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Presenter(s)
Steve Noble
Policy Analyst
Kentucky Assistive Technology Service Network
8412 Westport Road
Louisville, KY 40242
1-800-327-5287 x268
Email: steve.noble@ky.gov
Project Background:
The role that Information Technology (IT) plays in educational settings has been rapidly expanding over the past several years. Across all levels of education, IT is now used to facilitate a wide variety of educational components including classroom presentations, schoolwork activities, library and research resources, electronic textbooks and resource materials, and distance learning. Regardless of their age, students with disabilities who cannot access IT are operating at a significant disadvantage.
In actuality, IT-mediated education has the potential of removing many of the barriers to information access commonly found in standard classroom settings. Information typically provided on chalkboards, overheads, and print handouts that may be inaccessible to students who are blind, visually-impaired or have learning disabilities can be made readily accessible if properly rendered in computer formats. Oral presentations that may be inaccessible to students with hearing impairments or difficult to process for students with Attention Deficit Disorder can be produced for computer presentation with built-in access techniques such as captioning and display reinforcement abilities. Web and other computer courseware can also allow realistic computer simulations of laboratory experiments for students who cannot manipulate items in the physical world. Furthermore, courses that are taught over the web may present some students with severe impairments a much broader option for pursuing education, since such individuals are often hampered by problems with transportation or provision of personal care assistants. Indeed, information technology has great potential for creating universal access courseware and educational offerings that can provide simultaneous inclusive access for nearly all students, regardless of their disability.
However, information technology also has the potential for making the world of the learning an inaccessible environment for people with disabilities. All too often, this has been the reality for people who cannot see the computer screen or for other reasons cannot effectively interact with a Graphical User Interface. A new educational software may have impressive outcomes in increasing comprehension or skill retention, but if its design is incompatible with assistive technology software and devices then countless students with disabilities will be locked out of the benefits. Similarly, stunningly designed multimedia presentations which are presented via information technology may get rave reviews from educators, but they can hamper access for many people if video description, captioning, and other sensory redundant techniques have not been built into the presentation.
A comprehensive approach to educational IT accessibility must attend to the critical relationship between available and emerging technology tools and the preparation of content. Accessibility is defined by a complex interplay of the user's needs, the tools that are available and the content that is to be used or acted upon. For example, a selected talking browser may require that content be prepared in particular formats and prepared in ways that enhance accessibility. The content must be prepared in a way that provides maximum usability and flexibility for all users. To address this issue of content preparation and provide for a baseline level of accessibility that can be enforced through federal standards, the federal Access Board formulated the Section 508 Access Standards, which are promulgated as 36 C.F.R. part 1194. Although these baseline standards were developed for federal use, Kentucky's AIT law requires that school systems and other covered entities comply with these standards.
The requirements of Kentucky's Accessible Information Technology law for equivalent access for students with disabilities is additionally reinforced within the legal mandate for inclusion provided under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits educational institutions that are recipients of federal funds from discrimination on the basis of disability (29 U.S.C. 794). Federal regulations enforcing this law indicate that recipient organizations cannot deny individuals with disabilities the "opportunity to participate in or benefit from" any aid, benefit, or service [34C.F.R.104.4 (b) (i)]. This same protection is similarly afforded against discrimination by any state or local government entity under the ADA (28C.F.R.35.130). It is clear that the right of students with disabilities to participate in all class offerings and educational components of an educational institution is a fundamental tenet of law.
Federal regulations further indicate the extent to which participation by individuals with disabilities is to be guaranteed. In particular, Section 504 regulation 34 C.F.R. 104.4 states that an educational institution cannot provide students with disabilities an opportunity to participate in an aid, benefit, or service that is: (a) not equal to that afforded others; (b) not as effective as that provided to others, or; (c) different or separate than those provided to others unless required to provide one that is effective.
To extend these concepts to IT used in education, it follows that educational offerings that include IT-based components must allow an equal, effective, and inclusive opportunity for participation to students with disabilities. The institution has a clear responsibility to ensure that students with disabilities have an equal, effective, and inclusive opportunity to participate in any computer mediated or computer assisted learning opportunity offered to others.
But going beyond the understanding of the basic legal mandates to provide accessible information technology in school settings, is the desire to make all educational components used in Kentucky schools as inclusive and effective as possible in an effort to make sure that each and every Kentucky student has the opportunity to reach their full potential and achieve true proficiency. The match of technology tools, appropriately prepared content, learning supports and assistance when learning to use the necessary access and learning supports is critical for all learners, and especially critical for learners with disabilities. The goal of the Kentucky Accessible Information Technology In Schools (AITIS) project is to provide school systems within the state with the tools they need for creating effective district level policy in compliance with Kentucky law, and to provide the critical level of technical assistance supports that will be needed by school systems to ensure that educators will have the underpinning they need to ensure their computer mediated and computer assisted learning strategies and components are not locking out students with disabilities.
Project Components:
To help provide a framework to address this issue, the Kentucky Assistive Technology Service (KATS) Network in collaboration with the Kentucky Department of Education's Division of Exceptional Children Services created the AITIS project to develop accessibility guidelines, checklists, and other technical assistance materials for assisting school systems understand and fulfill their obligations under Kentucky's AIT law. These materials have been developed with input and assistance from personnel at the school district level, assistive technology professionals, and representatives from disability consumer groups, and are being refined through a testing and validation process. Guidance and other forms of assistance are being provided from national experts in the field through the participation of the University of Washington's AccessIT project, the National Center for Accessible Media at CPB/WGBH, and Equal Access to Software and Information (EASI). Core funding for the AITIS Project is being provided by the Southeast Disability Business Technical Assistance Center, who is also an active collaborator in the project. The guidelines and policies being developed in Kentucky are anticipated to become a national model for replication around the country.
Materials to be shared at CSUN:
(1) An overview of the Kentucky Accessible Information Technology Act
(2) An overview of the KY AITIS Project
(3) The design and data results of the "School District Information Technology Accessibility Survey"
(4) The "School District Information Technology Accessibility Policy Matrix"
(5) The "School District Section 508 Technical Standards Checklists"
References: Kentucky Accessible Information Technology Act http://www.katsnet.org/ait-law.rtf
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