OCR, 504, 508… 911! HELP!

If the last chapter seemed pretty heavy… it’s because, as previously noted, I did not write it! The language used from WebAIM is thick but comprehensive. The impact that recent litigation in higher education has raised several questions on how to best pursue accessibility strategies on campus to mitigate the risks of a potential lawsuit on your campus. In this chapter, we will define accessibility, identify roles & stakeholders at your institution, and lightly cover some recent cases.

Defining “Accessible”

The Office of Civil Rights, in their resolution with South Carolina Technical College System, defines accessible as:

“Accessible” means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. The person with a disability must be able to obtain the information as fully, equally and independently as a person without a disability.^[1]

Game Plan: The Accessibility Policy

If your mind was racing with possibilities (or possible anxiety) on how to tackle accessibility on campus, fret not. Often, the first step is to make public pact to pursue accessibility. An accessibility policy is a written commitment “…designed as a set of dynamic guidelines rather than a legal document”^[2] This policy can be as simple as a paragraph, or as in depth as a several page web resource. No matter what shape your policy takes, it should aim to create and clarify procedures pertaining to universal design and accommodation issues.^[3] This policy should also be placed on most of the institution’s websites in the footer.

Roles, Stakeholders, & Scope

As we just learned accessibility is ensures that a person, or in the higher ed setting, a student, needs to be able to have an equitable experience through out every aspect of pursuing education. To achieve this, we must define the people on campus and their respective scopes so that we may learn what we are responsible for in the grand scheme of an accessibility strategy.