This is the second in a series of posts analyzing the Dudley v Miami Consent Decree.
Accessibility Training
The Department of Justice (DOJ) gives the institution 6
months to provide mandatory accessible technology training to all employees responsible
for:
- content on the institution’s websites;
- providing support for educational technology;
- procurement of educational or digital technology;
- converting materials into accessible formats.
In addition, the institution is required to provide training
to all faculty and their administrative assistants. Teaching assistants and student assistants
also get trained if they help in any course with at least one student
registered with Student Disability Services, or if they are hired to provide accommodations
to students with disabilities.
That’s pretty comprehensive.
Anyone that has something to do with student learning.
Once all this training has taken place, the institution is
not done. It will need to provide
training for all new hires that fall into one of the roles identified.
This is DoJ looking at ADA compliance. The Department of
Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) deals with Section 504
compliance. While there is overlap between
the laws, there are also differences which play out in differences in
recommendations/requirements. Only about
a third of students with disabilities self-disclose to the disability services
office, so OCR has taken the position that digital materials need to be
accessible even if there’s not a student known to disability services in the
course. DoJ is looking at more than just
online accessibility, they expect the training to look at all potential
technology barriers.
A more detailed discussion about the focus of the training
will be in an upcoming post.
If your institution is not providing accessibility training
to all the employees,
you should be developing that training plan now.
Looking for help designing and/or providing that training, let me know. I can help.
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