[Athen] [ITACCESS] Accessibility Centers

[Terrill Thompson]

Karen,

You mentioned DO-IT in your original post, so I'll share a bit more about
our program...

Sheryl Burgstahler started DO-IT in 1992 with a grant from the National
Science Foundation. The original program was a summer study program that
brought high school students with disabilities to the University of
Washington to learn about college life and gain skills, knowledge, and
experience that will help them to succeed as they transition into college
and beyond. This program still exists today, although it's no longer a
national program; it's now a statewide program funded by the State of
Washington. That said, we have continued to receive funding from NSF, the
US Department of Education, and various other sources over the years to
work toward improving accessibility in education and to increase the
opportunities for students with disabilities to succeed in challenging
careers. Most of our grant funding has focused on outreach and
dissemination, and in that context we develop resources and provide
trainings and workshops, mostly at conferences but occasionally at other
events that are organized by higher education institutions or other
organizations. We don't have the bandwidth to provide trainings on an
ongoing basis to anyone who wants them, and we don't support our state
institutions in the same way that the HTCTU does in California. However, we
try to support trainings and events that are likely to have a large and
lasting impact. For example, if a statewide higher education system were to
hold a capacity building institute focused on IT Accessibility involving
all its state higher education institutions, we would probably be willing
to help with such an effort, perhaps by helping with planning or by
participating as a speaker. We actually are in the early stages of planning
such an event for the State of Washington to be held sometime in 2015.
Although these are one-time events, we recommend structuring them so that
they're action-oriented, with all attendees leaving with action items and
an established infrastructure for continued communication and
collaboration.

Internally at the UW, the DO-IT Center is setup as a collaboration between
UW-IT, the College of Engineering, and the College of Education. Within
UW-IT, we are part of Accessible Technology Services (ATS), which provides
consulting, training, and support to the campus community on IT
accessibility issues. That's the group that I'm in. We have two other
full-time staff members (Dan Comden and Hadi Rangin) plus Sheryl, our
director. My position is currently 60% focused on the UW, and 40% focused
on DO-IT's grant-funded programs. Dan and Hadi are 100% UW-focused. ATS
provides the sorts of services you're describing Karen, but only within the
UW.

Regarding product testing, that's one of our roles within ATS, but there
are so many IT products being considered or deployed at the UW it's
impossible even for three full-time staff people to thoroughly test them
all. This is an area where I think it's critical for us all to pool our
resources, share our knowledge, and work together to collaborate with
vendors. There are a variety of successful collaborations that have taken
place through ATHEN:
http://collaborate.athenpro.org/

Also, the need for better, more reliable information about accessibility of
vendors' products is a key issue that is being explored within the EDUCAUSE
IT Accessibility Constituent Group:
http://educause.edu/groups/itaccess

Here's some more detail about the history of our accessibility efforts at
the UW:
http://www.washington.edu/accessibility/highlights/

Regards,
Terrill


---
Terrill Thompson
Technology Accessibility Specialist
DO-IT, Accessible Technology Services
UW Information Technology
University of Washington
tft at uw.edu


On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 4:25 PM, Lucy Greco <lgreco at berkeley.edu> wrote:


>  Yes look at the California’s community   college  high tech training

> center it is just what your dream is. they offer train the trainer type

> classes in AT for students and classes on producing alt media and

> accessible web to many others. They offer this for free to faculty and

> staff in their own system with travel for free. Other people in California

> from CSU and UC can  attend for free space permitting  with no expenses

> covered.  I hope this helps

>

>

>

> Lucia Greco

>

> Web Accessibility Evangelist

>

> IST - Architecture, Platforms, and Integration

>

> University of California, Berkeley

>

> (510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco

>

> http://webaccess.berkeley.edu

>

> follow me on twitter @accessaces

>

>

>

> *From:* The EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:

> ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Karen Sorensen

> *Sent:* Thursday, July 03, 2014 4:15 PM

> *To:* ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU

> *Subject:* [ITACCESS] Accessibility Centers

>

>

>

> Hi -

>

> I have a dream of a statewide or at least a college-wide accessibility

> center where:

>

>    - faculty can get training on accessible course content creation,

>    - end user testing of dynamic products and tools can be done,

>    - and hosting of special projects like Subject area accessibility

>    studies can be managed.

>

> Our director has asked if there are other centers like this that I know

> of. I know of the High Tech Center in California and DO-It at Univ. of WA,

> but are there others? How did these and others get started? Who runs them?

>

> Thanks everyone!

>

> Best,

>

> Karen

>

> Karen M. Sorensen

> Accessibility Advocate for Online Courses

> www.pcc.edu/access

> Portland Community College

> 971-722-4720

> *"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone

> regardless of disability is an essential aspect.”*  Tim Berners-Lee

>

> ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE

> Constituent Group discussion list can be found at

> http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

>  ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE

> Constituent Group discussion list can be found at

> http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

>

>

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