[CATO] Help with testing Chromebooks for accessibility

Fri Jun 2 13:36:05 PDT 2023

Highline regularly loans Chromebooks out to students, and I've had a couple occasions where I've had to do some quick research and help students set up some of the basic accessibility features built into the OS. Because of this, we have ordered three Chromebooks for Access Services here: two for loaning out if IT is out of stock or students just need one for a few hours/days in an emergency, and one for me to have in our in-development Accessible Technology Lab space. So I don't know a lot just yet, but may be able to help out once the hardware arrives, and will definitely be interested in seeing what comes out of this!

Michael Hanscom (he/him), Accessible Technology Program Manager, Highline College
mhanscom at highline.edu<mailto:mhanscom at highline.edu> | Building 25-516 | 206.592.3383
Accessible Technology Zoom Lobby: Wed. 3:30-4:15 p.m., Thu. 3-3:45 p.m. https://highline.zoom.us/my/mhanscom
Access Services: 206.592.3857 | access at highline.edu<mailto:access at highline.edu> | https://access.highline.edu<https://access.highline.edu/>

From: CATO <cato-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Rovner, Amy via CATO
Sent: Friday, June 2, 2023 10:33 AM
To: Distribution List for the Committee for Accessible Technology Oversight <cato at lists.ctc.edu>
Cc: Rovner, Amy <arovner at shoreline.edu>
Subject: Re: [CATO] Help with testing Chromebooks for accessibility

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Zach - thank you for bringing this up!  Our campus has about 600 laptops in student circulation right now and my estimate is that about 95% of them are Chromebooks (due to the low cost and availability during the pandemic).

Many of them are passing their useful life span and we are trying to figure out how to keep this program going for our students. Now that Chromebooks are considerably more expensive if they are found to be lacking in accessibility, this would be great to know so we can pivot to replacing with PCs instead.

An added testing note is that we are a Microsoft school so using MS Office apps on a Chromebook can be quite frustrating. I think somewhat easier now that the browser based MS apps are easier to use but still a hurdle for all users.

I don't have expertise or resources to share but will be cheering you on from Shoreline!

Best,
Amy

From: CATO <cato-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:cato-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> On Behalf Of Monica Olsson via CATO
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Cc: Monica Olsson <molsson at sbctc.edu<mailto:molsson at sbctc.edu>>
Subject: Re: [CATO] Help with testing Chromebooks for accessibility

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Hi Zach,

I personally have very little experience with Chromebooks and they were not used often by students at TCC while I was there either.

This morning I sent an email to KC Merchant, who is the Digital Equity Program Supervisor at OSPI to see if he has any insight to share from the k-12 perspective. I included you in that message. Hope we hear from him!

Monica

[Title: SBCTC logo - Description: Compass]Monica M. Olsson (she/her/hers)

Policy Associate - Accessible IT Coordinator

Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges

*Email: molsson at sbctc.edu<mailto:molsson at sbctc.edu> * Phone: 360-704-3922

The power of the Web is in its universality.
Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

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From: CATO <cato-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:cato-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> on behalf of Fauth, Bryan via CATO <cato at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:cato at lists.ctc.edu>>
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Cc: Fauth, Bryan <bfauth at cascadia.edu<mailto:bfauth at cascadia.edu>>
Subject: Re: [CATO] Help with testing Chromebooks for accessibility

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Hi Zach,

That is definitely a lot to deal with! Cascadia does loan out Chromebooks to students. I believe it is only a small amount, most of the laptops we have available for students are PCs. Would you like me to forward this to my IT folks?

Best,

Bryan Fauth, M.S.

Director of Accessibility & Student Support Services

Preferred Pronouns: he/him/his

Phone: 425.352.8261

Email: bfauth at cascadia.edu

Student Accessibility Services Webpage<https://www.cascadia.edu/advising/accessibility.aspx>

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Cc: Lattin, Zachary <ZLattin at clark.edu<mailto:ZLattin at clark.edu>>
Subject: [CATO] Help with testing Chromebooks for accessibility

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Good morning CATO,

Do you have time to help me (and all of us,) out?  Want to get your hands dirty with some assistive technology?

I am being asked to evaluate Chromebooks for use in  Clark College's IT infrastructure.  I am feeling a lot of pressure, especially given Chromebooks' history of being inaccessible and given the scope of what an actually thorough and professional evaluation like this involves.  Because Chromebook accessibility or lack thereof impacts all of us, I figured I would ask CATO for help.  At my CIO"s recommendation, I recently reached out to several institutions who use Chromebooks and it seems those institutions were unaware of or didn't test for accessibility before adopting Chromebooks.  Here is a rough outline of how I plan to go about this testing:

  *   Research existing Chromebook accessibility documentation and find recent user stories from AT users who regularly use the devices
  *   Verify that all built-in assistive technologies are compatible with Google suite, and adequate and functional for a user in 2023
  *   Test out screen magnification and make sure it is adequate
  *   Test switch access and insure compatibility with common hardware switches
  *   Test voice-control (Dragon-like functionality) and insure that user experience is consistent.  Test with device mic and some common headset mics.
  *   Verify that using Chromevox is comparable to using a screen-reader like Jaws or NVDA and verify that the Google Suite is functionally accessible with Chromevox
  *   Verify claims that braille support (including UEB and Nemeth support) has been improved and works consistently across the Google suite of apps.  Verify that braille support works with common braille display hardware.
  *   Finalize an assistive technology training plan for AT users who have Chromebooks and wish to be trained to access Clark resources with them.
  *   Align all of the above with Revised Sec. 508 functional accessibility requirements or with WCAG wherever applicable

Here are a couple of asterisks:

  *   Clark is not considering the arm architectured Chromebooks, only the Intel I5s and i7s
  *   At this time Clark is not interested in touchscreen functionality

I haven't brought this up with CATO leadership or asked to have it on the agenda or anything, just feeling stressed and asking for some support.  I could use any help at all with this!  I'd be glad to chat about it at the June CATO meeting though.

Thank you,

--Zach

Campus IT Accessibility Coordinator and Assistive Technology Specialist

IT Services

Phone (call or text): (360) 992-2016

Email: zlattin at clark.edu<mailto:zlattin at clark.edu>

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