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Thread: Teach Act?
Number of posts in this thread: 7 (In chronological order)
From: Shuttlesworth, Rachel
Date: Mon, Nov 18 2013 7:32AM
Subject: Teach Act?
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Hello, esteemed list.
I am getting questions from my campus regarding the Teach Act (not the TEACH Act) discussed here: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/bill-would-require-instructional-technology-to-be-accessible-to-all/48383?cid=wc&;utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en. Would it require something different that what universities are already expected to do as clarified by the Dear Colleague Letter from the DOE and DOJ in 2010?
Any guidance is welcome.
Rachel
Dr. Rachel S. Thompson
Director, Emerging Technology and Accessibility
Center for Instructional Technology
University of Alabama
From: Poore-Pariseau, Cindy
Date: Mon, Nov 18 2013 7:40AM
Subject: Re: Teach Act?
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Please post responses to list. Thank you.
Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he [or she] was born in another time.
Rabindranath Tagore (the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913)
Cindy Poore-Pariseau, Ph. D.
Bristol Community College
Coordinator of Disability Services
Office of Disability Services, L115
Fall River, MA 02720
phone: 508-678-2811 ext. 2470
Fax: 508-730-3297
aim: poorepariseau
From: John E Brandt
Date: Mon, Nov 18 2013 11:38AM
Subject: Re: Teach Act?
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That article seems to have generated some "interesting" comments...
John E. Brandt
jebswebs: accessible and universal web design,
development and consultation
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA
@jebswebs
From: Andrews, David B (DEED)
Date: Tue, Nov 19 2013 8:44AM
Subject: Re: Teach Act?
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If you are following guidelines, ADA etc., things should be ok. I should say first that the legislation has only been introduced in the House, it is not law yet, and that will likely take a while, if at all. Although the NFB is persistent, and they have the publishers aboard, it will take some time, but they will keep chipping away.
The proposed legislation calls for the Government, through ATBCB to develop standards for colleges and universities to follow, and these should use existing national and international standards. So we will probably see WCAG 2.0 and Section 508 of the Rehab Act.
Most colleges and universities do a fair job with documents, books etc. The areas that might cause some people trouble are web sites, on-line learning systems -- especially, and information access hardware, such as Nooks or Kindles, if they are required.
Dave
From: John E Brandt
Date: Tue, Nov 19 2013 9:09AM
Subject: Re: Teach Act?
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It might be worth reading some other sources - besides the Chronicle - as
the information there is pretty minimal. I suggest taking a look at Rep.
Petri's news release (he is the person sponsoring the bill).
http://petri.house.gov/press-release/petri-introduces-teach-act-ensure-equal
-access-educational-materials-students
Among the things understated in the Chronicle piece is the fact that this
bill does not create anything new but simply follows up on recommendations
from the study committee for Higher Education Act, empowering the Access
Board to create specific rules regarding accessible instructional materials
(AIM) and adds clarifications to IDEA (04) regarding AIM.
As others have noted, this is just the first step and the bill will not be
going anywhere, anytime soon. Likely it will get folded into some other
legislation some day when we have a Congress that is interested in getting
some work done [sorry for the "political" tone in that last statement].
~j
John E. Brandt
jebswebs: accessible and universal web design,
development and consultation
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA
@jebswebs
From: Jim Allan
Date: Tue, Nov 19 2013 10:40AM
Subject: Re: Teach Act?
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Speaking as a K-12 person, would like to see this applied to our
materials as well.
jim
On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 10:09 AM, John E Brandt < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> It might be worth reading some other sources - besides the Chronicle - as
> the information there is pretty minimal. I suggest taking a look at Rep.
> Petri's news release (he is the person sponsoring the bill).
>
> http://petri.house.gov/press-release/petri-introduces-teach-act-ensure-equal
> -access-educational-materials-students
>
> Among the things understated in the Chronicle piece is the fact that this
> bill does not create anything new but simply follows up on recommendations
> from the study committee for Higher Education Act, empowering the Access
> Board to create specific rules regarding accessible instructional materials
> (AIM) and adds clarifications to IDEA (04) regarding AIM.
>
> As others have noted, this is just the first step and the bill will not be
> going anywhere, anytime soon. Likely it will get folded into some other
> legislation some day when we have a Congress that is interested in getting
> some work done [sorry for the "political" tone in that last statement].
>
> ~j
>
> John E. Brandt
> jebswebs: accessible and universal web design,
> development and consultation
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> 207-622-7937
> Augusta, Maine, USA
>
> @jebswebs
>
>
From: Karen Sorensen
Date: Wed, Nov 20 2013 1:32AM
Subject: Re: Teach Act?
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Hi WebAIMers,
The Teach Act? Really? I mean even it's name is confusing. Hello?! There
already is a TEACH Act. It provides special copyright provisions for
Distance Learning.
And yes, there already are laws requiring equal access in post-secondary
institutions. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA are pretty
clear about that. And the Dear Colleague Letter of June 29, 2010 and the
follow-up Q&A<http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-20100629.html>;made
it quite clear that equal access pertains to websites and technology
used by students and faculty at federally funded institutions.
And since then, we have had at least two OCR decisions that included
technology and websites, Lousiana
Tech<http://www.ada.gov/louisiana-tech.htm>;and South
Carolina Tech<http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/investigations/11116002-a.html>;.
whose settlements provide further clarification of postsecondary's
obligation to provide equal access to all students.
I'm sorry, but I think it's a stalling technique by publishers. They are
trying to get the US Access Board to " develop guidelines for electronic
instructional materials used by institutions of higher education. " But
standards for accessibility already exist (Section 508 and WCAG 2.0) , and
the ADA formally announced their plan 2 years ago to adopt, adapt or
develop standards on the accessibility of websites and technology to be
included in the ADA.
Our institution isn't waiting for the ADA announcement which keeps getting
delayed or this TEACH Act smoke screen to clear. After all, it's not the
publishers who are going to be sued or have OCR judgements against them.
Our current practice is to manually review every new online course for
accessibility before it is launched.
And since the Louisiana Tech OCR settlement came out which included
inaccessible online publisher content as part of the complaint, our
administration is seriously considering a ban on all inaccessible
instructional content adoptions, which would rule out almost every
publisher with digital content that I'm aware of.
I encourage all schools (pre and post secondary) to prohibit the adoption
of inaccessible instructional materials. And if the publishers can't make
their materials accessible, that they provide us with the equally effective
and equally integrated alternate formats we need to fulfill our legal
obligations to our students with disabilities.
If there are others trying to deal with inaccessible publisher content at
their post-secondary institutions, I would love to talk more. This is a hot
topic at our school right now. Please email me off list if you would like
to discuss this more.
Thanks for reading my rant.
Karen
Karen M. Sorensen
Accessibility Advocate for Online Courses
www.pcc.edu/access
Portland Community College
971-722-4720
*"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone
regardless of disability is an essential aspect.* Tim Berners-Lee