Did you know?

The Sloan Consortium is sponsoring a series of free webinars focusing on accessibility, including federal regulations, available resources, invisible disabilities, and effective practices for student and faculty success. Each webinar brings together a panel of administrative leaders, faculty, and students with accessibility expertise from across the United States who will provide individual and collective perspectives to working with students and faculty with disabilities in online education.

The first webinar Understanding the Law & Building Accessible Institutional Infrastructures focused on identifying critical issues that all higher education institutions should be addressing.  Panel members shared effective practices and available resources for creating accessible institutional infrastructures that support student and faculty success.  The key findings, resources and a recording of the webinar can be found here: www.3playmedia.com/2013/01/16/building-accessible-institutional-infrastructures-for-online-learning/

Sloan Accessibility Webinars

Following are the remaining three webinars from the Sloan Consortium offered in this series. Please click on the webinar title for more information and to register.

• Student & Alumni Panel: What Students with Disabilities Want Faculty & Administrators to Know (February 12, 2013 11-12:30 pm)
• Faculty Panel: What Faculty with Disabilities Want Institutions to Know (March 14, 2013, 11-12:30 pm)
• Accessibility Specialists: Understanding “Invisible” Disabilities & What this Means for Online Education (April 23, 2013, 11-12:30 pm)

Disability Resources at UST

St. Thomas' Disability Services web page contains a wealth of information for both students and faculty on available services and technologies as well as contact information for staff in the Disability Resources office who can answer your questions. Professors who have a student in their class who intends to use accommodations when taking an exam or completing the IDEA form at the end of the semester should contact Disability Resources office (MHC 110) in advance of the exam or evaluation.  It is a student's responsibility to disclose their membership in the Enhancement Program to their professors if they wish to request accommodations for their courses.  Accommodations cannot be provided unless students discloses to both their professors and the Enhancement Program staff.  Students do not have to disclose their specific disability to their professors.  The Enhancement Program does not automatically notify professors that students have a disability just because they have submitted documentation to the Enhancement Program.

Blackboard and Accessibility

What's it like to be a blind student using a JAWS screen reader to interact with and complete various tasks in Blackboard Learn? Check out one of the JAWS demos created by Blackboard:

 - Student Submitting an Assignment
 - Student Taking a Test
 - Student Viewing Grades

The videos below are recorded sessions in which a blind instructor is using a JAWS screen reader to create content and create and grade assignments in Blackboard.

 - Instructor Adding Course Content
 - Instructor Creating Assignment
 - Instructor Grading Assignment

Blackboard's tutorial for screen reader users showing how to navigate Blackboard: http://library.blackboard.com/d/?eb3b04cd-4d39-4af0-9d2d-a3f32a95430f. For more information about Blackboard and how to develop a course for universal design and accessibility visit Blackboard's UDA course.