(Organised by Web Accessibility Network for Australian Universities)
The forum brought into focus the ramifications of the Disability Standards for Education 2005. It came into effect on August 18 this year and impact on providers of training and education in their provision of services to students with disabilities in terms of:
• Making reasonable adjustments
• Standards for enrolments
• Standards for participation
• Standards for curriculum development, accreditation and delivery
• Standards for student support services
• Standards for harassment and victimization
• Treatment of a person who has an associate with a disability

(Source: Disability Standards for Education 2005)

Issues and Concerns raised at the Forum

  1. There is mutual obligation on the part of staff and students. Students with disabilities need to notify the institution which they have been offered acceptance early on of their requirements and needs; and universities on the other hand are obligated to provide support in various areas of university life to ensure their fullest participation possible.
  2. Universities do not have excuses in not providing accessible websites. There are many guidelines and tools available.
  3. Web accessibility and adaptability is an ongoing process. As the web is dynamic and technologies keep changing, it is an on-going task for universities to ensure their websites and e-Learning systems are accessible.
  4. There is a need to involve different categories of users with disabilities  in the testing and on-going improvement of web sites, etc
  5. Universities will have to re-examine their marketing and enrolment processes to ensure that all students (including students with disabilities) are provided with information to make informed choices.
  6. Students have not been provided with support materials in a timely manner i.e. some students only receive their textbook in an alternate format very late in the semester
  7. Students are often provided learning materials that are in an inaccessible format: for example only as hand-outs, book or readings or electronic versions that are only scanned images of text which are often of a poor quality.
  8. Universities who rely on PDF for essential services such as handbooks, essential readings, enrolment, information, forms, etc are liable for prosecution under the Disability Discrimination Act. PDFs are basically inaccessible and wherever possible alternative formats such as Rich Text Format should also be provided. If such files are too large, they have to be reworked into smaller files. If PDFs must be used then strict guidelines must be followed to make them as accessible as possible. Even then, users with disabilities still need expensive software and a reasonable level of skill to access them.
  9. For map and diagrams, it may be necessary to employ contractors to provide tactile versions on requests.
  10. Copyright legislation allow universities to provide materials in alternative formats for students with a print or intellectual disability provided certain conditions are met like record keeping and notification to CAL.
  11. Resourcing and adjustments for students with disabilities involving academic staff, disabilities officer, universities libraries and IT services have been inadequate.
  12. The high number of casuals in universities especially among teaching staff makes accessibility training efforts problematic.

Suggestions from the speakers (Tony Dwyer, Bruce Maguire, Brian Hardy, Elaine Pearson)

  1. Public website that works for all users (Conformance  to WCAG at Level Double A plus) and provides information that is in an accessible format. International best practices standards for web have been available for six years. Universities would have great difficulty in pleading ‘unjustifiable hardship’ if prosecuted for an inaccessible web site.?There are many guidelines and tools available. For example, * WANAU has a list of useful resources. There are opportunities to collaborate with other universities via WANAU to work together to address some of these issues and concerns * HREOC’s World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Note * Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM)
  2. Learning Management System that works for all students (see ATutor which is an example of an accessible e-Learning system)
  3. Academic staff (including sessional staff) trained to produce accessible PowerPoint, Word and Excel as a matter of course
  4. Amenities and rooms etc, that are physically accessible and allow choice of seating
  5. Increase awareness of staff members to the university’s obligation and provide training to staff members (including casual staff) 
  6. The universities have to make reasonable adjustments to ensure students with disabilities participate and gain a meaningful learning experience comparable to other students. 
  7. All software and application contracts should include provision for access for people with disabilities.
  8. Develop strategies to support academic staff. Need to develop empathy for the academic with the disabled student experience:
    • To enable understanding of the problems  faced
    • To be aware of the need to make adjustments
    • To motivate a willingness to adopt new practices and develop new skills
    • To persuade them its worth investing time in

The speakers’ presentations can be downloaded from Sydney WANAU Forum.

Thanks to Heather for the additional comments!