Proposal

Name:

FAU Campus Wide Accessible and Alternative Format Materials Initiative

FiscalYear:

2014

Audience:

Student Affairs

Submitter:

Buckley, Stuart

Budget Manager:

Mates, Ilene Karen

Project Manager:

Buckley, Stuart Guy

Proposal Approvers

Dept. Chair:

King, Corey A

Local IT:

N/A

Dean:

King, Corey A

Facilities:

N/A

OIT:

Bagdonas, Joseph A.

Proposal Funding

Year 1:

$ 15,000.00

Year 2:

$ 0.00

Year 3:

$ 0.00

Total:

$ 15,000.00

Proposal Funding versus Average

Questionnaire

Narrative
FAU campus wide accessible alternative format materials initiative

Goal

The technology implementation outlined in this proposal will allow any FAU student, faculty or staff member to independently convert files to an accessible alternative format to suit their needs with a minimum of technical knowledge.

Introduction

Florida Atlantic University (FAU) has made great progress in providing a state-of-the art technology environment that gives all students equal access and supports diversity. In 2009 an initiative was introduced to provide accessible workstations in all open computer labs so that students with disabilities could achieve full access to computers and utilize these computers productively at any time. This initiative was very successful and was noted to be an important inclusion when FAU campus technology was examined in the recent Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) external accreditation process. To take the next important step in FAU’s accessibility initiative, this new proposal addresses the important task of providing alternative and accessible text materials throughout FAU by a solution that promotes independent production by any students, faculty or staff wishing to convert educational materials to an accessible format for productive use by a person with a print disability.

FAU faculty and staff produce a large amount of academic course materials and documentation every year and many documents are not accessible to those with print disabilities. Persons with print disabilities include those that may be visually impaired and who may use screen reading software as an essential means to access materials. Students with various learning disabilities such as dyslexia may have significant reading disabilities and they may use text-to-speech software to render speech from documents. This solution will allow the ability to listen to this content.

SensusAccess as an accessible format production solution

SensusAcess is an online service that allows a user to create alternative accessible format materials by uploading a large range of file types which may not be accessible. File types supported include PDF image files, JPEG, GIF and TIFF image files, PowerPoint files, and many other file types. The user uploads an inaccessible file via a portal embedded on an FAU webpage and a suitable output accessible file format is chosen. The file is then sent back to the user’s FAU email address in an accessible format.

SensusAccess was produced as a service for European educational institutions to assist in the accessibility process and is currently used by some U.S. universities including Stanford, U.C. Davis, Yale, Duke, and UCLA.

The increasing need for accessibility of alternative accessible format materials

In 2013, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on legal action brought against U.C. Berkeley as a result of a lack of alternative format materials available for students with print disabilities (http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/in-settlement-with-disabilities-group-berkeley-will-improve-access-to-course-materials/43727 ). As a result this institution has since implemented significant measures to increase access of alternative text materials for students, including the use of SensusAccess as one of the measures taken. These types of lawsuits stemming from inadequate provision of alternative accessible text solutions will increase as this case initiates an important precedent for accessibility standards for students with disabilities in Higher Education.

The SensusAccess service cannot address specialized alternate conversion needs for some printed STEM materials such as mathematics and science content, which may still have to be produced by alt-format specialists. It can however, provide access to a significant amount of materials that are currently inaccessible both in the FAU library database and journal system as well as course content provided to students by professors.

Implementation

A portal will be made available on the FAU Office for Students with Disabilities website where students, faculty and staff can upload files, select a desired accessible output format and enter their FAU email address. The accessible document with then be sent back to them via email. This self-service portal will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is not dependent on limited office hours. Students can receive files in accessible document types including Microsoft Word, tagged PDF, EPUB and MOBI (accessible electronic book formats), Braille and MP3 audio files. Web portals for submission of documents for conversion to accessible formats can also be freely provided to other relevant areas of FAU such as the FAU Libraries website, the Center for eLearning and individual departments as needed.

Conclusion

This initiative would present an independent alternative accessible material production source that would provide value to all FAU students with print disabilities as well as those who have a learning preference for different formats such as MP3 audio files. It would also allow faculty a simple way to convert many types of their course materials to alternative accessible formats to distribute to their students. This would serve to increase access to educational materials for all students and would further move FAU towards an approach to educational design that embraces full accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Facilities
No facilities reservations of upgrades required.
Hardware Requirements
N/A
Software Requirements
N/A
Personnel Costs
N/A
Other Costs
N/A
Timeline
This project is planned for 3 years, at which time it's success will be assessed and a subsequent grant will be applied for if deemed necessary.
Sustainability
This project is planned for 3 years, at which time it's success will be assessed along with research as to whether other similar services have become available that may be less expensive or better.
Resource Matching
N/A
Implementing Organization
Office for Students with Disabilities.?

Proposal Budget

Fiscal Year 1 Fiscal Year 2 Fiscal Year 3 Total
Hardware One-Time $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Hardware Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Software One-time $ 15,000.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 15,000.00
Software Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Personnel One-time $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Personnel Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Other One-time $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Other Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Totals $ 15,000.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 15,000.00

Supporting Documentation

Filename Size Description
Florida Atlantic University - Quote SensusAccess 2014.pdf 78,882b