[Ohio-talk] College web accessibility.

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi all, 

 

I'm writing in the hopes that someone who is more tech savvy and in the know
about web accessibility guidelines will read this and be able to provide
some feedback, although any feedback is welcome.  

 

Long story short, in high school I participated in a two-year teacher prep
program.  The senior year of that program involved completing a portfolio
based on the praxis domains, which would be graded for college credit and
passage of the course.  Sinclair Community College was in charge of
processing all the tech prep portfolios for southwest Ohio, including the
ones from Teacher Academy students.  Every student who passed their course
received a scholarship waver for a three credit hour course at Sinclair free
of charge.  Naturally, I want to use this waver on a summer course.  

 

Since I've started getting set up with Sinclair I've had a few web
accessibility issues.  The first happened when I tried to go online to
review their course catalog.  I found a pdf file which Jaws couldn't read,
so I emailed their disabilities office to let them know that the catalog was
not screenreader friendly.  I didn't hear a response back, so I called.  I
was able to get in touch with a disability councelor, who then sent me a
word version of the catalog, which ended up not having course listings in it
and being more like a brochure or student handbook.  When I told her about
the file being a misnomer she sent me instructions on how to view available
courses online.  I followed the instructions she sent me and found that the
flash interface the schedule planner uses was inaccessible.  Comboboxes were
not labeled and neither Jaws or NVDA would read them.  Apparently there is
also a huge table which shows up once you select your search criteria for
courses, and neither screenreader picked that up either.  

 

Although I was able to get sighted assistance to work around these issues, I
am more concerned about the accessibility of the course distribution site,
be it Blackboard or whatever other system, as the course I want to take will
be in an online format.  I am also concerned that if their school site is
this inaccessible that their IT department may not have the training to
follow web accessibility guidelines.  At UD, if something doesn't work with
jaws I can email the tech support staff and they'll make sure the issue Is
resolved, but I'm not sure if I will be able to get that kind of support
from Sinclair based on what I've seen so far.  I feel really uncomfortable
jumping into a course which may or may not be accessible, but I also feel
like to not take my scholarship would be silly and that I shouldn't be kept
from redeeming it because of correctable accessibility issues.  It is also
quite possible that I will want to take other summer courses in the future
through Sinclair since I'm already a registered student there, so if
possible I would like for these accessibility issues to be addressed but
don't really know how to proceed.    

 

Again, any feedback would be appreciated, and happy Easter! 

 

Kaiti Shelton

University of Dayton---2016

Music Therapy Major, Psychology Minor, Clarinet

Secretary, Ohio Association of Blind Students (OABS)-NFB

Member of Alpha Phi Omega-Alpha Gamma Xi Chapter