This is what journalistic malpractice looks like

John Watson from DLC and I collaborated on this latest blog post from DLC. (If you don't follow them you should.)  And this saves me from writing a post today, which was on my to-do list.

 

Happenings

Accessibility for All K-12 Students in Remote Learning

I had announced this webinar was happening before it took place, but then never posted the actual event.  You can watch the webinar.

It was fun to present with Mary Rice again.

Here's the direct link: https://youtu.be/5q1ondOKuUI

How to Become an Instructional Designer: 13 Experts Give Their 3 Key Tips

A colleague asked me to be part of this blog post.  I have had an interesting relationship with instructional designers, especially when it comes to online courses.  In the early years of virtual education my complaint with IDs was a lack of awareness about online pedagogy.

 I have seen the work of some instructional designers who were most interested in making their product "pretty".  And that seemed to be the focus of their ID preparation.  It has taken the ID preparation programs some time to understand that pretty doesn't always mean effective instruction.  It is also now expected, at least by me, that IDs know about and can implement fully accessible online courses.

Instructional designers have recently been seen as essential as higher education has been forced to present instruction remotely.  Institutions that had instructional designers to help with online course development were suddenly the critical element in supporting or creating remote and online instruction for every educational element of the institution.

I think Scott selected the photo of me with a koala to make me look more cuddly.

 https://myelearningworld.com/how-to-become-an-instructional-designer-tips/

Accessibility for All K-12 Students in Remote Learning Webinar August 19

https://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/2020/08/13/tuc-gsoe-diversity-now-webinar-series-accessibility-for-all-k-12-students-in-remote-learning/ 

What Is Your Organization Saying About Racial Justice (Equity)

There have been a variety of statements written in the past few weeks about the systemic racism that has been

recognized and acknowledged by a variety of educational organizations. Friend and colleague Michael Barbour posted the ones he was seeing on his blog Virtual School Meanderings.  He posts, for information purposes, the messages he gets. I get many of the same, but look through his blog to find the full texts of the few I’d like to highlight.

The “thoughts and prayers” comments used, especially by politicians after mass shootings – rather than a commitment to action were not used this time. But organizations have claimed to be allies to Black Lives Matter, condemning racism. What’s interesting is the vow to continue keeping on.

Which organizations would you prefer to support?

•  Saying “Black Lives Matter” simply is not enough. As a community of researchers, we must unite to take bold, evidence-based action that exposes and ultimately ends the catastrophic police killings of unarmed Black people. AERA has issued calls like these before, sadly far too often. Our Executive Director Felice Levine and I welcome your suggestions for ways AERA members across divisions, SIGs, and committees can unite to have a collective impact on this issue. We intend to use the influence of AERA to move ahead.

• We recognize that our Black colleagues are hurting, and are mindful of the pain and trauma these ongoing events cause. Know that we stand in solidarity with you and are working diligently to address how to move forward as an organization, mindful as well that our field must also move forward with us. In the interim, we reach out with words of encouragement and support to you and your loved ones. The world may be burning both literally and figuratively, but we are committed to the possibilities for transformation and making UCEA a more responsive, reflexive, and just community for all our Black brothers, sisters, and siblings

•  The Christensen Institute stands in solidarity with the Black community in condemning racism, hate, and injustice in our country. We stand alongside those who support a more equitable and just country in which Black lives matter and an education system in which students of color thrive.

Our education team works hard to identify and analyze promising innovations that could unlock more student-centered systems. We are committed to finding and understanding new approaches to undo entrenched practices and build an equitable education system that enables learners, particularly those from marginalized communities, to reach their fullest potential.

 

We commit to holding ourselves to account. To that end, we are reading, listening, learning, and partnering with experts who can help us to examine our own organizational practices to root out the biases that affect our work. We invite feedback and hope to engage in open dialogue as we move forward on this journey.

• The Aurora Institute stands with communities of color, especially Black communities, as we all grapple with the systemic racism and the unthinkable traumas playing out on the national stage today. While the heartbreaking death of George Floyd and the protests have arrested our attention, and perhaps only momentarily, we know that Black and Brown communities contend with these injustices on a daily basis

And then I got this one…

 (Highlander Institute) We as white leaders can no longer claim to be part of the solution while simultaneously sitting on the sidelines, and so, we commit to the following:

1.  We will become more aware of and attuned to our white privilege. Until we – as white educators – put in the effort to understand how our identity as white adults impacts our behavior on a daily basis, we cannot make progress toward challenging policies and systems that perpetuate our privilege.
2. We will cede power and make room for Black and brown people to lead – both within and outside our organization. We stand in solidarity with our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) colleagues, who come to the table with expertise and funds of knowledge beyond our capabilities as white leaders. We will amplify and elevate Black-led organizations by using our platform to showcase organizations that are doing this work through the lens of lived experience.
3. We will listen, show empathy, and take action in the form of learning. There are so many resources guiding white people on how to show up for Black colleagues, students, and families. We will buy the books, read the articles, attend the workshops, and act on our new learning. [Diversity Talks is offering free online professional learning for white teachers this summer. Equity Institute has released a statement titled, “Racial Equity and Justice. Now.”]. We will follow Black education leaders on Twitter, and honor their perspectives by liking and retweeting their work without inserting ourselves. We will read, read, and then read some more.
4. Finally, we will engage in difficult, uncomfortable conversations that hold ourselves and other white people accountable for our statements, biases, actions, and inaction. We will engage in these conversations with humility, compassion, and a commitment to supporting the journey of others as well as our own.

And one that I didn’t see on Michael’s blog and this is only the final paragraphs of the message from John von Knorring President and Publisher Stylus Publishing

It’s now time not for reaction, but action. 

In whatever sphere we operate, as employees; employers of service workers; users of gig services; business owners; educators; buyers of food, goods, and services; sports fans; citizens; and voter s, we need to be aware of the conditions under which people are working and whether they have opportunities for advancement or to earn a living wage, and whether these conditions of work are equitable across race.

If they are not, complain; call them out; write to the CEO; move your support

While this is a personal statement, it reflects the collective sentiments and views of Stylus’s staff and their commitment to equity and social justice, and who are working on a company-wide response. For my part, I will, beyond the work I do, keep this conversation to the fore within my family and social circle; work to influence my local community; and push my local, state, and federal representatives to work for equity and dismantle the racist structures that discriminate against Black and Brown people.  to a different business; get on social media; get out and demonstrate (with social distancing); call your local, state, or federal representative. We can no longer afford, for the sake of our democracy and society, to be complicit. Bottom line: we white people MUST DO SOMETHING!

(The entire statement is here) 

If you’ve gotten this far, please take action when you receive a message like these. Let them know you support them or help them understand why what they are saying isn’t sufficient.  And if they need help knowing what to do

send this link 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice

How to Achieve Equity of Opportunity When Access Isn’t Equal

Last week Kelsey Ortiz from iDAC at Kansas University and I figuratively sat down with Jason Mitchel to do a podcast as part of the Opportunity Thrives series.

Our Session:  How to Achieve Equity of Opportunity when Access Isn't Equal was enjoyable.  You'll have to listen (or read) to see if it was any good.  One thing I was able to accomplish in the process was to encourage Sarah Williamson, the podcast's producer, to include a transcript with the podcast to make it more accessible.

Sarah says she will make a transcript for all her podcasts and is even going to generate transcripts for the previously recorded podcasts.  It's nice to know that I was able to have that influence.  If you are making podcasts, please produce a podcast transcript and make the podcast more accessible.

  Here's the link to the podcast. https://opportunitythrives.com/how-to-achieve-equity-of-opportunity-when-access-isnt-equal/

10 Tips on Using Tele-practice for Students with Disabilities

New post from a friend and colleague.  Tele-practice is being used to provide services for students with disabilities  during the growth in remote learning

https://www.digitallearningcollab.com/blog/2020/5/19/10-tips-on-using-tele-practice-for-students-with-disabilities

2020-2021 School Year

I do not believe, even with states trying to loosen up, that all K-12 schools will be back to the pre-pandemic normal. K-12 schools and higher ed institutions should be planning for improvement and continuation of some form of remote instruction. This year many school districts threw together some form of remote learning – or just expected the teachers to pivot into remote instruction -- with very little guidance.

Failure to plan now will make the 2020-2021 academic year a time of watching students fall further behind in their learning. Failure to plan now for services to students with disabilities could have a serious negative impact on those students’ lives.

There has been simple guidance like; do not do 3 hours of Zoom school. Research says don’t regularly do what might be a high school class period (~50 minutes) lecture on Zoom. There are ways to make a Zoom session more than a lecture and make it more appropriate as a learning tool. Because the traditional classes were all synchronous doesn’t mean that the remote teaching needs to be synchronous. There are benefits to asynchronous instruction, but that would have required some professional development and support for the teachers.

There is time for school districts and teachers to prepare for the 2020-2021 school year.  It will likely be unlike any school start in history.  The more schools and teachers can do to prepare for remote and online teaching the better, both for them and for all their students.

Even though the President wants schools to open now, I don’t think he’s considering the teachers, administrators, specialists, and staff that make the schools work.  Many of those folks are in high-risk categories, and while youth don’t seem as susceptible to the virus, it’s unclear how effective they are as carriers. And not only can they get the COVIS-19 virus, but there are limited instances of children showing a syndrome like Kawasaki disease and unfortunately some fatal incidents. 

Beyond that, thoughts about extending the school year or school day don’t take into account existing teacher contracts. Suggestions for lowering class size doesn’t account for the extra classroom space and additional teachers that would entail.

School leaders need to be planning for something other than “business as normal” and help prepare teachers for another period of remote learning. They also need to be planning on how to provide the services to meet student IEPs. The 2020-2021 school year requires planning that needs to be happening now.

Website Developers Pay Attention, You May Be Liable If Your Website Is Not Fully Accessible

Here's an interesting case from a Superior Court in California.  That makes this a narrow ruling.  But, worth paying attention to if you develop websites.

The decision should have website developers paying much more attention to accessibility.  In the case there were:

allegations that the developer knowingly failed to do the design and testing activities needed to deliver an accessible website. It is significant that the alleged fraud included that false claim that automated testing of the website would be sufficient.

The case uses both the ADA and California's Unruh Act, so the Unruh component won't carry across state lines.  ADA of course will.

What's interesting to me, and got my attention is that Attorney Hunt in this posting also suggests a risk to those who sell remediation and consulting services to remediate websites.  When OCR determines there's accessibility issues with a school district website, they will require remediation and ask that an outside consultant be identified to help bring the website into conformance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. 

The ruling makes it clear that just using automated testing of a website is not sufficient.  I like to use the WAVE web accessibility tool browser add-in.  It is always with me for every website I visit, and produces a simple report identifying errors.  There's also a detail of the errors, but the basic report makes the point, and it's not me saying there are problems.

But this case makes it clear that a web development contract that includes accessibility as a requirement needs to do more than using an automated tool to ensure full accessibility in compliance with ADA.

Website developers need to know and understand WCAG 2.1 AA standards more than ever.

5 Minutes on K-12 Online Learning with Ray Rose

Michael Barbour interviewed me for his 5 Minutes series on his Virtual School Meanderings Blog.
Watch the video here.

Catch all the videos, by clicking here.  Michael continues to add to the series.  And if you care about K-12 online learning you should be subscribed to Michael's Blog.  He posts almost daily, sometimes more than daily.

COVID-19 Schooling. Protecting the Civil Rights of Students with IEPs

It’s hard to know just what’s happening with schooling these days because the language in the press and elsewhere isn’t precise.  Just because a Governor has declared school closed, what does that mean?

 I have classified the different types of closures.  There’s the basic one I think everyone is familiar with: school is closed.  That normally is short term and for something like a weather event; ide storm, tornado, snow, hurricane, etc.  But some schools have created “Snow Days” where they ask teachers to prepare materials for students to do when there is a cancellation of classes because of weather.

 Now we have a situation also called school cancellation but what it really means in some states is that school buildings are closed – but there may or may not be some form of remote learning. 

Because education is a function of each state, what is happening during the COVID-19 pandemic can be very different.  Some states have basically cancelled school (all classes) for a time.  Others expect some form of remote learning to be taking place.  State education laws and legislative actions are a big reason for the differences.  Because of that, and the lack of advanced preparation for something as unexpected as this situation, there are lots of questions. 

The US Dept of Education has tried to provide guidance in particular for students with special needs.  But, I have heard from a number of very well educated colleagues who find the guidance unclear.   I’m going to attempt to clarify the situation with this post.  It is hard to be specific because of differences in state law, and because there is great variability in the needs of students with IEPs.  Every IEP should be tailored to serve the specific needs of the student.

What is happening for all the students in what I’ll call regular education (typical classrooms)?  If the students are on break – there’s no instruction happening, students aren’t required to do any educational activities – then there’s no requirement for schools to provide services for special needs students.

If a school district closes its schools and does not provide any educational services to the general student population, then a school would not be required to provide services to students with disabilities during that same period of time. Once school resumes, the school must return to providing special education and related services to students with disabilities in accordance with the student’s IEP or, for students entitled to FAPE under Section 504, consistent with any plan developed to meet the requirements of Section 504.

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocr-coronavirus-fact-sheet.pdf

UNLESS – if the student’s IEP specifies ongoing services that are necessary to protect the student’s mental or physical health, I argue that the school has a moral, ethical, and potentially legal obligation to continue provide those services to the extent possible.

If an LEA continues to provide educational opportunities to the general student population during a school closure, the school must ensure that students with disabilities also have equal access to the same opportunities, including the provision of FAPE. (34 CFR §§ 104.4, 104.33 (Section 504) and 28 CFR § 35.130 (Title II of the ADA)). SEAs, LEAs, and schools must ensure that, to the greatest extent possible, each student with a disability can be provided the special education and related services identified in the student’s IEP developed under IDEA, or a plan developed under Section 504. (34 CFR §§ 300.101 and 300.201 (IDEA), and 34 CFR § 104.33 (Section 504))

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/memosdcltrs/qa-covid-19-03-12-2020.pdf

If there are instructional activities for the regular education students, then students with IEPs should be getting services that match.   Most students with IEPs are integrated into the pre-COVIS-19 regular classes for some if not all of the day.  Students with IEPs should be getting the same educational opportunities.

States where the expectation is that students will continue with some form of remote learning may have defined the instructional time requirement, and may have identified the type of documentation they need to provide to the state.  Most states have a defined school year, sometimes 180 days, sometimes converted the 180-day requirement into hours to give school districts more flexibility.

Depending on state law, it may be necessary for school districts to reach that required instructional time to get state funding.  States may provide some waiver of that requirement, but it may take state legislative action to accomplish that.   Whatever the expectation is for the regular education student, the same expectation would exist for students with IEPs unless there had been a previous reduction in instructional time in the student’s IEP. 

Here’s where it gets tricky for school districts serving students with IEPs.  The mode of delivery of service changes with remote instruction.  For the moment assume that the school is using ZOOM video conferencing, and other online delivery.  If the IEP didn’t already state that as one of the service delivery methods, ED recommends that there be a revision in the IEP to reflect the new instruction.  Of course, a school cannot make a change like that without having parental sign-off on the change.  ED is clear that the change in IEP does not require a face-to-face meeting, but does require there be an appropriate paper trail to support the change. 

There can be students who, in the traditional classroom had no significant difficulty with instruction and learning, but with the shift to this new remote instruction, are having difficulties.  Just as in pre-COVIS-19 education, when a student is having difficulties there’s an assessment to see if the student needs other supports, the same should happen with this new situation.  There’s hope that schools resume their traditional education practice, but using that as an excuse to avoid looking for ways to support students having difficulties in the new remote instruction environment is not acceptable.  

While the Federal legislation is steady and U.S. Dept of Ed guidance seems to be consistent, what’s happening in the schools seems to be still evolving, especially as it’s clear the social distancing will continue for at least another month. 

Here are links for guidance from the US Dept of Education:

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/frontpage/faq/rr/policyguidance/Supple%20Fact%20Sheet%203.21.20%20FINAL.pdf

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocr-coronavirus-fact-sheet.pdf

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/memosdcltrs/qa-covid-19-03-12-2020.pdf

OCR Short Webinar on Online Education and Website Accessibility

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCMLk4cES6A&feature=youtu.be

And a selection of news articles on the topic:

https://www.educationdive.com/news/educators-scrambling-to-continue-special-ed-services-as-nearly-all-states/574603/

https://www.educationdive.com/news/educators-scrambling-to-continue-special-ed-services-as-nearly-all-states/574603/

https://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/2020/03/24/covid19-updates-mde-clarifies-instructional-time-requirements-us-dept-of-ed-offers-broad-flexibility-in-testing-mandates/

https://edsource.org/2020/despite-assurances-of-flexibility-educators-fear-liability-in-online-instruction-of-special-ed-students/626898

https://www.southcoasttoday.com/special/20200325/remote-education

https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local-education/coronavirus-state-cancels-school-testing-sets-graduation-and-voucher-rules/oc2iW7BtkruLPlxF9z8OMO/

And a specific example of the evolving guidance: Mass students with IEPS must have remote lessons

https://www.wbur.org/edify/2020/03/26/disabilities-school-guidance

OCR Speaks

I like it when I can get a direct statement from the US Dept of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on issues of accessibility and online education.  This is especially good information in light of the press for remote education in K-12 and higher education institutions.  And, this is what I've been saying for years.

Please share this widely.

Continuity of Education in Light of COVIS-19 Concerns

There's been discussion in both K-12 and higher education about what to do about the face-to-face instruction in light of ongoing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.  Given that academic institutions in other countries and in a few US communities have closed or have instituted "digital learning days" it's worth looking at the push for temporary online learning in light of quality online instruction and accessibility issues.

As I have pointed out in previous posts,  in the US, both higher education institutions and K-12 have the same obligations to ensure that all digital resources and learning situations are fully accessible.  I've recently seen a couple of higher ed institutions' continuity of education statements.  I like the statement that Yale has. 

Instructors should... review the information provided on the Student Accessibility Services website. ADA regulations apply to all courses, whether residential, online, or online temporarily in the case of a disruption to normal campus operations.

It does apply to both K-12 and higher education. I have found, especially in K-12 institutions, digital accessibility has focused on students' having a digital device, and if that device can be connected to the internet.  That may be the first step.  But, if once they have a device the content is still not designed to be accessible, it's like not having a device.

Institutions of higher education and K-12 education have a legal responsibility to ensure that all educational programs, whether residential, online, or online temporarily need to be accessible.

As K-12 schools are looking to create online learning opportunities they could benefit from applying the National Standards for Quality Online Learning.  These have been recently revised and are available for download without cost.  The standards are designed as a benchmark for the development and delivery of online learning.  Standards exist for Programs, Courses, and Teaching.  The standards address accessibility, so working to achieve the standards will also help in achieving accessibility.

Because at this point there's no good indication of how long school closures may last, it's better to think long-term and design online learning opportunities that do more than simply count as school days.  Design those online learning opportunities to ensure that students don't miss their education.

I'm Back! Accessibility Can't be Ignored

Yes, it's been a while since I last made a post here.  A couple of medical issues got me out of the habit of posting here, but a couple of weeks ago I was at the DLAC 2020 conference in Austin and a colleague there told me they had enjoyed my posts and missed them.  It was nice to know that I wasn't just talking to myself, so I promised myself I'd get back to this blog.   I will be posting irregularly, but there is a lot going on so a lot of content to cover.