[Nebraska-students] conference call

[Kelly Coleman]

Hello everyone! 
There will be a conference call tomorrow Wednesday the 30th at 9:30 pm. We will be discussing the goals for the year, ideas you may have and feedback from the convention. If you would like to join us we would love to have you! The information is as fallows:
Call-in number: 712-775-7100 

Code: 610116 

Kelly Coleman
countryperson94 at aol.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Buresh, Amy <amy.buresh at nebraska.gov>
Sent: Mon, Sep 9, 2013 7:42 am
Subject: [Nebraska-students] Digital education shouldn’t bypass disabled


Greetings,

Here is an interesting Op-Ed, written by Kyle Shachmut and published in this 
morning's edition of the Boston Globe. It frames the challenges of inaccessible 
educational technology and promotes the forthcoming TEACH Act.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/09/08/classroom-technology-must-accessible-those-with-disabilities/svRyLPnmnBSNCDUuQaUEVJ/story.html<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bostonglobe.com%2Fopinion%2F2013%2F09%2F08%2Fclassroom-technology-must-accessible-those-with-disabilities%2FsvRyLPnmnBSNCDUuQaUEVJ%2Fstory.html&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNH9jfI5dlgLS7eEGLU4E_HAKDS-uA>

It's also available on today's edition of the Boston Globe on Newsline in the 
Editorial & Opinion section.

Digital education shouldn’t bypass disabled
By Kyle Shachmut

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As students return to school this fall, most will find a plethora of new 
technologies and virtual environments, on which their institutions have been 
spending millions of dollars to bring into the classroom. Yet many of these 
resources will be needlessly discriminatory. What would happen if an institution 
constructed a new state-of-the-art building but neglected to make it accessible 
to the disabled? People would rightly be outraged. Yet even as new 
technology-rich environments revolutionize the classroom, few make provision for 
people who are blind, dyslexic, or otherwise print-disabled.
Just like buildings, digital resources can be made accessible to all through 
good design and planning. Electronic resources should be inherently accessible; 
for most people, the zeroes and ones that make up digital content are translated 
for display on screens, but the same information can be transmitted audibly or 
connected to an accessory that puts it into Braille. Mainstream touchscreen 
devices like the iPad and iPhone are fully accessible to blind users right out 
of the box.
Yet, the vast majority of universities, publishers, and software creators do not 
embrace mainstream accessibility solutions. Technology giants like Google and 
Amazon are making immense efforts to put their products in front of students 
across the country, even though Google Apps for Education, Google Books, the 
Amazon Kindle, and the Kindle App for mobile devices have features that blind 
people cannot use. As a teaching assistant this summer, I was unable to 
successfully read, much less critique, student assignments that were submitted 
in the much-used Google Docs format. The disability community has repeatedly 
urged these companies — some of the world’s most innovative and talent-rich — to 
make their products accessible. But the pace of improvement has been 
disappointingly slow, even as educational institutions adopt these tools at a 
rapid clip.
Meanwhile, even though the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires 
postsecondary institutions to provide equal access, the burden of identifying 
and fixing access barriers falls to students. As a successful blind student who 
also works in higher ed, I’ve never started a semester with all of my texts and 
digital resources in formats that I can use. I have to seek out an alternative, 
which inevitably means delayed access to content that’s different from what my 
peers get on the first day of class

Unlike print materials, which are inherently inaccessible to blind people, 
digital education theoretically provides an opportunity to expand the circle of 
participation. And yet the worst delays I ever experienced were in an 
all-digital course, using highly touted digital textbooks. I had to request 
special permission for an accessible version of the text, and could then read 
only straight from cover to cover. There was no way to bookmark or highlight 
text, or even skip from section to section. These defects aren’t just hassles; 
they’re a form of discrimination.
My own experience isn’t uncommon. A few universities, such as Penn State, George 
Mason, and the California state system, have made campus-wide strides toward 
accessibility. Others have agreed to make improvements under legal pressure from 
the federal Justice and Education departments. Even stellar institutions like 
the University of California at Berkeley<http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/in-settlement-with-disabilities-group-berkeley-will-improve-access-to-course-materials/43727> 
have agreed to changes under pressure from students and advocates. And what 
happens to students at every other postsecondary institution?
Building standards that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act have 
made life easier for people far beyond the original scope of the law — the 
parent with a stroller, travelers bearing luggage. Setting standards for digital 
instructional materials would have similar benefits. The National Federation of 
the Blind and the Association of American Publishers have drafted a bill called 
the Technology Education and Accessibility in College and Higher Education Act; 
it would inform manufacturers of the minimum level of accessibility needed for 
digital platforms, clarify for schools what to seek in their materials, and 
relieve students of the burden of ensuring access to their own educational 
content. The US Access Board, which created the Americans with Disabilities Act 
building guidelines, would create standards for digital educational materials.
Postsecondary institutions and technology companies alike should embrace this 
initiative because clear benchmarks would avoid disputes, and because it would 
help students. If students in wheelchairs were told it was up to them to figure 
out a way into school buildings, we wouldn’t tolerate it. As the digital 
revolution accelerates, blind and print-disabled students need equal access to 
the digital curriculum.
Kyle Shachmut, the president of the National Federation of the Blind of 
Massachusetts, is a technology consultant at Boston College and a doctoral 
candidate at Boston University.


Amy Buresh, CVRCB

Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired
4600 Valley Road, Suite 100
Lincoln, NE 68510

(402) 471-8114
1-877-809-2419

amy.buresh at nebraska.gov<mailto:amy.buresh at nebraska.gov>

www.ncbvi.ne.gov<http://www.ncbvi.ne.gov/>

Nebraska Commission For The Blind & Visually Impaired
Empowering blind individuals,
Promoting opportunities and
Building belief in the blind

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