By snoadmin
The Web Accessibility Implementation Plan was released last Friday, June 15, as a part of the Accessibility Technology Initiative ratified by the California State University system last April, making school websites more accessible for people with disabilities.
An extension of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the initiative is designed to make school webpages easier and more effective to persons with disabilities, in part by putting textbooks online and in audio format. Also included in the plan is the requirement to disseminate instructional materials earlier to students who have specific reading impairments.
“The California State University [system] remains strongly committed to providing access to information resources and technologies to individuals with disabilities,” said Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander.
When the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was written, Section 504 stated that all agencies receiving federal assistance must be equally accessible to persons with disabilities. Several years later, Section 508 was added to include computer technology, but according to Dick the 508 amendment was not prepared to handle the breakthrough of the Internet.
By the year 2012, all textbooks will be available online in audio format, and on time to individuals who cannot read traditional text. Wayne Dick, technology accessibility coordinator for the initiative, has designed a new format for websites that will make it easier for anyone with a reading disability to get the full content of the page.
There are currently about 1,000 students attending CSULB who have disabilities, and about half of them have trouble using BeachBoard.
The initiative has taken a year to write. A provision of the initiative is that the most important sites will be fixed first.
Among the difficulties the CSU system has encountered are its having to work with the same budget and problems of accessibility, with some sites being harder to gain access to than others.
For instance, Blackboard must be overhauled, but the CSU system does not own the rights to the site, which makes it much more difficult to bring the site up to the new standard. In addition, textbooks must be adopted by the instructors in time for them to be uploaded and accessed before the first day of classes.
There are only about five people working on the initiative’s goal at CSULB, but “equally effective access” will remain the number one priority, Dick said. Although the old websites have to be redesigned, before being adopted by the CSU they will have to meet 508 standards.
“Repair to law, build to best practice,” is the ATI’s mantra, Dick said.
