[CATO] Fw: Accessibility Ruling Overview

Mon Aug 26 07:13:05 PDT 2024

Good Morning CATO!

I know some of you may be on the ELC list serv, but I thought I would share this discussion regarding Title II.

Andy Duckworth (he|him)

Technology Innovation Officer

w (360) 704-4311 c (253) 318-7586

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________________________________
From: ELC <elc-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> on behalf of Whitney Boswell via ELC <elc at lists.ctc.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2024 11:10 AM
To: Jeremy Winn <jeremy.winn at ghc.edu>; elc at lists.ctc.edu <elc at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: Re: [ELC-C] Accessibility Ruling Overview

[Sent from outside SBCTC]

For #4, our dev team in speaking to the slide said it would apply to something like a student’s individual transcript – something specific to the student, and behind a specific login. And they could request it be accessible and it would need to be if so.

And yeah, we were initially confused but the last ELC meeting cleared that up – 50,000 counts your service area not your FTE. So we’re adhering to April 24th of 2026. Only 2 years instead of 3.

Do not feel obligated to reply to this email outside of your working hours.

Sincerely,

Whitney Boswell, M.Ed. | she/they<https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/c.php?g=834876&p=5961326> | (hear my name<https://namedrop.io/whitneyboswell>)

Senior Director of eLearning and the Excellence in Teaching Collaborative, GRC

☎️: 253-333-6028

📧: wboswell at greenriver.edu<mailto:wboswell at greenriver.edu>

🏛️: Wilturner-Rosemond CLI 112 or 🎥: Virtual (schedule time with me)<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/ea00efc84d6b43b09d716d9d2c4d4f1c@greenriver.edu?anonymous&ep=plink>

eLearning

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💻: Faculty Website<https://libguides.greenriver.edu/facultyhome>

From: Jeremy Winn <jeremy.winn at ghc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2024 4:03 PM
To: elc at lists.ctc.edu; Whitney Boswell <WBoswell at greenriver.edu>
Subject: Re: Accessibility Ruling Overview

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Thanks for sharing this, Whitney!  I have to call attention to--I think there might be a significant misinterpretation of the ruling here around exception #4 (it is also possible that I am the one who is misunderstanding)  It says there are exceptions for "Password-Protected Class or Course Content for Public Educational Institutions", which can be interpreted very broadly, but I don't see this supported in the report or summaries.  There is a lot of discussion of a PROPOSED exception, including this part:

"Although the proposed exception applied to password-protected course content, it did not apply to the Learning Management System platforms on which public educational institutions make content available.[152<https://outlook.office.com/mail/inbox/id/AAQkAGVmMjQxNGMyLWQ5YjUtNDUwZC1iMmViLTkzMTI3M2ZhNjkxYgAQAATYFFf6NUkdhHezTv4FcHI%3D?realm=ghc.edu&exsvurl=1&ll-cc=1033&modurl=0&url=%2fowa%2f%3frealm%253dghc.edu%2526exsvurl%253d1%2526ll-cc%253d1033%2526modurl%253d0%2526login_hint%253djeremy.winn%252540ghc.edu#footnote-152-p31372>]"

And there is extensive discussion of a subpart H, which would provide certain exceptions for higher ed, but after pages of discussion, they conclude:

Having reviewed the public comments, the Department believes it is appropriate to, as many commenters suggested, not include the previously proposed course content exceptions in subpart H of this part. For many of the reasons noted by commenters, the Department has concluded that the proposed exceptions would not meaningfully ease the burden on public educational institutions and would significantly exacerbate educational inequities for students with disabilities.
...(it's long)...

The Department believes that it is more efficient and effective for public educational institutions to use the two- or three-year compliance time frame to prepare to make course content accessible proactively, instead of having to scramble to remediate content reactively.

Accordingly, under subpart H of this part, password-protected course content will be treated like any other content and will generally need to conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. To the extent that it is burdensome for public educational institutions to make all of their content, including course content, accessible, the Department believes subpart H contains a series of mechanisms that are designed to make it feasible for these institutions to comply, including the delayed compliance dates discussed in § 35.200, the other exceptions discussed in § 35.201, the provisions relating to conforming alternate versions and equivalent facilitation discussed in §§ 35.202 and 35.203, the fundamental alteration and undue burdens limitations discussed in § 35.204, and the approach to measuring compliance with § 35.200 discussed in § 35.205.

i.e., there is much discussion of this as a proposal, but my understanding is that they did NOT adopt any special exceptions for higher ed.  Instead they ruled that higher ed should abide by the same expectations as everyone else, and that the other exceptions they established should be good enough for us.

Overview of the exceptions from the ruling:

As will be explained more fully, the Department has set forth five specific exceptions from compliance with the technical standard required under § 35.200: (1) archived web content; (2) preexisting conventional electronic documents, unless such documents are currently used to apply for, gain access to, or participate in the public entity's services, programs, or activities; (3) content posted by a third party, unless the third party is posting due to contractual, licensing, or other arrangements with the public entity; (4) conventional electronic documents that are about a specific individual, their property, or their account and that are password-protected or otherwise secured; and (5) preexisting social media posts.

A more thorough breakdown on exceptions on the ADA website: https://www.ada.gov/resources/2024-03-08-web-rule/

One other piece that was confusing to me initially is the deadline structure, which has different deadlines for entities with less than 50,000 or more than 50,000 individuals.  My question was, what counts as an entity?  The ruling clarifies that it is your service district for your college.  e.g., GHC serves all of Grays Harbor County and part of Peninsula County.  If looking at just our enrollment, or even the population of our metro area, it would be less than 50,000, but because our service district covers the entire county and then some, we must also abide by the 2026 deadline for institutions serving 50,000+.  If it applies to us, I imagine it applies to the other colleges as well, maybe with a couple of exceptions.  You have to look at your service area and the census data to make the determination.

Jeremy Winn, MA Ed.

E-Learning Coordinator, Faculty Development, Educational Technology & Digital Equity

Grays Harbor College

360-538-4085

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________________________________

From: ELC <elc-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:elc-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> on behalf of Whitney Boswell via ELC <elc at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:elc at lists.ctc.edu>>
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2024 1:17 PM
To: elc at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:elc at lists.ctc.edu> <elc at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:elc at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: [ELC-C] Accessibility Ruling Overview

Hi all,

Our software dev folx have created this overview of the accessibility ruling from the DOJ. Feel free to use/share/edit. Thank you to Dailee Howard.

Do not feel obligated to reply to this email outside of your working hours.

Sincerely,

Whitney Boswell, M.Ed. | she/they<https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/c.php?g=834876&p=5961326> | (hear my name<https://namedrop.io/whitneyboswell>)

Senior Director of eLearning and the Excellence in Teaching Collaborative, GRC

Past-Chair of eLearning Council, SBCTC

☎️: 253-333-6028

📧: wboswell at greenriver.edu<mailto:wboswell at greenriver.edu>

🏛️: Wilturner-Rosemond CLI 112 or 🎥: Virtual (schedule time with me)<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/ea00efc84d6b43b09d716d9d2c4d4f1c@greenriver.edu?anonymous&ep=plink>

eLearning

☎️: 253-288-3354

📧: elearning at greenriver.edu<mailto:elearning at greenriver.edu>

💻: Student Website<https://libguides.greenriver.edu/studenthome>

💻: Faculty Website<https://libguides.greenriver.edu/facultyhome>

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