Instructional Materials Accessibility Plan
Introduction
California State University, Long Beach affirms the equal worth of every individual and seeks to ensure fair and equal treatment and access for all members of the university community. Since instructional materials are at the core of the educational experience, CSULB will ensure that such materials are equally accessible to all students.
Timely Adoption of Course Materials
- The university will adopt a policy requiring that all course and textbook materials be requested by established university timelines. While the university currently does not have a policy statement that addresses timely adoption of course materials, a policy will be drafted during summer 2007 for consideration by governance process in fall 2007.
- For courses that have no instructor of record by the established deadline for requesting course materials, the department chair will be responsible for ensuring that course materials are requested in accordance with the established timelines. Currently, practices vary across departments and colleges for adoption of course materials for instructors who have not been identified by the established deadline for textbook requisition. The policy to be developed in summer 2007 will address this situation.
Early Identification of Students with Disabilities Requiring Curriculum Access
- The university will develop a plan for the early identification of students with disabilities who require accessible instructional materials and the use of alternate media. At the present time, Disabled Student Services (DSS) provides a fall orientation to new students about the services they may require from the DSS program components. Students who require alternate instructional media in the forms of audio transcript, large print, electronic text (e-text) or Braille are referred to the DSS High Tech Center where the materials are acquired or produced for students with a verified print disability. Students who require audio tapes of instructional materials may acquire this media from the DSS Student Services component. Students who require captioning of in-class lectures, and/or non-captioned videos used within course content, may request real-time captioning or sign language interpreter services from the DSS Deaf and Hard of Hearing component. In accordance to the Privacy Act of 1974, students must self identify as having a disability to receive reasonable accommodations and services from the DSS programs.
- The university will design a web-based information link to the DSS High Tech Center for students, faculty and staff to use as a self-referral method for early requests for accessible instructional materials. This web-based information link will be communicated to students during early registration and to faculty during the request period for course materials.
Information about and request forms for accommodations for students with a print disability may be found on the Disabled Student Services web site. [www.csulb.edu/divisions/students2/dss/policies_and_forms/] Students are expected to comply with all copyright provisions. Forms for staff and faculty to request alternative
media for employee use may be obtained through the Office of Equity and Diversity.
- The university’s alternative media specialists will develop an acquisition-conversion process. Features of the process will include:
- Tracking of requests
- Communication between requestors and alternative media specialists
- Early identification of faculty needing assistance in converting instructional materials
- Audit system for assessing compliance
The DSS High Tech Center’s Alternative Media Project Leader manages all alternative media requests; makes initial contact with publishers for copyright permissions and e-text requests; acquires alternative media from publishers such as the CSU CAM project or other national repository; oversees the production of e-text textbooks; keeps records and tracks all requests, acquisitions and production tasks. For those instructional materials that require conversion to an accessible format, the HTC staff has made the conversions. A plan to early identify faculty materials that may require conversion needs to be developed.
- The university will develop an on-line resource for students, staff, and faculty to search for instructional materials already developed in accessible formats from repositories on and off campus. The DSS High Tech Center’s Alternative Media Project Leader has access to data bases for alternative media formats from publishers, the CSU CAM project and other national repositories. Students, staff and faculty can request that the Alternative Media Project Leader look up any needed instructional materials from these proprietary reserve lists or from the American Printing House for the Blind and Dyslexic. [http://www.aph.org/atic/fall2007.html] In fall 2007, a deployment server located in the University Library will be launched, enabling on-demand access to screen magnification applications from any campus computer for students, faculty and staff.
Use of the Campus Learning Management System (BeachBoard)
- The university will develop a plan to increase use of BeachBoard by instructors. Faculty are not currently required to use BeachBoard. The university needs to develop a plan to increase adoption of BeachBoard and the campus must be prepared to absorb the associated costs.
- BeachBoard Services will continue to evaluate maturing LMS products for features that are compliant with legal requirements for accessibility of instructional materials.
Incorporation of Accessibility Requirements in the Purchase of Digital or
Multimedia Instructional Materials
- The university will adopt a policy requiring that accessibility requirements be incorporated in the purchasing process for digital or multimedia instructional materials. The ATI Procurement Subcommittee, which is in the process of completing its report, is planning to recommend a compliance process that includes review of purchases for electronic materials.
- The university will develop a protocol for instructors to use as selection criteria for all digital or multimedia materials used in courses.
- The university will develop and maintain a list of those vendors who produce all digital and multimedia instructional materials. An assistive device vendor list is currently available on the DSS High Tech Center web site. [www.csulb.edu/htc]. However, this list is not all-inclusive; additional vendors need to be added for digital and multimedia materials such as captioning, speech-to-text conversions and other resources as may be identified by the campus community’s needs assessment.
Alignment of Academic Technology Resources to Assist Faculty in the Creation of
Accessible Technology-mediated Courses
- The university will develop an online catalog of tools to assist with developing or repurposing instructional materials for universal design and accessibility. An online catalog of tools is being compiled [www.csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/instresources.html].
- Instructional Technology Support Services (ITSS) will develop materials and training programs to assist faculty in developing accessible technology-mediated courses. A prototype is planned for summer 2007.
Communication and Training to Educate Students,
Faculty and Staff about the Campus Instructional Materials Accessibility Plan
- The university will develop and implement an on-demand, interactive web-based training module for all campus employees. Materials will be developed based on the ATI Steering Committee’s implementation plan and the priorities established in the plan.
- The university will develop and implement face-to-face training workshops for new faculty and staff. Materials will be developed based on the ATI Steering Committee’s implementation plan and the priorities.
- The university will develop a plan for integrating accessibility training modules into university classes where students are required to create web-based instructional materials. Such modules will need to be developed and approved through the curriculum review process. Incorporation of these training modules into relevant classes will need to be part of existing or new policy on course requirements.
- ITSS will provide on-going accessibility training and technical support for instructors. Materials will be developed based on the ATI Steering Committee’s implementation plan and the priorities.
Roles, Responsibilities and Evaluation
- The university will designate individuals, offices and committees responsible for implementing the Instructional Materials Accessibility Plan. Identification of such individuals, offices and committees is part of the planning process.
- The university will establish a committee to measure the effectiveness of the Instructional Materials Accessibility Plan.
