Participants identified various barriers and solutions to those barriers, as shared below.
Barrier: Faculty feel overwhelmed with accessibility requirements.
Solution: Implement a plan for new faculty to receive training and then slowly bring in instructors of existing curriculum. Allot time for professional development for faculty to learn about accessibility.
Barrier: There is resistance to change due to time restraints, lack of knowledge and training opportunities, and siloed departments.
Solution: Gather advocates to promote accessibility. Integrate accessibility within regular work flows so that it is a part of everyone’s job instead of just one person’s job. Share resources with departments.
Barrier: There is a lack of training in accessibility in technology and knowledge of laws.
Solution: Consider offering compensation and other incentives to faculty to encourage them to teach accessibly, including credits or certifications.
Barrier: It is difficult to get faculty interested in and excited about accessibility.
Solution: Bring in a panel of students with disabilities to share their difficulties in accessing courses and suggest improvements that would increase that access. Create more incentives and general team promotion/gamification of accessibility.
Barrier: How do we find and remediate inaccessible course content, including making sure all videos have captions?
Solution: Provide resources (money and time) and assign responsibilities for making sure all content is made accessible. Review courses and hold faculty accountable for making their materials accessible.
Barrier: Faculty worry that providing accommodations (e.g., extra time on time-limited quizzes) will allow students to cheat.
Solution: Use technology that prevents cheating or create more open-ended tests and assignments where cheating is more difficult.
Barrier: Faculty perceive a conflict between “academic freedom” and “civil rights.”
Solution: Explain that the goal is to provide a level playing field without lowering standards or interfering with academic freedom.
Barrier: I’m not sure how to get buy-in from stakeholder groups to get accessibility tools and programs purchased or used.
Solution: Offer programs and tools to students first, getting the buy-in through a grassroots movement instead of top-down.
Barrier: Faculty won’t adopt accessible practices.
Solution: Use Ally to identify accessibility issues and reach out to specific faculty. Make the process friendlier and engaging. Repeat the message that students need accessible access.
Barrier: How can we get a broad acceptance of accessible practice when the need is perceived as low?
Solution: Make sure all new faculty learn accessible practices and allow them to champion the cause as well.
Barrier: Canvas always has technical glitches through the mobile app, but students may only have access through their phone.
Solution: Offer more access to technology through libraries or departmental units. Make sure at least some of these computers and other technologies have assistive technology on them as well.