by Nancy O’Neill
From the Editor: We have long understood that one problem causing things to be less accessible than they should be is that accessibility isn’t taught in the institutions that train those who build hardware and software. How to get this instruction into the curriculum working with the blind has been an ongoing goal. Here is an indicator of our progress.
Nancy O’Neill is the acting director at the William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, University System of Maryland. Here is what she says:
Several years ago, the University System of Maryland’s Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation began conversations with the National Federation of the Blind about how we might partner together to support mutual interests and goals around digital accessibility. Specifically, we were interested in how we might support the twelve public universities across the system in doing the work of intentionally designing, adapting, and vetting digital technologies and materials to ensure that they are usable by all people, including people with disabilities. Additionally, we wanted to explore how USM might serve as a model for how institutions in state systems of higher education can work together in support of this cause.
The reasons for doing so are clear. We’d be hard-pressed to identify a course or a program at any of our institutions that is not technology-enhanced in some way. As such, digital accessibility means equitable access to educational opportunity.
In fall 2022, the USM Kirwan Center and NFB hosted a digital accessibility convening for campus teams from across the USM. Teams consisted of individuals who support faculty in digital accessibility—instructional designers and technologists, teaching and learning center directors and staff, librarians, and accessibility and disability support services specialists. Sessions addressed supports for faculty to evaluate and create curricular materials, facilitating culture change, and laws/legal obligations and standards. Teams had time to reflect on the day’s learnings and to plan their next steps. NFB graciously hosted the event, and staff served as core members of the planning team.
This past October, the Kirwan Center and NFB teamed up again to bring campus teams together at NFB headquarters to further their own learning and development as they help support faculty in digital accessibility. The 2023 event was designed to be highly experiential, where participants had the opportunity to move through a series of immersive activities—cane travel, the use of Braille, and the use of access technology—designed to recalibrate participant expectations related to the abilities of individuals who are blind or low-vision and expose them to tools that promote independence and inclusion. Key to this portion of the program, NFB colleagues facilitated opportunities for participants to discuss their perceptions, assumptions, fears, and insights. This approach recognized that many of us may have questions, limited information, unexamined assumptions, or fears of doing or saying the wrong thing when it comes to engaging the topics of digital accessibility and disability more broadly. The time spent in immersive activities helped participants recognize they were not alone in their learning journeys toward greater awareness, understanding, and empathy around the need for materials and technologies to be accessible from the very start.
After the conclusion of the immersive experiences, the second half of the seminar focused on answering the question, “Now what?” by engaging teams in sessions featuring tools and strategies to build toward greater digital accessibility in courses and programs. That segment highlighted examples of what two USM institutions—University of Maryland, College Park, and Towson University—are doing to build an “accessibility first” culture, where accessibility is a leading, not trailing, consideration. That segment also highlighted the work of a wonderful non-profit organization called Teach Access that is engaging industry partners and institutions across the country to build curricular resources supporting the teaching of access—conceiving of digital access as a 21st century skill for our graduates.
I would like to thank Anil Lewis, Kennedy Zimnik, Karl Belanger, Nikki Jackson, and Bre Brown from NFB for their contributions to our collective learning. I would also like to thank Tammy Helm and everybody on the NFB logistics staff as well as Will Schwatka for providing a clean and welcoming space and the technology for the event. Additionally, I would like to thank our campus and guest presenters, Ana Palla and Jonathan Lazar of the University of Maryland, College Park; Teresa Valais and Brian Williams of Towson University; and Kate Sonka and Rolando Méndez-Fernández of Teach Access.
As we move into the new year, the Kirwan Center will be taking stock of our approach to capacity building of campus teams of faculty supporters to understand what “next level” support and development might include. We’ll also be taking steps to engage other university systems in these discussions about the unique role State Systems can play in advancing this work. We are fortunate to have NFB as a partner in our digital accessibility efforts and look forward to the collaborative discussions and experiences to come. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a quote from one of our 2023 participants, which sums up nicely our aims for this work:
“I think experiences like these help me realize that there are so many ways to move through the world, and if the world is accessible, we can all move freely.”