Â鶹AV

The following is a summary of the recommendations put forth by the Â鶹AV Accessible Technology and Information Workgroup. They have been vetted with all major stakeholders in the Â鶹AV, including the Chancellor, Â鶹AV Presidents, Provosts, Chief Information Officers, Academic Transformation Advisory Council, Vice Presidents of Administration and Finance, Â鶹AVAI consortium of libraries, Procurement Officers, Vice Presidents of Student Affairs, and Office of the Attorney General. While not comprehensive, they should serve as a guide as Â鶹AV institutions prioritize their technology and information accessibility efforts and work towards achieving a more accessible electronic environment for all.

Support and Organizational Structure

• An accessibility point-person on each campus should be identified to help guide the process and the dissemination of a Â鶹AV-wide survey to get baseline data on each campus's current state of accessibility.


• Each Â鶹AV institution should form an Accessible Technology and Information (ATI) Committee comprised of administrators, faculty and staff across campus, including IT administrators and staff, web developers, instructional designers, library staff, disability services staff, procurement officers, and other stakeholders to (1) assess current campus policies, practices and resources, (2) oversee campus accessible technology and information activities, and (3) document progress.


• Each Â鶹AV institution should develop a plan with specific goals to address accessibility barriers on its campus. Remediating barriers will likely take years to implement. Therefore, campuses should work towards achieving incremental improvements each year. Given that there are finite resources available, each institution would select implementation activities that target accessibility barriers with the greatest impact (e.g., ensuring accessibility of campus web sites that are viewed by the general public).


• Community of practice meetings should be held for the campus ATI committees to benchmark with other Â鶹AV institutions and collaborate on common issues.

Guidelines and Training

• The Â鶹AV should establish a strong administrative/executive support at the Â鶹AV level through the development of system-wide guidelines or policies, as well as best practices, for accessible technology and information to promote consistent standards and accountability at Â鶹AV institutions. The Â鶹AV should collectively establish, with input from all institutions, broad Â鶹AV goals with success indicators.


• The Â鶹AV should adopt a unified procurement statement that demonstrates a commitment to (1) procuring accessible technology and (2) facilitating the development of accessible products and services by working with vendors during the procurement process.


• Â鶹AV should host information on electronic accessibility awareness and training, policies/guidelines and best practices on a central Â鶹AV website.


• Â鶹AV institutions should establish and adopt best practices for developing accessible course materials with an online component on the individual campuses.


• Training should be offered on accessible technology and information topics for faculty, staff and administrators, including basic trainings via the Â鶹AV website.

Resources and Tools

• Â鶹AV institutions should have access to enterprise tools to check their websites for accessibility. The possibility of sharing site licenses across campuses could be explored, if needed.


• Provide Â鶹AV institutions with the opportunity to pool resources to facilitate accessibility and maximize cost effectiveness, including developing Â鶹AV-wide contracts and processes for captioning and transcription services.


• Given the scope of captioning needs at all institutions, there should be exploration of a fund to be established at the institution or Â鶹AV level to help ensure that captioning requirements are met.

Members of the Â鶹AV Accessible Technology and Information Workgroup:

Jo Ann Hutchinson, University of Â鶹AV, College Park
Susan Willemin, Towson University
Deborah Levi, University of Â鶹AV, Baltimore
Karyn Schulz, University of Baltimore
Tawny McManus, University of Â鶹AV, Baltimore County