[Athen] Accessibility discussions at EDUCAUSE

[Greg Kraus]

Hi Jennifer,

There are several accessibility related presentations at the EDUCAUSE
Annual Conference this year. I am pasting them at the end of this
email.

We do have an annual meeting of the IT Accessibility Constituent Group
at the Annual Conference where we discuss a variety of topics. The
meeting is open to anyone at the conference. The TEACH Act has been
brought up as a possible discussion topic and I'm looking into having
an EDUCAUSE representative present.

If anyone is interested in joining the Constituent Group, you can do
so at the following URL.

http://www.educause.edu/discuss/constituent-groups-about-information-systems-and-services/it-accessibility-constituent-group

Greg
--
Greg Kraus
University IT Accessibility Coordinator
NC State University
919.513.4087
gdkraus at ncsu.edu
http://go.ncsu.edu/itaccess

EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility CG Leader
http://educause.edu/groups/itaccess



Pre-Conference Sessions

Project U: Universal Support for Online Students
Sep 29th, 2014
8:00 AM - 11:30 AM
http://www.educause.edu/annual-conference/2014/seminar-16a-project-u-universal-support-online-students-separate-registration-required

Implementing IT Accessibility on Your Campus: Sharing Strategies That Succeed
Sep 29th, 2014
12:30 PM - 4:00 PM
http://www.educause.edu/annual-conference/2014/seminar-13p-implementing-it-accessibility-your-campus-sharing-strategies-succeed-separate-registration



Conference Sessions

Widening the Web: How to Make Web Applications Accessible for Everyone
Sep 30th, 2014
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
http://www.educause.edu/annual-conference/2014/widening-web-how-make-web-applications-accessible-everyone

Studio Learning Meets Universal Design: How Learning Communities Grow
Innovative Spaces
Sep 30th, 2014
3:40 PM - 4:30 PM
http://www.educause.edu/annual-conference/2014/studio-learning-meets-universal-design-how-learning-communities-grow-innovative-spaces

Making IT Accessibility Accessible (in the Learning Theater, with
members of the IT Accessibility Constituent Group)
Sep 30th, 2014
4:45 PM - 6:00 PM
http://www.educause.edu/annual-conference/2014/making-it-accessibility-accessible

IT Accessibility and Procurement: Successes, Challenges, and Lessons Learned
Oct 1st, 2014
9:10 AM - 10:00 AM
http://www.educause.edu/annual-conference/2014/it-accessibility-and-procurement-successes-challenges-and-lessons-learned

IT Accessibility Constituent Group
Wednesday, October 1, 2:40-3:30 PM

Accessible Product Design: The Power of Vendor-Client Collaboration
Oct 2nd, 2014
9:10 AM - 10:00 AM
http://www.educause.edu/annual-conference/2014/accessible-product-design-power-vendor-client-collaboration

On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 5:50 PM, Ron Stewart <ronrstewart at gmail.com> wrote:

> Afternoon,

>

> ATHEN has been very much involved in trying to get progress in realistic

> accessibility efforts with EDUCAUSE for quite some time. The current effort

> is being led by long time ATHEN members Greg Krause and Terrill Thompson but

> given the recent opposition against the provisions of the TEACH act by ACE

> and EDUCAUSE reflects a long standing dilemma.

>

> For over a decade we have been attempting to get EDUCAUSE to take a firm

> policy and practice stand in regards to fully inclusive education but they

> have never been willing to do so in any substantive way. Like many similar

> organizations that are highly beholden to the commercial producers of

> technology and curriculum it is very difficult to get them to take a firm

> and forward thinking position when your major corporate donors are

> fundamentally opposed to such a concept of only producing fully accessible

> and inclusive products.  They pay lip service to the topic but when you take

> a careful examination of their actual progress it is minimal at best.

>

> I can point to numerous large scale projects that EDUCAUSE has promoted over

> the years that speak to why they talk to the talk but as an organization are

> clearly not willing to walk the walk.  After almost two decades working in

> this space I am at the conclusion that it will only be through litigation

> and legislative action that we will see the changes that are needed. That

> approach has actually ben anathema to me since the outcomes usually result

> in more bad than good for all the constituent groups involved.  I have tried

> for just as long to work in a collaborative and cooperative way with groups

> such as this, which has resulted in the disability and access community

> giving and giving with little to none reciprocity on the part of the vendors

> and the institutions represented by groups such as ACE.  A perfect example

> of this is the work around AIM that has been done, but has resulted in

> almost no fully accessible curriculum being developed and delivered by the

> commercial players. In fact the digital materials currently being sold into

> the educational space are much worse from an accessibility perspective than

> what has come before.

>

> Ron Stewart

>

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

> From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On

> Behalf Of Jennifer Sutton

> Sent: Monday, September 15, 2014 3:56 PM

> To: athen-list at u.washington.edu

> Subject: [Athen] Accessibility discussions at EduCause

>

> Greetings, ATHENites:

>

> If this question is considered off-topic, please direct me to a more

> appropriate forum.

>

> I recently happened to see the Educause agenda and program (link below), and

> I wondered if anyone on this list who's involved with accessibility-related

> activities might provide us with an update, expected highlights, etc.

>

> I'm not particularly asking with respect to the subject of the TEACH Act (as

> was being discussed here recently), but rather, I'm asking for a more

> general sense of what may take place at the conference related to IT (and

> other) accessibility and higher ed.

>

> I know there has been work, and there have been presentations in the past,

> so I'm looking for a bit of an update.

>

> Thanks in advance. And I hope those who attend the conference will find it

> productive.

>

> Best,

> Jennifer

>

> Agenda and Program | <http://EDUCAUSE.edu>EDUCAUSE.edu

> http://www.educause.edu/annual-conference/agenda-and-program?utm_source=Info

> rmz&utm_medium=Email%20marketing&utm_campaign=EDUCAUSE

>

>

> _______________________________________________

> athen-list mailing list

> athen-list at mailman13.u.washington.edu

> http://mailman13.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list

>

> _______________________________________________

> athen-list mailing list

> athen-list at mailman13.u.washington.edu

> http://mailman13.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list