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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">I agree with Peter on this. The one thing that may change the deal is if colleges begin putting language in their RFP’s and contracts that the product “must” be accessible. Then, one or two breach
of contract cases against the producers may open some eyes. But Peter is exactly right, it will take a hit in the money belt to get their attention. Just my two cents worth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Robert Lee Beach<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Assistive Technology Specialist<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Kansas City Kansas Community College<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">7250 State Avenue<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Kansas City, KS 66112<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Phone: 913-288-7671<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Email: <a href="mailto:rbeach@kckcc.edu">
rbeach@kckcc.edu</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> athen-list <athen-list-bounces@mailman12.u.washington.edu>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Bossley, Peter A.<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, August 21, 2019 9:52 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list@u.washington.edu><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [EXT]Re: [Athen] NFB V LACCD - Federal Court Rules in Favor of Blind Students<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:red">CAUTION:</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> This email originated outside KCKCC. Do not click links or open attachments unless
you know the content is safe. Please forward all suspicious emails to <a href="mailto:support@kckcc.edu">
<span style="font-weight:normal">support@kckcc.edu</span></a>.</span></strong><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Wink,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">You bring up an interesting point. Legally speaking, the legal obligation is on the college or university. Especially in cases where the institution is providing the content or software to students.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">However, could a Title III case be made against a publisher who sells software and content directly to students? Or, could a college or university turn around and bring action against a publisher or software
vendor who represents that their software is accessible? I think both of those avenues are potential options but I think they would both depend on a serious apatite for a big push back from the publishers and vendors in question. And still, at the end of the
day, the expectation would be that the college or university would have to make it accessible regardless. The vendors would argue that they are not a place of public accommodation and that they are not under an obligation to make the product accessible. And
I think it likely that their contracts have some disclaimer of any kind of accessibility warranty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Taking off my institutional hat for a second, and speaking on behalf of, and from my personal opinion alone, I feel it will take the money drying up for them to change; right now, people are still buying their
products regardless of the state of accessibility. Until folks in higher education are willing to simply say, we won’t spend our money, or spend our student’s money, on your products until they are truly accessible, and mean it, we will continue to have these
issues.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> athen-list <<a href="mailto:athen-list-bounces@mailman12.u.washington.edu">athen-list-bounces@mailman12.u.washington.edu</a>>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Wink Harner<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, August 21, 2019 9:50 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:athen-list@u.washington.edu">athen-list@u.washington.edu</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Athen] NFB V LACCD - Federal Court Rules in Favor of Blind Students<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p>Will Pearson be held accountable for any of their myriad My whatever inaccessible Lab materials? Or is it a hit 'em where it hurts and they'll change when colleges stop purchasing inaccessible materials from Pearson?<span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p>I am curious to learn if this or any of these valuable and far reaching OCR cases will extend to the publishers who knowingly sell books, materials, which they claim is accessible when they clearly aren't.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Thank you for sharing this, Peter.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Wink Harner<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><br>
<br>
On August 21, 2019, at 6:10 PM, "Bossley, Peter A." <<a href="mailto:bossley.5@osu.edu">bossley.5@osu.edu</a>> wrote:<span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Many of you have probably seen this floating around but I hadn’t seen it posted here yet.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="p1">From the NFB release: <a href="https://nfb.org/about-us/press-room/federal-court-rules-favor-blind-students">
https://nfb.org/about-us/press-room/federal-court-rules-favor-blind-students</a> <o:p>
</o:p></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="p1">“The Federal District Court for the Central District of California Found that LACCD violated the students’ rights under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in">Act of 1973 by, among other things, failing to provide them with accessible documents and course materials, failing to provide equal access to library<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in">resources, procuring and using inaccessible educational technology, and maintaining an inaccessible website. The court specifically criticized the use<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in">of the Pearson MyMathLab product, finding that Los Angeles Community College failed “to provide [Roy] Payan with meaningful access to his course materials<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in">in the math classes in which Payan enrolled, either through the MyMathLab software program or via equivalent accessible assignments from a math textbook<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in">in a timely manner.””<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="font-size:7.5pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt"> From my perspective, a</span>lthough the order leaves intact the allowance for alternative means of access, it does significantly raise the bar for that alternative from “substantially equivalent” to “<b><i><span style="font-size:7.5pt">prior
to or at the same time</span></i></b><i><span style="font-size:7.5pt"> sighted students are provided access</span></i><span style="font-size:7.5pt">”. If this signals the future of NFB advocacy efforts around digital accessibility, it will make up front accessibility
all the more critical in higher education; with the 24/7 anytime nature of online technology, were this enhanced standard for alternative access to spread, it seems near impossible to meet without full native accessibility up front.</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="font-size:7.5pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">From the judgement, a few of the most
</span>salient points:<span style="font-size:7.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">“Within one year of the date of this Order, LACCD shall evaluate LACC's integrated library system website
<span style="background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">and all library databases</span> available to students enrolled at LACC to determine whether the library resources are fully accessible to blind students. LACCD shall
<span style="background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">either</span> (a) <span style="background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">
discontinue</span> the use of any inaccessible library databases, inaccessible documents contained in library databases, or other inaccessible library resources available to students enrolled at LACC or (b)
<span style="background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">establish alternative means</span> of providing access to the equivalent benefits of the inaccessible library resources to blind students in a timely manner, i.e.,
<span style="background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">prior to or at the same time sighted students are provided access
</span>to those library resources, including outside of the classroom;</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:.25in"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:7.5pt"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size:7.5pt"> Within one year of the date of this Order, LACCD shall ensure that the
<span style="background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">LACCD website</span>, the LACC website, and all other educational or instructional websites available to students enrolled at LACC,
<span style="background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">including all educational resources or embedded programs</span> on those websites (<b><span style="color:red;background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">such as PeopleSoft</span></b>) made available to LACC students,
are accessible to blind students in accordance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards;”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:13.5pt;background:white">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333"><img border="0" width="224" height="45" style="width:2.3333in;height:.4687in" id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.png@01D5585B.1E97A2E0" alt="The Ohio State University"><br>
</span><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#BB0000;background:white">Peter Bossley</span></b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333"><br>
Deputy ADA Coordinator<br>
</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#BB0000;background:white">ADA Coordinator's Office -</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333"> Office of Institutional Equity<br>
950 Lincoln Tower, 1800 Cannon Drive, Columbus, OH 43210<br>
614-688-3028 Office<br>
<a href="mailto:bossley.5@osu.edu"><span style="background:white">bossley.5@osu.edu</span></a> /
<a href="http://ada.osu.edu/"><span style="background:white">ada.osu.edu</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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