[Athen] Costs of DOJ Actions?

[Gaeir Dietrich]

I overheard someone from the campus that was involved in the original
"Kindle complaint" say that they had spent $14 million so far in correcting
issues.

 

One of my campuses won an OCR complaint, but while OCR was on campus, they
discovered $2.5 million in architectural barriers that needed removal.

 

Another of my campuses had to take down their learning management system
(yup, you read that right) because it was not accessible. They also had to
remove ALL inaccessible online courses at the end of the term. How much did
that cost? Well, clearly the cost was expensive in terms of dollars, but
even higher in lost revenue, faculty time to retrofit courses, loss of FTE,
and the list goes on.

 

I can't even imagine how much it cost Michigan State to tear their newly
completed and fully renovated stadium down because they had ignored repeated
warnings that they had to follow ADA architectural standards-the cost had to
be more along the $100 million line.

 

In addition to the actual, measurable costs, a cost that is generally not
recorded is the amount of extra time that staff have to spend. The office of
the president and the disability services office in particular end up
putting in a lot of extra hours and foregoing their regular work in order to
provide everything OCR needs, help arrange interviews, etc.

 

I'm not sure where you can find this information compiled, but for any
public institution, there should be some sort of public record. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich
HTCTU Director
408-996-6047

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Rovner, Amy
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2017 3:26 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: [Athen] Costs of DOJ Actions?

 

Hello,

 

Please excuse any cross-posting...

 

I'm currently applying for funds to support our IT accessibility efforts on
our campus.  Beyond the compelling legal, ethical and social justice reasons
for taking action, I think it would be helpful to have concrete examples of
the high costs of waiting and having to make changes based upon a
lawsuit/agreement with the DOJ and paying fines, etc. 

 

Does anyone know a good source for such numbers?  Or have any of your
schools gone through such a remediation process and are willing to share
(even ball park numbers) with me?


We are a medium sized community college with about 5000 annual FTE's.

 

Thanks in advance!


Amy

 

 

Amy Rovner, MPH RD

Instructional Designer

Accessible IT Coordinator

eLearning Services

Shoreline Community College

 

 

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