Chair/Lead: Jason Hallen

Members: Andy Prehall, Jennie Moberg, Richie Kammer, Mike Strand, Bob Breid, Alex Cardenas, Laura Knobel-Piehl

The Problem

As an organization, we strive to make our software accessible to as wide an audience of users as possible. This includes those with vision impairments, hearing impairments, or other disabilities.  We are aware that some of our applications are not accessible.

Our campus software falls into two categories: software we develop in-house, and software we purchase from commercial entities or obtain from non-profit sources. The software we purchase is controlled by the vendor. Most new applications follow industry standard protocols regarding accessibility and it meets all required government regulatory standards. Sometimes the software will be endorsed by disability advocate groups. Older software, however, typically is not ADA compliant.

Individual faculty have primary control of the educational software they choose to use. Some software was selected to meet the course needs, and is not always able to serve all students, particularly those students with accessibility issues. Faculty and IT staff may be unaware of accessibility issues and how these shortcomings impact a student’s ability to learn the materials or complete assignments. These accessibility issues can create significant barriers that students cannot navigate.

IT is responsible for following the ADA guidelines for internally written software. As with commercial software, our newer code meets ADA requirements, but we have a vast number of older applications that do not. The number of staff available to work on updating the older code is limited, so issues are addressed when time permits or as user needs dictate. 

Goals

Our goal is to ensure that the software provided by the college for students, faculty and staff can be used by all members of the community. When this is not possible we will work to find a suitable substitute.

Actions Taken

Effective immediately, part of our evaluation for new software will include asking vendors to provide documentation that their software meets minimum accessibility standards.  If the software does not meet the standards we will request to see their roadmap that details their plan to become compliant.

For software we already own, we will develop a list of applications to undergo an accessibility audit. Because of the large number of applications and limited staff, the audits will be scheduled based on user need first, before moving to a comprehensive review. Software will be reviewed for such key features as compatibility with screen readers, alt-text for images, screen labels, displays, keyboard shortcuts, etc. When existing software is determined to have accessibility issues we will work with the Disability and Accessibility staff, Health and Safety, or HR, as well as faculty and staff, to come up with a suitable alternative solution. If the accessibility issues are found during a pre-purchase evaluation, we will seek out a suitable replacement, recognizing that in some cases, there is no alternative.

On the academic side, we will begin the review process with our major educational software tools (Moodle, Zoom, Panopto, Google, etc.) first. We will move to the lesser used applications as needs arise.  For the business systems, the Student Information System, and the college website will be the top priority.

As new software is being developed, staff will ensure that coding is done to ensure accessibility and that all software is thoroughly tested before final versions are released.

We will reach out to the Government, Foundation and Relations Office to explore potential grants to help us accomplish our goals. 

Accomplishments so Far 

1. Internally, we have made a variety of minor accessibility improvements to both the college website and the Student Information System in terms of accessibility.

2. We have started informally asking vendors about software accessible guidelines their software meets.