THE FACTS, JUST THE FACTS



DRAFT

THE FACTS, JUST THE FACTS

As many of you know, the CSU just issued a coded memorandum that focuses mainly, but not entirely, on the requirement that we make and then implement a plan for web accessibility. The document also says that we must make sure that books and printed syllabi are accessible. See . These requirements are consistent with a body of law and regulation that has emerged over the last two decades: .

DEFINING ACESSIBILITY: What does accessibility mean? For the web, it means that sites must be coded and structured in such a way that they can be “read” by people with disabilities, whether they are using assistive technology or not.

What does “read” mean? It means that the site, the page, must be tagged, must be laid out, so that text, colors, tables, images, simulations, videos, etc., can be “viewed” or decoded in an alternative format that preserves the meaning, if not the aesthetics, of the original. The task can be as simple as insuring that images have alt tags or that html pages uses a consistent style sheet for headers and spacing. It can be complex. An instructor might need to provide captions for streaming media. S/he might have to scan with an OCR reader a pdf file that is an image of text, not a sequence of characters, in order to convert it into a text file that, in turn, can be tagged properly. It can be mildly challenging. The instructor has to make ppts accessible; s/he must publish them as html pages that then can be scanned, tagged, and schematized appropriately.

ACCESSIBILITY TO COURSE MATERIALS: For book orders and syllabi, compliance is somewhat different. We will need to establish earlier dates for book orders and completion of syllabi. That way, if enrolled students have a disability that affects their apprehension, we can process the material into an equivalent format that is accessible to them, in timely fashion. Obviously, we will need to solve how we comply when we add sections and courses late in registration. Will chairs have to select materials before temporary faculty are appointed?

THE RATIONALE: Why must we do all this? First accessibility, like equal access, is a democratic principle. Second, settled law, regulation, cases, and administration require us to. Third, as experiences at CSU Fullerton, San Bernardino, Channel Island, and Los Angeles have shown, non-compliance, which often is discovered through a student’s complaint to campus equity personnel or to the federal Office of Civil Rights, is an invitation to federal lawyers to intrude in campus affairs. They enjoin behavior and comb through the campus, looking for other violations. They have threatened to embargo federal funds, like student loans and NSF grants; and they can litigate against professors who separate from campus policies that conform to law, regulation, and practice.

WHAT DO WE DO?

Technically, the coded memorandum directs us to have a plan in Academic Affairs by January and to reach full conversion later in ’07-08. But, we need to be both more timely and more specific. We need to identify what platforms we typically use on the web; what scanning, patching, and authoring tools work well; what population with what skills we must train and in what sequence. Should we begin with the (self-)identification of users who are self-reliant users who can train other or implement for them? What resources do we need to train effectively?

BOOKS AND SYLLABI: Presumably, we can ask the Provost Council, Senate Executive Committee, and EPC to collaborate with the Deans and Chairs on a recommendation about how we can process book orders in a timely matter. If we do the consultation now, we can implement in spring and summer for fall. We also can expect to discover obstacles. Publishers, for example, have a pecuniary antipathy for compliance. This makes us liable for reformatting. We can queue up such obstacles for treatment later in ’07.

WEB: Fortunately, the campus’s web accessibility committee and the www community have assembled pages of advice on authoring tools, patches, and guidelines, etc. See

• on html, pdf, and ppt authoring tools; patches, scanners, and guidelines. And periodically check the posts at .

• UT and UWM have well-designed tutorials for making digital formats accessible: and

. So does Stanford: .

• describes a useful tool that strips pages of style code so that a bare text file remains for equivalency and recoding.

• describes in detail the elements that must conform in html, pdf, ppt, and related formats.

• More detail on ppt can be found at and . The latter site covers Frontpage, Dreamweaver, and Flash, too.

• lists scanning programs that catch formatting problems. UT lists authoring and patch tools at .

• And both Blackboard and Adobe have extensive accessibility sites, and .

ROLLING OUT CHANGE: The campus’s web management committee has taken charge of rolling out fixes to central and college pages by the end of ’07. The Deans and Directors will insure conversion of administrative sites by the end of the AY, working with the Provost’s staff.

But the vast majority of pages and sites rest in faculty, staff, and student assistant hands. How do we convert, if necessary, departments, center, faculty pages, etc? We propose this roll-out plan:

A. WAVE 1: Before January, each college/division in Academic Affairs will ask faculty and staff to self-assess whether they can scan and fix sites under their control. They can self-assess simply in this way. First, they can download a device like the AIS toolbar on the CSUN accessibility site. Second, they can scan their pages for compliance. Third, they can invoke the appropriate fix tool. Fourth, they can fix the page/site or not. Fifth, the appropriate administrator or delegated person will gather digitally a report on individuals’ success with the conversion. Sixth, from now through June, LMS leaders will integrate the means for patching and scanning into uploading files. Indeed, our LMS and Elluminate crew are well on the way toward incorporating sophisticated tools like text-to-voice readers into this system. Seventh, at the same time web management will consult with faculty to develop teaching and informational templates. Eight, Beginning now ’07, Academic Resources will work with the web management committee and ITR to refine self-help modules on accessibility —specifically for arcane issues not addressed on CSUN’s accessibility site.

B. If the readiness reports are brief but specific, we can inventory compliant pages, tools and strategies used, problems encountered, and help needed. Many of these first wave people then can become trainers of others, even if they encountered problems. The aim should be twofold: to fix stuff and to identify experts at fixing stuff.

C. WAVE 2: In spring, we can begin with wave two: people who believe that they have basic authoring skills but who are sure that their problems will exceed their skills. Colleges and divisions will set up a process for these people to self-identify by the end of February. In March, first wavers can work with them. By this time, too, the web management committee will have developed templates for faculty pages that others can adapt.

D. By the end of both waves, we also should know which problems are really hard—formulae conversion, streaming, etc. We can cordon those for repair and research in summer and fall, ’07.

E. WAVE 3: In April and May, colleges and divisions will identify the owners of other pages and sites. These will be scheduled for fix through fall, ’07. Presumably, many of these pages will be orphans—without owners who actually produced them.

F. WAVE 4: In summer, each college and division will present new hires with the accessibility policy, as well as a functional template into which they can upload content.

G. WAVE 5: Beginning in late fall, ’07, colleges and divisions will scan all pages on their servers for compliance. Pages that have not been accessed since 2006 will be taken down if the content is out of date, there is no owner tagged on the page or identified by other means, or the page is both non-compliant and not scheduled for fix.

H. To make 5 feasible, Academic Resources and ITR will gain super-administrator rights to all web servers in this division.

I. WAVE 6: Working with the appropriate academic technology committees, the Executive Committee of the Senate, the Deans, and the Cabinet, the Provost’s Office will develop policy and procedure about CSUN academic webs that are located off-site. If they are publicly accessible sites that have an indisputable reason for their location, they still must conform to CSUN policies. But if there is not exigent reason for their location, we should consider policy about whether they should remain off site. Further, since CSUN sites will link to non-compliant sites elsewhere, we will need to develop language about disclaimers.

J. The Provost Office, in spring ’06, will consult with counsel in the Chancellor’s Office about the extent to which the password protection of sites, disclaimers about what our sites link to, and notations about how a person can get material in accessible format obviate the need for conversion of the site or page.

K. By fall, ’07 the academic committees will work with ITR and web management to develop procedures that specify the characteristics of preferred authoring and patch tools. Sites created with tools that do not meet these specifications will not be supported by university personnel. However, the site still will be held to CSUN expectations about accessibility.

Whether the time line is adjusted or not, the process flows like this:

PROVOST

PROVOST

WEB COMM, LMS TEAM

AC RESOURCES

AT+EC

DEANS

FAC/TECH LEADS

DEAN DESIGNEE

DEPTS AND WEB COMM AND

FAC/STAFF LEADS ITR, PROVOST,

COMMS

-----------------------

W1. AA-WIDE

COMMUNICATION

W1. PREP: LMS, TEMPLATES, SELF-HELP

W1. LEAD USERS TRY TO CONVERT

TECH HELP

VIDEO, SOUND…..

REPORT PAGES

W2. LEADS AND TECHS HELP PAGE AUTHORS

W5. SPECS FOR SITES TO BE SUPPORTED

W3. ORPHAN PAGES, PAGES OF UNTRAINED

W6. POLICY FOR OFF-SITE ISSUES

W4. PAGES FORNEW HIRES AND PART-TIME

W6. POLICY FOR UNTOUCHED

EPAGES

W6. POLICY FOR ACCESS TO SERVERS

W6. POLICY FOR ACCESS TO SERVERS

W6. POLICY TO CORDON OFF NON-C SITES

W5. TECH HELP AND PAGE SUMMARY

W6. CONSULT W/ COUNSEL

W6. COMPILATION OF REPORTS INTO

1. PLAN FOR PERIODIC SCANS AND UPDATES TO HELP

2. PLAN FOR NEW TAXONOMY AND ARCHITECTURE TO FRAME SITES AND PAGES.

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