Raymond M. RoseRose & Smith Associates

Port Aransas, TX

This work by Raymond Rose is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Legal Update: Understanding the Latest Findings on

Access to Online Learning and Web Access by the Office for Civil Rights

Self-Assessment Quiz • Who is your district’s Section 504 Coordinator?• Who is responsible for your online learning program?• Has your institution adopted quality standards for online

resources/courses?• Does your institution include an accessibility check for all

technology purchases?• Has your institution conducted a technology accessibility

audit?• Have you done an accessibility audit of the district website?

Ray’s Background• K-12 teacher, curriculum coordinator, counselor, adminstrator• Civil Rights Specialist with Mass Dept of Education• Civil Rights Specialist/Manager New England equity assistance center• Virtual High School designer/manager• 1st virtual school special needs policy• 2007 1st publication access and equity in online education• Faculty, Instructional Technology and Distance Learning Coordinator,

Huston-Tillotson U.• Technical Working Group, Center on Online Learning and Students with

Disabilities• 2014 Access and Equity for All Learners in Blended and Online Education

Why are you here?

The 3 Routes to Enforcement Attention

1. Complaints2. Legal suits3. Compliance Audit

Evolving State of Legal Enforcement

• Kindle and Arizona State – June 2009

• Google Apps for Education (NYU, NU) – March 2011

• Penn State – 2011 --suit• Florida State University – March

2012 -- suitUniversity of Montana – September

2012• Grand Rapids Community College –

November 2012South Carolina Technical College

System – March 2013Lockhart ISD – July 2013

• Louisiana Tech University – July 2013 -- complaintCrowley ISD – March 2013 –

complaint Virtual Community School of Ohio –

November 2013South Carolina Virtual Charter

Schools – March 2014• University of Montana-Missoula –

March 2014 – complaintManchester School District – April

2014H&R Block – March 2014 - suitU. Cincinnati & Youngstown State U

– December 2014

Key: Website, Compliance review, Complaint

And in case you’ve missed it….Dated April 2nd.

http://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/united-states-reaches-settlement-provider-massive-open-online-courses-make-its-content

Go to iNACOL.org and find the publication listed under Latest News, Research and Resources

OCR’s Operational Definition

“those with a disability are able to acquire the same information and engage in the same interactions — and within the same time frame —as those without disabilities.”

OCR Compliance Review 11-11-2128, 06121583, paraphrased from 11-13-5001, 10122118, 11-11-6002

Most Recent OCR Findings: UCincinnati & Youngstown StateU

• Lack of Alternative Text on All Images• Documents Not Posted in an Accessible Format• Lack of Captions on All Videos and the Inability to Operate Video

Controls Using Assistive Technology• Improperly Structured Data Tables• Improperly Formatted and Labeled Form Fields• Improper Contrast Between Background and Foreground Colors• Frames Not Titled with Text that Facilitates Frame Identification and

Navigation (Youngstown only)

Access and Equity Checklist

•Policies•Online Course Design•Program and Course Monitoring

Rose & Smith Associates

Policy Recommendations:Institution has adopted, as policy, a set of quality standards to

which all online learning courses adhere.

All of the institution’s online courses (including those from outside profit and non-profit vendors) are reviewed to insure they meet legal accessibility standards.

Institution has determined process, responsibility, and timeline for retrofitting accessibility or replacing courses that are not accessible.

Policy Recommendations:

Institution has a designated 504 Coordinator, Grievance Policy, and conducts annual notifications. (Required)

Institution has policy and activities to ensure organizational website meets accessibility requirements.

Policy Recommendations (K-12)

Institution has created and promulgated a Special Needs Online Learning Policy. Institution has no gateway exam/test where a specific score

is required to participate in online learning activities.

Website & Online Course Design:

Color selection does not impede students with color blindness.

There is no use of graphical eye-candy.

All graphics have meaningful, learning-related Alt Tags.

All content in PDFs is searchable (if a graphic, follow requirements for graphics).

Website & Online Course Design All audio is accompanied by text transcripts.

All video includes synchronized captioning.

Course navigation is possible without the use of a mouse.

Content at all external links meets the same accessibility standards.

Courses are reviewed with access by a screen reader in mind.

Online Program and Course Monitoring

Disaggregated enrollment data is collected for all online programs and courses.

Enrollment data is analyzed for comparison with sending population.

Resources1 of 11

Access and Equity for All Learners in Blended and Online Education• http://www.inacol.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iNACOL-Access-and-

Equity-for-All-Learners-in-Blended-and-Online-Education-Oct2014.pdf

Higher Ed Accessibility Lawsuits, Complaints, and Settlements• http://www.d.umn.edu/~lcarlson/atteam/lawsuits.html

US DoE Office of Educational Technology

Ed Tech Developers Guide

A primer for software developers, startups, and entrepreneurs• http://tech.ed.gov/files/2015/04/Developer-Toolkit.pdf

Resources2 of 11

Resources 3 of 11

FREE Video Captioning Apps•NCAM.wgbh.org

•MAGpie•CC for FLASH

How to add closed captions to YouTube• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K4WJs94FfY

Resources4 of 11

Adobe and Accessibility website (PDF info)• www.adobe.com/accessibility.html

Creating Accessible Tables and Data Tables• http://webaim.org/techniques/tables/• http://webaim.org/techniques/tables/data

2014 Access and equity for all learners in blended and online education• http://inacol.org

Resource5 of 11

Color Blindness Simulator

http://www.seewald.at/en/2012/01/color_blindness_correction_and_simulator

See through the eyes of your red, green or blue colorblind student.

Android only

Resources6 of 11

Color advice for cartography• http://colorbrewer2.org/

Vischeck simulates colorblind vision.• http://www.vischeck.com/

Daltonize corrects images for colorblind viewers.• http://www.vischeck.com/daltonize/

More Color Blindness Tools

Resources7 of 11

FREE website accessibility testers•http://CynthiaSays.com•http://WAVE.webaim.org

Resources8 of 11

Free trial• https://amp.ssbbartgroup.com/express

You can login to AMP at to view your 10 page accessibility report of http://yoursitehere.

Browser Based Tools

Accessibility Evaluator for Firefox 1.5.7.1*

WAVE Evaluation Tool for Google Chrome

*2008 uses WCAG 1.0

Resource9 of 11

Resources10 of 11

10 Free Screen Readers

http://usabilitygeek.com/10-free-screen-reader-blind-visually-impaired-users/

Resource11 of 11

NVDA http://www.nvaccess.org/

NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free “screen reader” which enables blind and vision impaired people to use computers. It reads the text on the screen in a computerised voice. You can control what is read to you by moving the cursor to the relevant area of text with a mouse or the arrows on your keyboard.

DIY Workflows for Captioning and TranscriptionJuly 23, 2015 at 2pm – 2:45pm ETIn this webinar, Ken Petri, the Director of the Ohio State University Web Accessibility Center, will walk you through the process of DIY captioning. Ken has developed standards and techniques for captioning that are an exemplary resource for other institutions looking to implement a similar workflow.

Quick Start to CaptioningAugust 6, 2015 at 2pm – 2:30pm ETLearn the basics of how to add closed captions or subtitles to make your videos fully accessible, searchable, and SEO-friendly. Register for this webinar to learn about accessibility laws and compliance,how to create closed captions,getting the right caption format and more.

Recorded Webinars10 Tips for Creating Accessible Web Content with WCAG 2.0Aired on May 21, 2015Duration 55 minsWeb accessibility is a hot topic right now, with lawsuits, a Section 508 refresh, and the impending requirements of WCAG 2.0 fresh on people’s minds. In this webinar, Janet Sylvia, the Digital Media Professional Specialist and leader of the Web Accessibility Group at University of Georgia, will walk you through 10 tips for creating accessible websites following the international standard WCAG 2.0.

Accessibility Tips for Effective Teaching and Learning

http://www.3playmedia.com/how-it-works/webinars/

SSB YouTube Video Series: Web Accessibility 101

Introductory level (short) videos demonstrating assistive technology and common accessibility challenges.

Search SSB Bart Group on YouTube

Contact Info

Raymond Rose• ray@rose-smith.com• 512.791.3100

Presentation slides on this topic are available at SlideShare.net under RaymondRoseAnd at my blog: rmrose.blogspot.com