[Athen] A statement on online course content and accessibility

Leyna Bencomo lbencomo at uccs.edu
Wed Sep 21 13:47:58 PDT 2016


Well said, Sean.

Also, so much can be made accessible at the onset without additional cost or with minimal cost. Retro-fitting inaccessible material after the fact is what makes things costly. Blaming the DOJ for bad choices on the part of the university is a sad excuse, in my opinion.

Leyna Bencomo
Assistive Technology Specialist
Information Technology
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway, EPC 215
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
(719) 255-4202 / lbencomo at uccs.edu<mailto:lbencomo at uccs.edu>
http://www.uccs.edu/~it/
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From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Sean Keegan
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2016 1:06 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] A statement on online course content and accessibility

What I am finding interesting in the discussions happening on Inside Higher Ed and other places is that there is almost no recognition that courses were being made accessible through the Berkeley Resource Center for Online Education (BRCOE). It was not so much an issue that course content could not be made accessible, but rather administrative decisions were made such that course content did not go through a process robust enough to address accessibility.

I recognize that BRCOE has a specific role with respect to online courses at UC Berkeley and that not all faculty and departments may wish to pursue those services. That said, it was not so much a technical issue such accessibility could not be supported in these other online classes, but rather a decision-making process that allowed for the inaccessible course content to be produced and disseminated.

What I see in the DOJ letter is the following message: "You had the rules, you knew the rules, but you created a situation by which you could chose to not follow the rules."

Take care,
Sean

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 11:39 AM, Kurkjian, Nazely <Nazely.Kurkjian at suny.edu<mailto:Nazely.Kurkjian at suny.edu>> wrote:
Update - Article from Inside Higher Ed. University May Remove Online Content to Avoid Disability Law. For some reason I can't make a 'meaningful' hyperlink in this email so the following is the long URL: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/20/berkeley-may-remove-free-online-content-rather-complying-disability-law

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu>] On Behalf Of Jennifer Sutton
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 4:36 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: [Athen] A statement on online course content and accessibility

ATHENites:


I imagine many of you have seen this, but in case not.


Jennifer


A statement on online course content and accessibility

http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/09/13/a-statement-on-online-course-content-and-accessibility/


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