[CATO] Help - Accessibility of Synergy Sports

Rovner, Amy arovner at shoreline.edu
Fri Dec 9 15:16:28 PST 2022 

And I forgot to paste in Terrill's reply. Sigh - Friday!

Here it is:

Hi Amy,

Unfortunately this is a common problem with athletics software and services, and I'm short on solutions.

I don't have experience with Synergy Sports specifically, but here at the UW we've historically had problems with accessibility of our athletics website. A few years ago, I had some conversations with our athletic department to explore what it would take to fix those problems, and I learned that this was outside their control as the Pac-12 owns the contract with the vendor who maintains the websites for all schools in the conference.  So, if we were going to persuade the vendor to make changes, we were going to have to persuade the Pac-12. I reached out to colleagues at all 12 schools and we worked together to raise awareness within our own athletic departments, and finally Stanford's assistant athletic director took the lead on demanding accessibility from the Pac-12, and the Pac-12 listened and made the case to the vendor (Sidearm Sports).  We had a few exchanges with the vendor, maybe even met with them once or twice, and they agreed to make a few top priority changes. Our athletics website still has a lot of accessibility problems, and some of the issues that the vendor fixed initially have regressed. So despite all that effort, most of the changes were temporary (but some have remained, so it wasn't a completely wasted effort).

Also, Harvard is facing another lawsuit, this time for accessibility of their athletics website (theirs too is a Sidearm Sports site).  So maybe that will have an impact, but that will probably take a while.

Meanwhile, there's strength in numbers. Shoreline trying to persuade Synergy Sports to change isn't likely to have much of an impact.  But if a large number of Synergy customers all band together and demand better accessibility, they'll have to listen.  Are you on the ATHEN and/or EDUCAUSE ITACCESS lists?  I suggest reaching out to those communities to see if other schools using Synergy are facing similar challenges.  Try to get them all together to do some collective strategizing.

Regarding streaming video specifically, I wonder if there might be applicable requirements within the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act<https://go.3playmedia.com/wp-cvaa> (?)  That would be worth investigating.  If Synergy is violating the law by not captioning some or all of their video, they can be held directly accountable.  If not, there's nothing requiring them to make their content accessible other than market demand.  And if their customers don't collectively and loudly demand accessibility, there's no real incentive for them to change. It has to impact their bottom line.

Wish I had an easier solution.

Regards,
Terrill



Amy Rovner, M.P.H., R.D.
Acting Director eLearning Services, Classroom Support Services, Continuing Ed & Rentals
ctcLink Training Lead
Shoreline Community College
www.shoreline.edu<http://www.shoreline.edu/>  |  206.546.6937
eLearning Office: 206.546-6966
Pronouns: she, her, hers
[Shoreline Community College logo]<https://shoreline.edu/>


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From: CATO <cato-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Rovner, Amy via CATO
Sent: Friday, December 9, 2022 2:28 PM
To: Lattin, Zachary <ZLattin at clark.edu>; cato at lists.ctc.edu
Subject: Re: [CATO] Help - Accessibility of Synergy Sports

[ CAUTION: This email originated from outside Shoreline Community College. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. ]

Thank you Zach and I'm thrilled you are testing it.

Doug Hayman wrote to me off list and suggested that I reach out to Terrell T at UW b/c they have already gone through a similar vetting process for their live sports and may have some good info to share with us about what product is more accessible. At this point, even on that is willing to work towards greater accessibility.

I'll share the reply I received so quickly from Terrell at the end of this  message. Sadly  - no magic bullet. Even the "big boys" such as Stanford and Harvard are under pressure to make their sports websites more accessible. They use a product for PAC-12 called Sidearm. He suggests that I write to ATHEN and EDUCAUSE list servs which I will do.

Since I sent the email to CATO, I did receive a message from our Synergy rep with information that they have been purchased by Sportrader and they want to know the requirements we are under to gather VPAT.

She wrote: "Our acquiring company Sportradar needs to understand the VPAT more and I've told them about clients like Shoreline that are mandated by the state to provide a VPAT to their Tech Support depts. I wonder If you have a document you could provide me that shows the requirements you are under to gather the VPAT? I have certainly gone to websites and see the explanation but I wanted to know from your perspective, the state or federal requirements you are under."

Good, I guess, that she's asking and letting the new company know we are bound by state requirements. But also weird to ask when it's obvious from federal law.


Sigh - so time consuming and thankless.

So happy it's Friday!

Best,
Amy

Amy Rovner, M.P.H., R.D.
Acting Director eLearning Services, Classroom Support Services, Continuing Ed & Rentals
ctcLink Training Lead
Shoreline Community College
www.shoreline.edu<http://www.shoreline.edu/>  |  206.546.6937
eLearning Office: 206.546-6966
Pronouns: she, her, hers
[Shoreline Community College logo]<https://shoreline.edu/>


  *   Canvas Questions?  Reach out to Canvas 24/7 Help Live Chat:  Chat with Canvas Support (Student)<https://cases.canvaslms.com/liveagentchat?chattype=student&sfid=001A000000ZQQ2oIAH> and Chat with Canvas Support (Faculty)<https://cases.canvaslms.com/liveagentchat?chattype=admin&sfid=001A000000ZQQ2oIAH>.
  *   Other Questions? Technical Support Center<https://support.shoreline.edu/> - use the search to look for answers or you can submit a request for assistance.

From: Lattin, Zachary <ZLattin at clark.edu<mailto:ZLattin at clark.edu>>
Sent: Friday, December 9, 2022 2:13 PM
To: Rovner, Amy <arovner at shoreline.edu<mailto:arovner at shoreline.edu>>
Subject: RE: [CATO] Help - Accessibility of Synergy Sports

[ CAUTION: This email originated from outside Shoreline Community College. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. ]

Hi Amy,

By a timely coincidence, I am currently testing Synergy Sports for accessibility because it is up for renewal at Clark.  From what I've found so far with screen-reader and screen magnification testing, I have to say it's likely not going to pass here at Clark based just on the UI.  I haven't even gotten around to verifying that the vids are captioned, or if the product has the ability to provide a captioner / interpreter for live videos, but that is on my list for this product.

I also have to confess that I actually read that "with the complexities of making streaming video accessible we cannot guarantee to meet federal accessible guidelines in our product" language, and didn't read further, so thank you for quoting it in your email.  (I've seen a lot of language like that, particularly around live videos which is why I look for the ability to provide an interpreter or captioner in the product.)  In my mind "at this time, our product apps are not ADA compliant and we currently do not have plans to make them ADA compliant." Is an open invitation for the colleges of Washington state to choose another product, or for some of to engage with the vendor at the very least!

Thank you, and I can keep you posted on what I find in testing.
--Zach
From: CATO <cato-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:cato-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> On Behalf Of Rovner, Amy via CATO
Sent: Thursday, December 8, 2022 5:16 PM
To: cato at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:cato at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [CATO] Help - Accessibility of Synergy Sports

CAUTION: This email originated from outside Clark College. Do not click links or open attachments unless you validate the sender and know the content is safe. If you suspect this is phishing forward to phishing at clark.edu<mailto:phishing at clark.edu> or contact the helpdesk at x2425 or email helpdesk at clark.edu.
Hi,


I don't think CATO is necessarily the right place to ask this but I know you all will at least be interested (horrified, disheartened) by the accessibility information from Synergy Sports. This is a streaming platform plus some features for coaches and players where they can watch their film, stats, play analysis etc. for basketball. Both our men's and women's teams use it. Last year, due to ctcLink, I gave them one year provisional approval because I just couldn't deal.
I've attached a likely inaccessible PDF (sorry!) from them with their IT FAQ. Here is the Accessibility information you will find if you scroll to the last page...

Accessibility
What has your company done to evaluate the accessibility of your product in accordance with either Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act or WCAG 2.0 accessibility guidelines?
Synergy understands the need to make software accessible but with the complexities of making streaming video accessible we cannot guarantee to meet federal accessible guidelines in our product. Thus, at this time, our product apps are not ADA compliant and we currently do not have plans to make them ADA compliant.

If our users should encounter issues with accessibility, to what extent are you willing to work with the client to improve the product's accessibility?
We would be open to hearing suggestions on how we can make our products more accessible.


To our Athletic Director's credit - he let them know that "we were only under a one year deal from 2021-22 season with a potential to renew after an update on the Access requirement from our TSS department.  Please send us an update of the Access requirement that we communicated to you last year, so we can determine if we can continue using this product via approval from our TSS department. "

Their reply was classic - "I see that both programs are able to access your Synergy Sports Accounts and are using them currently, so I assume the issue has been fixed." Access issues - ugh!
Anyway - not sure what to do this year. Clearly nothing has changed And coaches want to use it yesterday of course and Synergy wants us to pay for it.

My ultimate question is probably better for the Accessible IT folks for each campus- what platform(s) are other colleges using for this work.   I often hear, "it's what all the colleges in the division are using."

Thanks for listening,
Amy

Amy Rovner, M.P.H., R.D.
Acting Director eLearning Services, Classroom Support Services, Continuing Ed & Rentals
ctcLink Training Lead
Shoreline Community College
www.shoreline.edu<http://www.shoreline.edu/>  |  206.546.6937
eLearning Office: 206.546-6966
Pronouns: she, her, hers
[Shoreline Community College logo]<https://shoreline.edu/>


  *   Canvas Questions?  Reach out to Canvas 24/7 Help Live Chat:  Chat with Canvas Support (Student)<https://cases.canvaslms.com/liveagentchat?chattype=student&sfid=001A000000ZQQ2oIAH> and Chat with Canvas Support (Faculty)<https://cases.canvaslms.com/liveagentchat?chattype=admin&sfid=001A000000ZQQ2oIAH>.
  *   Other Questions? Technical Support Center<https://support.shoreline.edu/> - use the search to look for answers or you can submit a request for assistance.

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