:
> >
> >
> >
> > Due to losing an AT person over a year ago, budget cuts and a freeze =
on
> > hiring at our institution I took on the responsibility of overseeing =
our
> > Adaptive Technologies Lab and institution=96wide adaptive workstation=
s just
> > before the start of the Fall Semester 2007. Besides our main campus =
we have
> > four other centers. When our AT staff member left the lab and other
> > workstations were somewhat neglected but continued to operate. For e=
xample
> > the Instructional Computer Lab techs held our copies of Kurzweil vers=
ion 10
> > for almost a year and only since I took over has it been installed. =
The
> > problems are numerous and I seek some guidance.
> >
> >
> >
> > The last AT staff member had administrative rights to install softwar=
e and
> > updates at all locations and conduct operational checks. According t=
o the
> > ICL techs in order to maintain "security and stability of computers" =
no one
> > except ICL techs will have administrative rights. Our administration
> > supports this restriction. That would not be a problem but for the f=
act
> > when ICL techs install software they do not conduct operational check=
s. If
> > I am informed that computers with adaptive technologies are back in t=
he labs
> > etc I find that most of the software is not useable. In August I inf=
ormed
> > ICL and network staff that Kurzweil 3000 had a 10.04 update. They co=
ntinue
> > to install version 10.00 only and consequently the audio output does =
not
> > function correctly. We have ZoomText version 8.0. the most recent up=
date
> > for that version corrects "crashes" when the reading features are act=
ivated
> > with Word 2007. ICL continues to install ZT without the proper updat=
e.
> >
> >
> >
> > ICL staff members I need to deal with insist they cannot install even=
JAWS
> > or ZoomText icons on the desktop or start menu due to security protoc=
ols.
> > This hinders our low vision students' access. I have expressed conce=
rns
> > about ensuring accessibility, as well as enhancing retention and acad=
emic
> > progress of students with disabilities. I have been told ICL will no=
t
> > install software updates unless a computer quits working and needs to=
be
> > ghosted. An ICL staff member expressed the feeling that adaptive sof=
tware
> > was only meant for home computers and not a secure network environmen=
t. It
> > has been suggested to me that students should bring their own compute=
rs to
> > school rather than expect that adaptive software will work on institu=
tional
> > computers or that AT computer workstations should be off the network =
with
> > the expectation they will not be well maintained.
> >
> >
> >
> > Over the years our institution has moved heavily toward the use of
> > information and communication technology. Our department matched tha=
t trend
> > in the purchase of a wide array of adaptive software and hardware. N=
ow due
> > to security measures students with disabilities are in danger of bein=
g
> > relegated to the technological backwaters. The administration suppor=
ts the
> > security protocols because a rash of viruses two years ago shut down =
the
> > network at a critical time. The ICL department wants our department =
to be
> > responsible for the licenses but not the installs. Do you have any
> > suggestions?
> >
> >
> >
> > Larry Kiser, Counselor
> >
> > Disabilities Resource Center
> >
> > Santa Fe Community College
> >
> > Gainesville, FL
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Athen mailing list
> > Athen at athenpro.org
> > http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org
> >
> >
>=20
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>=20
>=20
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