Every person who works at a college, will at some time interact with an individual with a disability. This interaction may take place in person, online, by phone, in writing, or some other form. A basic understanding of accessibility and ways to communicate will improve interaction and promote inclusion.
Since approximately 2012, members of several departments across Northern Virginia Community College have been collaborating informally to provide access to students, faculty and staff with disabilities. These departments include the Office for Disability Services, Interpreters Services Office, Extended Learning Institute, and Web Services and Digital Media. Our efforts are focused primarily on meeting the needs of deaf and hard of hearing individuals and those with print disabilities (blindness, low vision, and dyslexia). We realize, however, that accessible materials benefit many others users as well.
In this session, we explain the process that we have developed to insure that all materials and content used at our College, are accessible to people with disabilities. This includes classroom instruction, online classes, webinars, and information and forms on our website. This process requires constant communication among several of us in one department and collaboration between the different departments.
In addition, we will explain the use of a variety of assistive technologies such as braille, screen-readers, speech-to-text, captioning, etc., and how to find, select and create accessible materials. The purpose is not to train faculty and staff to become experts in using the technology, but to heighten their awareness and make them more comfortable when working with students and colleagues who use it. It has been our experience that when faculty and staff better understand required accommodations and available assistive technology, they plan instruction and create materials with accessibility in mind.
We have been happy with our success at NOVA so far and the heightened awareness our work has brought to the community. We have given presentations at our College and at several Virginia Community College System events and have been pleased with the positive reception. We hope to continue to share what we have learned and what we have been able to accomplish so far.