to get to the panel discussions we'll just really quickly highlight the kinds of things we're gonna cover.
We've already done the introductions we're gonna talk about common student accommodation challenges will share programs.
Sort of successful programs, and solutions that have been implemented we're also going to talk about how requests for alternate formats are addressed.
And also we're gonna look at challenges with stem content science.
Oh, am I gonna science, technology, engineering and mathematics?
I think I make sure I got it all and just contact along those lines.
We're gonna look at and sort of discuss in-house versus outsourcing of document accessibility.
And we'll also talk about the tools and services that that different colleges and universities are using So that's just an overview.
With that we're gonna go on to the first question and what we're gonna do is that I will read the question, And then each time i'm just going to sort of randomly select one of our panelists to kick
off the discussion, but all 3 of them will have a chance to answer the question, and then we'll move on to the next question, and I will just be kind of monitoring and keeping an eye on the time and thankfully i've
also got Katrina to help keep me in line so that's great, all right.
So without further ado, and if you notice i'm kind of turned off to the side.
It's because I have a hard copy braille version of the questions that i'm that i'm reading.
So that's kind of why? i'm not always looking into the camera.
Okay, question Number one: What are you doing to accommodate students that need their course?
Documents and content in accessible formats and let's Nancy, Let's start with you.
Thank you for the question. So we provide ultra alternate format texts.
So we convert the most of those in house. we convert class readings.
Mainly for blind to visually impaired students.
We will do mostly those in work Format We provide alternate format library material.
So we'll provide those in in whatever format the student requires. We also caption supplementary videos that the instructor is using
And we also have a at lending library. So if a student requires equipment to use the alternate format material, we also help with that as well. Great.
Thank you. Athle or corn. Go ahead, Apple
Well, I think you're muted so you you didn't hear my chivalrous take it away.
But the thought was there our our services are very similar to to Nancy's actually, and like Nancy library accessibility services is located in the library.
We work very closely with our with student accessibility.
Services, and students are referred to us for assistive technology support as well as alter format tech support.
So and again we we we do many of the same.
The same sort of services. So we provide students with assistive or sorry alternate format copies of their textbooks.
Most of our our student users have cognitive disabilities.
So that's it's mostly providing textbooks and Pdf. that they can use with the text.
Readback software that we have licensing for curse.
Well, 3,000, and again in in addition to that
We also provide video captioning support, for for students who who require that and we'll sort of provide a alternative format copies of material from our library collection. or also.
And also for for courses. as Well, I was just thinking that it's nice that we have some allies in this in this kind of work.
Our electronic reserve department, for instance, has ensures that any of the material that they have to scan from a print original is Ocr.
And at the end of that Ocr is corrected when that when that Pdf is, or that copy, the document is provided, and they also provide some basic structure in it for students to use.
And most recently the library has hired. Well, we hired a a a digital accessibility coordinator last spring, and to finally have a place where the buck stops and ensuring that the material the training material that to
different library departments produce, is accessible from the get-go and that we're we're ensuring that our kind of online material documents and so on, are are as accessible as we can make them and that's
Yeah, that So that's a good overview I think of our service. Awesome?
Oh, I was just gonna ask before you move on to the next question.
We've got a question from the audience, what are you doing to accommodate employees that need documents and content and accessible format current.
Do you? wanna cause I know you have another chance to answer yet.
So do you want to answer? And then if if anybody wants to answer that question after after So so our school is very small school.
We have about 1,500 students and we work very closely with
Our student disability services office, and our provost and part of what we do is we look at specifically how what's the best format that's do.
That all students could could access, in addition to what a particular student may need.
So part what we're trying to do is be proactive.
We have thousands and thousands of Pdf documents that are not accessible.
That had were, you know, so scanned 15 years ago.
Before people really understood about ocr so we are constantly playing catch up, and one of the things that we're trying to do is get a bit more proactive about it.
So. I think part of what we do is we transform most of our documents into html particularly stem materials, because we find that that's the easiest way to get formula and yeah, for students.
And then the other thing that we do is We have as much as we can.
We purchase campus wide software so that anyone coming in can have access to that kind of software.
And the other thing is, I work very closely with a girl of departments.
And so, for example, our library is actively reviewing their reserve system to see what else we can do.
To make sure that any material that's added there or even.
Thank you. about adding material that might not traditionally be in a reserve system be added to that system.
In an accessible format Great! Thank you to somebody. wanna jump in and answer the one of you about the
You know what what is done for employees that I I i'd like to answer that i that we I mean, if if that document was something that was a resource of us into the library we would we would produce that
in an accessible format for for that staff member. but
It. It was interesting that you you raised, that. because that was one of my contacts from the diversity and human rights office had a question about about this issue. and and I think, we didn't have a you know a very good
answer sort of across campus, so that's certainly something that's on the radar to ensure that departments know that it's their you know It's their responsibility to ensure that any that any staff member that they
hire is appropriately supported with the the formats that they require, and and if I could add to that one of the things that we do is is we use side improve and side improve has a Pdf
checker So we use that tool in addition to that We're a pretty small school, and most people no me, so they'll reach out to me if they have a question and when possible.
I encourage folks not to put things in pdf format, but to use the web site.
As their means of communicating information as long as it's not sensitive information.
That seems to work quite well. excellent alright let's move to the second question.
So our instructors expected to provide experienceible coursework?
If so, how has this worked out
Grant, you wanna do you wanna start us off this time sure We do not expect instructors to create accessible material.
They don't really have the knowledge that is needed for some of the different formats.
We do teach them how to recognize when a document is not accessible.
So they do have a little bit of power, and in just knowing that something may not be accessible.
The other thing that we've done is We work very closely with our library, and we have another electronics material librarian, and we encourage faculty to submit their syllabi to us.
And we also just take a look at the reading list.
And trying to research whether or not our library can obtain the material in an accessible format
And provide that from a link on their syllabus instead.
Great anyone else likes to respond. I I think we we we're in the same boat.
I in some ways that that I think is suggested to to instructors that they should produce accessible material, and we you know we we point to best practices on our website best practice documents.
But we don't have a policy. around this and i'm I'm thinking that a lot of confusion could be cleared up. if if we did, and in fact, I think that that moving towards a policy like that is you
know, is is kind of inevitable in the sense that i'm.
Noticing that the Aoda Post secondary standards.
Development Committee is is you know, identifying that has has spends a lot of time identifying how sort of university instructors need to to ensure that the material that they produce is accessible.
So I think I think you know, eventually we need to get there.
But I understand You know that that that it the our faculty members are extremely busy, and this is just seems like one more thing, one more ball to juggle.
But and it's interesting because I think the way the current legislation is set up where we're accessible.
Content, you know, is provided upon request. You, you know often, I think, because of the power differential between between faculty and students.
You you know you don't really have a lot of students requesting you, you know, sort of accessible documents from from their from their Prof.
You know they may not, you know they may be a little bit sort of touching.
Go out actually reading, you know, trying to read the all the material in the first place.
And so, you know all the being a student being busy but I think the issue is that you know, faculty members aren't hearing about it from students, and therefore I'm not sure that they're seeing this as a is a is
a top to our issue. But But yeah, I think you know, we we need to move towards a a policy around this that really accessibility has to start with the the documents being created by by the faculty.
Member, I I will say that that we also actively try to educate our faculty on on how to create an accessible syllabi.
For example. So how how can they if they're creating material?
Where? What are some of the things that they need to do to make sure that that document is as accessible as they can make.
Yeah, that's great and I I know i'm not a panelist.
But I just wanna jump in here as a somebody who was a university student in the 1,900 ninetys before we had a lot of the technology that we have now.
And you know I think there's there's a certain level that it may be reasonable to expect of instructors.
But when you have students, you know I was a braille.
Reader you know I I don't I don't think it's necessarily reasonable to expect instructors to you know, to be able to produce braille right it's it's not you know so it kind of depends on what
the student needs, and I think, and this is a whole other conversation so I won't get into it.
But I think there's a good discussion to be had on making sure students know how to advocate for themselves, because I know that I would have University would have been way more challenging for me if I wasn't somebody who could advocate
for myself, so I will bring myself in on that one now just because we don't have time.
But that's a discussion i'd i'd love to have at some point I I I I take your point.
You know that you're right you you can ask an instructor to or Oh, yeah, and I knew you were i'm suggesting that but I think We'd like them to
make good choices like you know in terms of the materials that they do create, or or you know you don't add to their courses so that they don't inadvertently create sort of problems.
When people have to take that in converting absolutely think about accessibility from the beginning, always a good idea. Alright, Oh, sorry. Would you want to say something? Yeah, I was just I wanted to
Address the question, so I think for us.
We find that most of our instructors are pretty good about creating accessible.
So bye and for the most part our we call it a 2 l
They're pretty good about creating a accessible pdfs when they upload the content where we struggle is.
When we ask for like advanced access to the Powerpoint or like those sorts of content.
And I think that's that's really understandable as you you both mentioned. You know the instructors are really busy, and this just kind of adds one more thing to their their agenda, if the instructors were
able to. You know, somehow, you know, convert that that Powerpoint to a Pdf.
I think that would solve a lot of a lot of issues that we find.
But it it's just kind of you know one more you know tasks in their their their weeks.
But it has been a challenge for us to to get that content from the instructors, and and it's you know something that we're willing to do that extra work for But
It's yeah that has been a challenge I think There's there's pros and cons to having a department on campus that that does this kind of work in that the instructors don't learn how to create
accessible documents. thank you. can have somebody else do it for them.
And then there are other instructors that really do want to understand how to create accessible content, and have, you know, their whole course.
Everything is is, you know. done in a thoughtless shape so I I feel like we're we're pretty much in the same boat as everybody else.
Awesome. Thank you I sorry if I could just just just to add and then then the other areas that we we try to pay attention to is is the textbook textbook choices, so we're we're starting
to really pay attention to those publishers that are able to provide us with fully accessible version of a textbook
And push you back quite a bit. on on publishers that are, say that they're providing that to us.
But it really is not very accessible, I know you wanna to push on, Jen.
But I I just have an interesting issue with that that you know is is, textbooks are increasingly moving on to to being provided, you know, through publishers online platforms.
I'm almost wondering if, having too many online platforms poses an accessibility issue in that.
You know we're asking, you know students to to learn how to you know, navigate sort of 4 different interfaces potentially for their courses and things that they may individually be accessible.
But it but we're kind of attributed to kind of a cognitive overload.
But and that may not just be an accessibility.
I think I think a lot of people maybe would find that an issue or even just the the idea that it's only available on line the number of students that we've had requesting a print.
Function because they can access the or like it's it's just not accessible.
Or they have a Tbi, and the only version that that works for them is a print copy.
Has has dramatically increased in the last few years.
Thanks, you guys, this is this is great discussion, and I I wish we had.
I wish we had more time, as well, but let's move on to talking about, and and we're we're kind of like going into this.
I think, too. But who does the work? staff? of creating accessible documents, staff?
Or is it outsource, or is it a combination?
And just if you could elude a bit to the services and tools, maybe, that you use to whatever extent you can you know can share that.
So, Nancy, let's start with you so we have a combination.
So we're in the province of ontario We have a a service called Arrow, so anything I would say techie
We try to outsource to them if we have time so we're documents. braille We try to outsource to arrow if we can.
They will only do textbooks, so any of the class material we can't ask them to do
So we do those in-house as well as any pdfs Andp threes anything else, too, that we are requested and as far as tools
We use trying to think we use adobe abby census access kurzweil.
I'm trying to think what else to use that That's kind of what comes to mind for the moment. excellent. Also, go Ahead well once again, just to you know.
Pick you up on nancy's coat tails there we're, you know, the same deal for us We're also in Ontario.
We also outsource or or send our the majority of our all format test text requests through arrow, which I think is like the accessible resource accessible. education resource ontario if I get the I believe so
Yes, yeah, which is essentially, provincially run kind of consortium to connect to to private publishers.
So, as I said, most of the material we request our our Pdf copies of textbooks that are provided to us through the publishers via era.
But like Nancy, we also send our or more complicated, or or formats, you know, such as braille or or word documents with math.
Ml. sort of to through arrow as well.
Internally. we do the same sorts of things and that's usually a blend of of staff, and students that are that are doing that work in terms of creating, you know, accessible or or altering formats of of you
know, course, notes or or or course, documents and things we're also using, you know, in terms of the the tools that come up most.
We're using Microsoft words in the math e the equation Editor in there, which we've found to be quick.
Good Abby. find reader sort of adobe professional you.
We used math picks a fair a little bit last year, which is an online sort of math
Ocr tool, which I thought works surprisingly. well.
If I was gonna share one pet peeve about the tools we use.
I wish somehow, that that a company could produce a a Pdf.
Accessibility checker and editor that that wasn't sort of you know the what i'm seeing in adobe professional is also the one i'm seeing in fox it and in and other sort of in other tools that have the
Pdf editing tools that have a Pdf accessibility checker built into them.
I wish somebody would really redesign that from the Get-go.
I find it very frustrating to use good, good, excellent.
How about you, Korean? Is there anything you wanted to add?
Just similar We were doing all of our work in house but we couldn't keep up with the load, so we each other to a few organizations proper, tech being one of them and proffered was sort of our guinea
pig for the lack of a better description. for us.
Starting that process, and it's worked out quite well I think last semester.
We figured we have re processed and touched both internally and externally.
About 17,000 documents. which is a huge load
And at the time we only had one person doing that.
So you've also increased staff to help with that and we've been lie at the moment pretty heavily on a handful of vendors to help support us as far as tools, and services.
We use the same tools. abby word and I Couldn't agree more with the pdf checker It's part of the reason we decided not to work with pdfs.
When we can avoid it. because we don't have the confidence that it's
But they're done well. I think the other thing that we've done is we have a program that both faculty and staff have signed up for where we're using the queue some training options there their document
accessibility course is one of the the courses that we're offering to a pretty small number at the moment.
But it's a pilot. so we have about 27 people who are participating in that.
And then the other thing is we are starting a process where we're We're going to take a handful of courses, and just start fresh from a to a to Z and just figure out what it would take to make a of course
it's fully accessible. So that's gonna be an interesting Yeah, no doubt. So I think what i'm gonna do in the interest of time.
Is that I think the next 2 questions really kind of there'll probably be a lot of overlap in in these ones.
I'm gonna read the question 4 and then i'm going to Glen.
If you could then go to question 5 and i'm just gonna kind of let have you all answer them sort of together, and you'll, you'll understand you know.
Once I read the question so and yeah before you do that I did wanna let you know we do have 2 questions from the audience that I'm i'm happy to read off now. or sure because you know what they might end
up, being able to be answered under these next 2 questions as well. So how do you go ahead and do that?
So the first one is how our library databases being addressed, such as canopy, which we found does not offer audio description, and is not easily remediated, and then I can go into the next
one. How do you prevent the accommodations request that usually arrive on the first day of class and the work that it entails, so causing the entire class schedule to be deployed because you aren't allowed to provide
non-excessible content to students. that don't have a combination before you provide access to those students that do not have accommodations. yes, go ahead. So what i'm gonna suggest the library. if somebody if anyone wants to answer that question Now, that would be great
and then we'll go into the next 2 questions because we're gonna be talking about challenges, and so I think that's going to be something that will we'll be able to answer the second question in that if that makes sense
i'll just ask whichever one of you wants to answer the question about the library data, it's very difficult to get. hey?
What once you've chosen a vendor that is not providing thing interface that's accessible.
It's very difficult to get them to change there's structure of their software.
So part of what we've tried to do is just coactively look at software before we make that purchase and accessibility is part of that review process.
And we really try hard to think through exactly who our user base might be and how they might interact with that software.
So I feel your pain and I don't have a good solution other than you know.
1 one thing that we've talked about for years is banding together when many of the colors and universities use the same software.
And if we could figure out how to band together, and push back on a a vendor that would be extremely powerful, and I'd actually get some changes pushed through. That's great.
Yeah, I I think in some ways, for us, canopy is probably a glass half full story, cause in the sense that you know, before we had sort of streaming video providers access to streaming video providers, I
mean, you know, we were in this world where we were trying to to approach individual sort of video rights holders to to try and get permission to capture captioning content.
Often we couldn't find them, or we would get refused however, canopy at the least.
Has has capturing on most of their videos, I think, if if not all.
So I mean in in a lot of ways That was a step step forward for us.
And yes, I agree, though, that you know, having material and being able to create video audio description, descriptive kind of transcript from it is a is a challenge. But in a way you know we're better than we were before.
Nancy, did you want to add something? Oh, yeah yeah thanks So one thing that we're doing at Mac is creating a database for students, so that they can actually see what accessibility features the databases do have So it's part of the
certain engine. it's something that we're hoping to get up and running, not something that is going to remediate the the content, but just giving students you know advanced warning that hey?
This this database does not contain captions or it doesn't contain accessible pdfs that sort of thing.
But one thing that I have done I haven't contacted them for audio description, but I have contacted them for captions for for one of their videos.
They are pretty good. they're not they're not fast but any stretch of the imagination. but they are pretty responsive as far as adding captions to videos that don't contain them.
So that might be One solution is just contacting them and saying, Hey, can you either be?
Give us the video raw material, so that we can go out and add a description to it.
Or you know. Would you add audio description to that video for us?
That sounds like a great resource. All right. So the next question and I think again, these are gonna tie in together.
So Question 4 is, what are some key student? Coursework accommodation challenges you.
Face. And so I think that that does tie into our next question which i'm going to read now, so just bear that one in mind, and also bearing in mind the question we received about those first day of class requests as well, so the
next question, Question 5: How do you deal with specific content, like stem, music, languages, etc.
And just bearing in mind again the challenges and all those other good things so athle.
Would you like to start us off so for for whoops.
I'll just take this off my screen. here how to deal with the specific content like stem.
Yeah, we basically send it out. and and I was gonna like I was.
So again, you know, if a textbook requires that we need to make sort of, you know, math Braille or or we need to incorporate math Mml.
Into it. You know we usually send those texts through to arrow for for transcription, and I and I I was gonna sort of plug you sooner.
But but for courses that have you know again where the that have generated, where you have midterms and and so on.
You are just sure that that that material is transcribed correctly.
We we've we've used Crawford technology to to have that to
But sort of test converted for us into into math brown.
So so that's been great I mean you know you've been able to give us a very good turnaround.
Excellent. Well, thanks, I I didn't I didn't prompt athle to do that by the way.
I had no idea that was gonna happen. It was fun to work on those projects.
I I I can just say that I completely relate to the challenge getting notified the day of or day before started classes.
And we have also, in addition to that, we have a 2 week.
Drop, add period where students can drop courses and pick up other courses.
And so, and they can do it multiple times so that in itself.
It's a in my mind it's a an institutional challenge barrier.
That we need to really think about how to overcome that.
In the meantime, you just we just have to scramble.
It's painful it's not easy we we we get it done, but it's it's in my opinion it's not a very sustainable process, and I can attest to that because
one time Karen sent me a request that was due yesterday.
Yeah, kind of lots of those. But how about you, Nancy?
So we get most of our requests actually after the first of class. So far we've had 11 students register out of the usual 49 or 50 or so students.
Most of them will come in between now and and the end of drop an ad
So I I totally relate to that. that drop and add deadline. That's usually when we get that that spike of students as far as stem courses, we we do try to send as many out as many requests out to to
arrow. but we have had to convert a fair number of lecture slides.
You know textbooks that sort of thing. We use a program called infidi editor, which does like an Ocr on like the mass Content?
And that works reasonably. well there's not a lot of editing, and then we convert it into matheml and then use nameth.
Brill within like as we're converting into braille.
So we have, I would say, a fair amount of experience converting into like math braille math word documents.
We don't have any like i'm gonna say institutional experience converting into like music or a second language.
There was actually a conversation with a braille reader that wanted to take a Russian course a few years back, and there wasn't the capacity to convert into Russian, so she wasn't able to take her course, unfortunately so
that that's well, there is now that happens again.
That is amazing, because I really felt bad for that student she was working on a master's program, and that was actually one of the components for her program.
So yeah, that that was really unfortunate so that's fabulous that i'm i'm really happy to hear that actually almost any language that that a student requests there's a way to produce it now so
that's really fabulous, and now that this happened like years ago, probably about 8 or 9 years ago.
So she's gone graduated done her whole thing but that's really great to hear, cause we're getting more grad students in every year, and music also.
Yeah music for sure. Well, I I mean one of the oh, sorry.
Yeah, we've got a lot of questions coming in. So I just wanna make make sure we get to make sure we get them all.
Okay, how about we? Just we've only got a couple of questions left that that we put together?
So how would we go through those really quickly. and Then we'll just get to the questions that people are asking, and maybe some of them will get answered before before we're done.
I was just gonna say that it sounds like one of the big challenges really is.
Besides sort of the input of the documents and what condition they're in time, it seems to be such a challenge in this setting, because, of course, students need things quickly.
There, there is definitely a time component to that. So alright, question number 6.
And again, You guys probably have talked about this a little bit.
Do you provide options for html or epub to better handle stem equations, or to be rendered on the student's device of choice?
And again, I I think we kind of have touched on this a bit. So if anybody wants to just jump in, we we definitely do, and and I just wanna say something.
But as painful as this process is in my view it's it's not students problem, you know it's the institutions issue and the institution needs to solve it.
So we're trying to to find the places where we can proactively work on this kind of thing, so that we don't have the same crunch all the time.
And we are, I think, generally getting better we're able to respond a little bit faster.
And we you know, Probably one of the challenges is is just getting faculty to put materials up in time.
Sometimes even a week, into a class we sometimes don't have material from the faculty member, and and that makes it challenging
We do. we are pretty active proactive about getting books.
Well in advance of the starting semester so when we have book information we can get that process regardless, or we can can work with a publisher just to provide something that is already accessible where we don't have
to environment it out, someplace
I'm not sure that I answered that question that is I I think you I think you probably did.
I'm just going to the next question is about how requests for alternate formats, such as braille large print, audio and video captioning are handled, and what i'm hearing is that those kinds of things are
generally outsource. would that be an accurate and again.
I'm only sort of partially answering this so we can get to the attendee questions.
But if if that's if somebody wants to add to that if that's not quite complete, answer, feel free, I just wanna get to the last question, and we we do those things in house we actually bought a brand boss or a few
years back. we do both like so standard braille and tactile braille.
We do large prints. we don't do a lot of audio or video captioning in-house. but we do definitely outsource
We'll do short videos like under like 5 min in house if it's like urgent
But for the most part we just outsource those things.
But yeah, great
Okay, i'm gonna ask the last question cause I think this would be really helpful. and then we'll we'll take the questions that you have Katrina, and we'll go from there.
So is there any coordinated organization-wide effort towards digital accessibility and student accommodations?
So if I could jump in swap more definitely has that that's that's what my job is.
And I I think it's becoming more common to have someone who's point person.
But it's still pretty rare have someone who's looking at it from an institutional point of view.
I think it's needed. Yeah, because if these institutions are even smaller ones are are really big.
When you when you think about it. So Yeah. And and a lot of colleges, you know, diversity, equity and inclusion is a is one of those tag phrases.
And we need to take that seriously, and accessibility needs to be included in that.
Yeah, So you know i'm i'm pushed for that all the time into ei discussions alright acceler, Nancy, I I i'll i'll just pop in and and just say that I think this can
be very challenging, because, anyone who who works in in sort of in a in a university sort of setting, realizes how how kind of saw siloed the players are to a large degree, and you know everyone is responsible.
For you, you know different aspects of the overall University experience and so sometimes it's hard to you.
You know, I I think I said in our last meeting that that we we have a student who we're supporting, who is blind, and has found that that taking de courses, it could be really effective for him, because you know because of
the there's no delay in getting his sort of sort of notes, because they're built into the into the the course interface, and so on.
And you, you know it probably be a good idea for us to to, you know, share what his program looks like with the with sort of our folk and open education, to make sure that they you.
Know if they had a sort of a a roadmap of you know, for them to think about ensuring that the content in the courses that you know the student is going to take it this year next year.
And so on, that they can go through and and and make sure that that content, that the math is presented you know using using something that's accessible, that you know the images are properly tagged and things like that just to to
make it better form and I haven't and and you know part of it is just because some of those formal linkages aren't there.
But maybe, after having said that in a public form like this, it sounds like a really bad.
I don't know why. I think the other thing is again is just
You know. Sometimes the some of these issues are hard, because things will will.
You will bump up against You You know other cultures in the university, you know you.
I I was, I think, mentioned before that that you know we we have a Of course it's was essentially where the instructor was to be announced up right up until I think last week.
And it happened to be a second year. stats course that a student who's visually impaired is planning to take.
And you know that that makes it very difficult for us to plan. And it seems like, you know, you know, a very straightforward issue for us to sort of say, you gotta stop.
You gotta make these decisions sooner. you're going to just mandate what the textbook is, so that we know what it is, and we can get going on it.
But from the perspective of somebody who's teaching the course that's, you know, a fundamental part of their of other at really academic freedom, you know, to be able to design their course choose the textbook.
And and so on. And so I mean, we have these these cultural kind of tug of wars.
I think that go on sort of at university that can be. They can be challenging for these things.
So not so much sort. of I guess i'm not really provided solution. So i'm sort of stating some of the issues that that right, No, that's that's fair enough. I'm gonna give nancy.
A quick second to respond and then we'll go on to we'll take just a few minutes to answer some of the participation participant questions.
So we do have our student accessibility services department that handles student accommodations, though they they kind of face all of those challenges that athlete just mentioned.
I think. it's you know they they do the best that they can.
But you know, as you mentioned, we have a lot of courses.
As most you know, large institutions do that the instructors aren't hired until the first day.
But they do. You know, contact the various departments ensuring that students that live in the residents are well accommodated.
You know students that have food allergies are accommodated in hospitality services, or you know that need alternate format textbooks are referred to library accessibility services.
So in that sense they they coordinate all of the different accommodations across campus.
As far as digital accessibility we've actually created this community of practice.
That's trying to reduce those silos across campus and connect all the people.
That are doing various accessibility related jobs across campus.
We just started it earlier this year. and we've had a couple of meetings, so we're hoping to bridge those those silos and gaps and connect people. so that we can hopefully I don't know we just
the the duplication, but also, you know, communicate and and connect people.
Across campus. Great? Okay, Can I just add some I want?
I would add for this question. part of what I was thinking is that there's a lot of web masters folks in marketing communications, and at the schools that are operating over here.
And then disability services who are doing student accommodations or not really coordinated.
And I was wondering if those 2 groups are being connected at at the schools.
That's exactly what this community practice is trying to do is connect all of those people that do something with with experience with accessibility. So our ess office is connecting with people in like the science, department, or as you mentioned, web like the it
department, and all of the like. anybody related to accessibility we're trying to get them together, and like I want to say one room, but one virtual room essentially awesome.
Thank you, that's an interesting issue that you just pointed to Glenn because I think in some ways.
You know the there are people on campus that student accessibility services are concerned about with accommodation.
But there are other groups of on campus are concerned with document and media accessibility, and and you know they don't the they.
They don't talk as much as you think they should you They're.
They're the the connect the linkages are there right? Awesome.
Thanks, guys. Okay, So what I'm gonna do with we have like just maybe 5 min, because before I hand things over to Glenn, what i'm gonna do, maybe Katrina, with the questions is if you read them out if just
Maybe one of you could volunteer to answer each question just in the again in the interests of time.
So go ahead. Katrina. Yeah, Thank you. : Is ae ro available to individuals outside of Canada.
Ding ding go for it Ontario isn't it a area arrow is limited to citizens of Ontario.
Yes, I was gonna say that there are other organizations that you might want to look into just in North America wide.
I'm thinking about the access text network or the or book share. Thanks.
Awful Alright, Nancy, can you repeat the name of the service you use to convert things like lecture slides?
I think you might be referring to Arrow, but we also use Abby and infidity.
Editor. Okay. i'm not sure what's the second one sorry, the second infinite infinite editor.
And it does a really great job with math Yeah, I think that's the one they were probably asking about.
Yeah, I was curious. thanks. alright. next one yeah this one's more.
Just a a comment. but they are the assistive tech person for their college now.
But was a student at 1 point, and would just like to fairly point out that it is every bit as uncomfortable and challenging to be on the other side, wanting the material, not having to access not having access to it.
They were often made to feel like was sabotaging everybody else.
So just food for that. Thanks for thanks for that I i've i've been on the student side.
And definitely. Can can read to that? So somebody's asking What is the way to convert Russian?
Basically the way that I would recommend is that the Ducksberry Braille translator has It's got over a 160 languages. I think so.
It would be, you know you would get the textbook and probably Pdf. you'd go to word you'd import it into Dexbury, and you would use the Russian template that's kind of the short answer
I could certainly provide more detail off off off offline.
But the ducksberry braille translator has Russian capability, and i'm assuming that's the same.
For what is the way to produce non-english languages?
Yes, absolutely And as the community of practice only with people in Canada, it's actually something that we have just within the Art University.
But it'd be interesting to see if We could create something, you know, like, even across Canada.
That would be kind of interesting or there's a couple of list serves that exist.
And I don't know athletes are you on some of them I dry .
Yeah, good point actually that's a that's a great we should really talk about that to niot.
And now I said i'm trying to think it's the it's sort of the ontario assist.
Okay, Oh, boy, Doug mantle is gonna kill me.
We, we can definitely get this information If you if you have to look it up after it's actually the the network of assistive technologists, So So if you look up end period.
Oh, period 8 period a period t period or just look up network of assistive technologist that should bring up the resources.
Anyone can join it's a great community and there's lots of assistive tech chat going on there, and the last sorry.
The last meeting I went to. There were people from all over North America.
At that meeting great and and I would just plug I don't know if, folks in Canada are members of education, cause has an it access group that's pretty robust and then accessing higher ground is a
conference that happens in Denver almost every November.
And that's a really great conference to go to it's I think one of the best in the country.
So if you have a chance, if you can only choose one, I would go to that one.
So I think, Katrina, do we still have a few questions left?
Yeah, just kind of comments at this point. But Korean, your somebody else was right on with you, they said.
Look into the edge you cause it accessibility group so that's great to see somebody else's looked into that
And then I just adding on to the the person who was on the student side was that
They don't think anyone was trying to make it that way
So great. Okay? Well, I wanna hand things over to Glenn so he can talk about remediation and testing type things.
And I just want to thank all the panelists it's been a great discussion.
I think we could all kind of have the this discussion for a much longer period of time.
But the webinar is coming to a close, so I will hand it back to Glen.
Thank you So i'll just spend about 3 min and I wanted to give an overview that Crawford technologies.
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I appreciate the panel, and Katrina. Did any other questions come up?
No, no other questions came up. Yes, thank you for everybody joining today's webinar.
Including all of our panelists. Your in insight was very helpful.
So with that, as we said in the beginning this webinar has been recorded, and we'll we will get that out to everyone who registered. We want to thank everybody for attending Today's webinar and we hope that
you have a great rest of your day, and with that we will conclude the webinar.