How do I initiate an institutional accessibility plan?
Below are 11 essential conditions considered to be critical in implementing a successful accessibility plan. These essential conditions are adapted from the International Society for Technology in Education's (ISTE) National Education Technology Standards (NETS). For more information, see http://www.iste.org
In order for an institutional web accessibility initiative to be successful, the following 11 essential conditions must be met:
- Shared Vision – There is proactive leadership and administrative support from the entire institutional system. Key personnel in all areas of the institution understand and support accessibility and universal design.
- Technology Access – Information Technology (IT) professionals (including web authors and network administrators), instructors, and students have access to current technologies, software, and telecommunications networks, both for development and access.
- Community Professional Development – Educators and developers are skilled in universal design for the curriculum and have consistent access to professional development opportunities.
- Technical Assistance – Educators, content experts, and IT professionals have technical assistance available for authoring, maintaining, and using the web to instruct and inform. Resources are provided to assist educators and content experts to effectively port their traditional curriculums and resources into web-based media, while maintaining maximum accessibility and flexibility. Accessibility and universal design expertise is available to the institutional community.
- Accessibility Standards and Resources – The institution should have an authoritative, understandable, reasonable, and verifiable accessibility rule/policy that is developed in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team. The rule/policy should be based on accepted accessibility standards. The rule/policy should cover existing web-based accessibility issues in addition to procurement of technologies used in the dissemination of web-based information.
- Reference and Training Resources - Educators and IT professionals should be knowledgeable in accessibility issues and aware of instructional resources through routine training opportunities and access to related information. A central repository for institutional accessibility information and policies (preferably web-based) should be established.
- User-driven Content and Instruction – Accessibility means graceful transformation. Web content should be user-driven, allowing the user to select the format, time and place of access, and manner in which the information is accessed. Instruction should be multimodal in presentation, combining a variety of formats, and allowing multiple avenues for learning to take place.
- Assessment and Accountability – There is continuous assessment of the level of accessibility the institutional web spaces provide. Assessment should be quantitative, replicable, and regular. Unit managers should be held accountable for failure to provide an acceptable level of accessibility. Assessments should be documented for auditing purposes.
- Community Support – The institutional community understands and supports accessibility efforts and universal design in the curriculum. This can be characterized as horizontal support.
- Institutional Support – The institutional administration provides leadership, support, and sufficient resources to successfully carry out the accessibility mission. This can be characterized as vertical support.
- Policies and Procedures – Development and assessment procedures, financing, and reward structures are in place to support accessibility and universal design in the curriculum.
