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NCDAE: The National Center on Disability and Access to Education

Joining together to improve the accessibility
of electronically-mediated education

December 2013 Newsletter

The staff of NCDAE want to wish you a happy holiday season!

While we have already passed Thanksgiving and Hanukkah we are moving into a wonderful holiday season that includes Christmas, Kwanza, Solstice, Festivus, and other important days. While we know this is a busy time for many of you, we prepared a newsletter rich in content. It includes an important GOALS blueprint, another installment of Voices from the Field, as well as news and resources selected for you. Enjoy!

Featured Resource

Blueprint for Web Accessibility and Accreditation

This blueprint is a set of materials that can be used by regional accreditors to introduce web accessibility into their documents and processes, assist review committees in assessing institutional web accessibility, and aid them in providing support for their constituents. View Accreditation Blueprint.

Voices from the Field: Utah State University, Part Two

How Local IT Support Can Help Faculty

Karl Smith, IT support staff, shares his thoughts about working across a dozen faculty members to help them learn to create accessible materials for their courses.

In the News

TEACH Act Would Require Instructional Technology to Be Accessible to All

US Representative Tom Petri, a senior member of the House Education Committee, introduced legislation to ensure equal access to educational materials for students with disabilities. Some NCDAE readers may find the comments in this article enlightening.

Justice Department Seeks to Intervene in Lawsuit Alleging H&R Block’s Tax Preparation Website Is Inaccessible to Individuals with Disabilities

The US Attorney General has stepped in supporting the lawsuit brought by NFB, against H&R Block's online products. While this is not a higher education suit, it will likely have broader implications.

Captioning Someone Else’s YouTube Videos Using JWPlayer

CaptionSync shares a work-around for adding captions to any YouTube video, even if you are not the owner. While it is very technical, it provides a solution to a problem that is pervasive in higher education.

Approaching Accessibility

John Brandt acknowledges while full internet accessibility may still be beyond our grasp, we can continually improve as we “approach” accessibility. John highlights a number of helpful resources, including GOALS cheatsheets.

User-Friendly Advice for Accessible Web Design

This post from the Chronicle of Higher Education highlights some useful resources available from WebAIM, a partner of GOALS.

Higher Ed Accessibility Lawsuits

University of Minnesota Duluth outlines litigation in higher education from the past five years in a useful timeline.