Montgomery College
Activities to Raise Awareness
Timeline thus far
Original Recommendations
Components of Plan (not necessarily in this order)
Montgomery College's Implementation
Plan (Word .doc 46KB)
Resources
Activities to Raise Awareness:
- Informal organizing - individual "champion(s)" and group
- Information gathering and sharing of websites on accessibility
- ADA and other Teleconferences
- General Counsel - get legal department behind you
- Open house and tours of DSS Assistive Technology Laboratory with demos
- Installation of accessible workstations in classrooms and libraries
- Disability Awareness Month activities
- Workshops offered through the Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTL)
- Computer Applications Web Design faculty incorporating modules on accessibility in course curricula; inviting guest speaker(s) on making websites accessible
- Other activities ongoing to raise awareness....
Timeline thus far:
- 1999-present - Training of key people; raising awareness informally
(ongoing)
- Summer 2000 - Established "Online Access Group" (OAG)
- January 2001 - First report with statement of problem and general
recommendations
- April 2001 - "Go ahead" to write detail plan
- August 2001 - Recommendation to Vice President requesting permission
to proceed
- December 2001 - OAG became part of a larger collegewide group to address
concerns about design of total College website
- February 2002 - Web Standards Committee established to write standards
for entire MC website, to include accessibility standards; representative
from DSS included on committee
- June to December 2002 - Developed Web Standards and Examples
for .edu and Infonet college sites. Included compliance checklist,
alternative methods for correcting pages, and tools for checking for
accessibility
- Self-study of all top level College web pages; repaired all non-compliant
issues.
- January 2003 - Web Standards posted to the web
- March 2003 - College websites - departmental and individual faculty
pages sampled to determine extent of needed repairs
- May 2003 - Web Standards re-ordered and edited in response to needs
assessment
- Top level administrators provided information on Web Standards; support
and memo from Administrator at VP level disseminated to all Deans and
Department Chairs.
- Fall 2003 - Trainings on Web Standards offered on all campuses. Faculty
and IT professional development avenues educated on including the Standards
in all web trainings.
- Need to provide ongoing individual assistance to assist with
modifications to meet Standards.
- Need to review all other College web sites for Standards compliance,
such as Banner, Web CT, web-based email, Campus Pipeline (My MC), NT
Server, MC Infonet, library applications and Web4Students (student
site for class assignments)
- Continued communication to convey Web Standards is required. As with
other College procedures, educating the College community to adhere
to standards and procedures will be ongoing. Observation and correction
of problems for the application of Standards will occur on a case-by-case
basis.
Original OAG Recommendations - August 2001:
- Use 508 Standards
- Meet with stakeholders in interactive format to present concepts, ask for input and get them involved. IT, DSS, CTL to host. To include faculty, staff and administrators from:
- Web Maintenance Team
- Institutional Advancement
- Information Technology
- Information Technology Web Development Group
- Distance Learning
- Center for Teaching and Learning
- College General Counsel
- Equity and Diversity
- Disability Support Services
- Human Resources
- Applications Advisory Committee
- Pipeline Web Portal Group
- Governance bodies - faculty and staff
- Others...
- Add web accessibility requirements as a guideline to MC IT Acceptable Use Policy
- Implementation Plan (Word .doc 46KB): Used formal
IT Project approach to implement - once a project received a number, it
got resources and timelines attached
Components of Plan (not necessarily in this order):
- Conduct an accessibility self study and a sample of current College web pages
- Draft a Web accessibility procedure to be added to the Acceptable Use Policy
Information Technology Policy Administrator (ITPA) to review - (modified
spring 2002 - Access standards will be incorporated into Web Standards
Guidelines for all MC websites)
- Identify and suggest priorities for College Web page revisions
- Disseminate the draft plan for wider campus review and discussion
- Submit the draft plan to the appropriate College administrators for formal review and implementation consideration
- Ensure that the College's Home and level two pages are accessible
- Provide a Web-based evaluation tool useful to non-HTML programmers
- Provide design tips and techniques to create accessible Web pages
- Provide HTML templates for creating more accessible Web pages
- Develop and provide training in accessible Web page design
Train the trainers
- Identify resources to implement plan
- Develop implementation timeline
Resources:
A comprehensive model for institutional coordination and reform to support web accessibility from George Mason University and WebAIM.
Model Plan for Implementing Web Accessibility on Campus
http://webaim.org/articles/gmuplan
WebAIM: "Strategies
for Coordination and Leadership"
http://webaim.org/coordination/
"University
Web Accessibility Policies: A Bridge Not Quite Far Enough"
http://webaim.org/coordination/articles/policies-pilot
California State University - Fresno
Draft Interim Web Accessibility Plan
http://www.csufresno.edu/webaccess/
University of Wisconsin - Madison
World Wide Web & Campus
Network Policies - includes "Appropriate Use … of IT Resources"
http://www.wisc.edu/wiscinfo/policy/www.html
Policy Governing World Wide Web Accessibility - UW-Madison
http://www.wisc.edu/wiscinfo/policy/wwwap.html
Trace R & D Center
Designing More Usable Web Sites
http://www.trace.wisc.edu/world/web/
Montgomery College Disability Support Services - Resources
Designing Your Website for Accessibility
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/dispsvc/universal_design-lec3.html
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