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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Hi all,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Am throwing in my 2.5 cents on this. As students with alt-text accommodations are not required to pay twice for their “accessible” format book, neither should we, as providers, purchase a product and then purchase or be required to produce the accessible materials on top. But my 2.5 cents is not about the cost. It’s more about the integrity of the exam and the scores.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>For those of you who are old enough to remember, when COMPASS produced their computerized math test, they also made a Brailled/tactile version available. ALEKS is a standardized, national standards math placement test. Wouldn’t they (McGraw Hill) be interested in maintaining the security & integrity of their national tests by producing the accessible version(s) themselves or by an outside (professional) vendor to maintain the consistency & evaluation standards the same? Eliminating all the graphing questions for the Blind is discriminatory in the extreme. Insults to the Blind & Sight Impaired notwithstanding, doing this would certainly invalidate the national scoring standards. In the interest of good will and good customer service, my wish would be that MH would either produce the math placement test in Math ML or have a “check this box for alterative format” result in our being able to request FREE tactile graphs, Nemeth Braille, or audio versions among others from the publisher for our colleges’ testing centers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>My thoughts on a Tuesday, not as cold here as in other places…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Wink<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><a href="mailto:foreigntype@gmail.com">foreigntype@gmail.com</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Wink Harner<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Assistive Technology Specialist<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Southern Oregon University<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>541-552-8442<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><a href="mailto:harnerw@sou.edu"><span style='color:blue'>harnerw@sou.edu</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> athen-list-bounces@mailman2.u.washington.edu [mailto:athen-list-bounces@mailman2.u.washington.edu] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Karen Sorensen<br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, January 07, 2014 1:04 PM<br><b>To:</b> Access Technology Higher Education Network<br><b>Subject:</b> [Athen] ALEKS and Accessibility<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Hi All ,<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>ALEX has a October 1, 2013 VPAT that is supposed to cover all of their changes. Lisa Nicks is the accessibility specialist at McGraw Hill who I got the VPAT from. <u><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><a href="mailto:lisa.nicks@mheducation.com">lisa.nicks@mheducation.com</a></span></u><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>We have also been in communication with folks from McGraw Hill (who now have purchased ALEX in the last year as I understand it. ) They have moved all of their equations to Javascript rather than JAVA, and they say that 72% of their equations are now accessible, even though the folks we talked with weren't sure the equations were in mathML (Lisa Nicks wasn't on the call). <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>We are going to be doing some testing of ALEX this Friday. I'll post back to the listserv next week on what we find. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>One of their accessibility "improvements" they showed us, was a way for an instructor to indicate that a blind student was using ALEX. When the instructor clicked that button, all graphical questions were eliminated. How do folks feel about that? Our math instructors didn't like that at all. We asked the McGraw Hill folks if they would provide tactile alt. formats for those graphical questions. They seemed to think that was our responsibility. My feeling is that we shouldn't have to pay for materials that we then have to accommodate. How do others feel about this?<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Thanks. Hope that helps. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Best,<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Karen<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><br clear=all><o:p></o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Karen M. Sorensen<br>Accessibility Advocate for Online Courses</span><br><a href="http://www.pcc.edu/access" target="_blank">www.pcc.edu/access</a><span style='font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'><br>Portland Community College<br>971-722-4720</span><br><i><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.”</span></i><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'> Tim Berners-Lee</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>