Meeting Minutes: September 18, 2014

Present

  • Stephen Blosser, Chair
  • Graham Pierce, Vice Chair; Webmaster
  • Al Puzzuoli, Digital Communications Coordinator
  • Liza Reynolds, Recording Secretary
  • Brendan Guenther
  • Dave Goodrich
  • Deborah Margolis
  • Elaine High
  • Ginger Martz
  • James White
  • Joann Silsby
  • Mike Ezzo
  • Nick Kwiatkowski
  • Paul Heberlein
  • Phil Deaton
  • Piotr Pasik
  • Sarah Swierenga
  • Shirl Rowley
  • Todd Ring
  • Tyler Smeltekop

Minutes

  1. Blosser called meeting to order at 3:00 PM
  2. Guenther initiated discussion of MSU Web Accessibility Policy
    • Students in online or flipped classes often wait until they reach a point in the semester where the class is no longer accessible (e.g., due to videos not being captioned), and then request help from the RCPD
    • Discussion of how professors need to make all content accessible ahead of time, because RCPD cannot handle the volume of materials mid-semester
    • High noted that the largest issue is getting materials to the students in a timely manner
    • Need for Policy to be explained to each department, and that responsibility is on individuals instructors
    • Instructors are used to being denied resources, so they don't ask for accessibility help from their Department
    • webaccess.msu.edu indicates that instructors in need of assistance in making class content accessible should ask their local IT staff
    • Discussion of a settlement at Penn State University and Arizona State University, where students have dropped courses and faculty did not make materials accessible. One such incident at MSU could result in multiple incidents campus wide in compliance efforts.
    • Professors who believe they have made things better for students with disabilities by flipping their class are now struggling to make their content accessible
    • Concluded that we must do everything we can to get awareness out to professors
    • Blosser reviewed history of ATC methods and proposed possible options for improvement of accessibility awareness.
    • Pierce suggested that Deans may not be forwarding accessibility memo to faculty
    • Discussion of updates to webaccess.msu.edu, which now includes guides on how to make documents and materials accessible
    • MSU Web Accessibility Policy covers all digital material, not just web material; policy name may be misleading
    • Martz noted that it would be nice to have a consultation service to assist professors in making their materials accessible, but the resources to do so are not present. Need for contact info (phone number/ email address) on every web page for people to ask for help.
    • Blosser suggested use of TLE funds for such consultation, but may not be possible for ongoing project of that nature
    • Discussion of video captioning in Camtasia
  3. High discussed the University of Washington's "Do-It" (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) and their guidelines for campuses, as well as how MSU contributed
    • Explained how she and John Pedraza contributed to the grant for Do-It Prof (targeted at professors) and then for Do-It Administration (targeted at administration)
    • Deaton discussed introductory checklist to make content more accessible being developed by MSU Web Accessibility Working Group
    • Several tutorials in the approval process that need to be reviewed
    • High discussed Access-College (http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/Academics/access_college.html) and how that web site may offer help for professors.
  4. Blosser discussed the use of $26,000 in training funds requested by ATC
    • Silsby noted that IT Services was able to bring in John Gunderson from UIUC for web developer workshops. Possibility of bringing him back for more advanced training.
    • Ring discussed differences in captioning needs based on course content, and introduced possibility of having a course on captioning
  5. Blosser presentation on e-text
    • ATC will focus on accessible ways of distributing e-text
    • books.rcpd.msu.edu (RCPD e-text delivery system) needs to be upgraded, Etext Illinois is a possible solution for this
    • When units on campus request TLE and other central funds for accessibility improvements they should to obtain a mirrored ATC endorsement
    • Guenther discussed getting the endorsement done early in order to ensure enough all units have correct terminology and content in requests
  6. Ezzo discussion of extending D2L
    • Discussed integrating Cengage into D2L in order to allow students access with a code
    • Issue of Cengage not being entirely accessible and needing to have them make only the accessible content available to students
    • No central individual responsible for the evaluation of e-text accessibility; left in the hands of the faculty
    • Silsby noted that MSU has the right to ask companies for their accessibility plan, and require commitment to plan
    • Puzzuoli suggested asking companies for something that is accessible and filter out everything that is not accessible or request a list of what is accessible
    • When inaccessible material appears on D2L, RCPD must process it for students with disabilities, which is expensive and not timely
    • Guenther suggested ATC draft a statement about accessibility for purchasing/contracts
    • Stephen Blosser suggests the ATC continue to discuss this at next meeting
  7. The meeting was adjourned (Pierce, White) at 4:30 PM

Respectfully submitted,
Liza R. Reynolds, Recording Secretary