Welcome to the Great Lakes ADA and Accessible IT Center's monthly Bulletin on Accessible IT in K-12 schools.

Trainings & Events

The Great Lakes Center offers technical assistance, trainings, referrals, and resource material for K-12 and Postsecondary schools on Accessible Information Technology topics.

Resources for Schools

AccessIT - National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education, promotes the use of electronic and IT for students and employees with disabilities in educational institutions at all academic levels. www.washington.edu/accessit

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) works to advance the K-12 technology leadership. The Accessible Technologies for all Students Project is a new leadership initiative of CoSN. www.accessibletech4all.org

National Center for Technology Innovation advances learning opportunities for individuals with disabilities by fostering technology innovation. www.nationaltechcenter.org

The Alliance for Technology Access is the national network of community-based organizations dedicated to providing information and support services to children standard, assistive, and information technologies. www.ataccess.org

Legal Obligations for Accessible IT in Schools

Several legal statutes direct schools to provide an equal opportunity for a quality education and not discriminate against children with disabilities. These laws address access to technology in various ways.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities. While there have not been lawsuits under the ADA regarding accessible IT in K-12 schools, there has been clarification for post-secondary institutes. In 1996 the Department of Justice issued an Opinion Letter stating entities covered under the ADA must provide "effective communication" regardless of whether they generally communicate through print media, audio media, or computerized media such as the Internet. Covered entities that use the Internet must be prepared to offer those communications through accessible means as well. This could be a schools public website or possibly web based curriculum being offered by the school.

Two Sections of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are relevant to schools in the area of accessible IT. First, Section 504 protects individuals with physical or mental disabilities from discrimination based on their disability. It is interpreted and enforced, for the most part, in the same way as the ADA in regards to accessible IT. Section 508 applies to federal agencies only, but the standards developed for accessibility can offer schools guidance when developing policies and best practice.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997, re-authorized in 2004, (IDEA) is a federal special education law that requires public schools to provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to eligible students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment (LRE). IDEA does not mention accessible IT specifically, but does specify that students have equal access to the general curriculum. Accessible and assistive technology has proven effective in aiding with access to the general curriculum. IDEA 2004 requires states to adopt the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) to provide instructional materials, such as text books, in an alternative format to blind students or other students with print disabilities. In addition, each qualified student with a disability must be considered for assistive technology.

A few states, such as Kentucky, have specific state laws that require school districts to provide students with disabilities with technology access "that is equivalent to the access provided individuals who are not disabled" (KRS 61.982 - PDF). Other states, such as Arizona, require public schools to order new textbook adoptions from vendors whose textbooks are available in both print and alternative formats, such as CD-ROM. (HB2092)

As technology continues to grow useful and necessary for learning, accessibility barriers must be eliminated in our educational system, so that every student is fully prepared to flourish in our advanced technological age. Schools have an increasing legal and moral obligation to insure that all students can participate in and take advantage of the educational curriculum.

An Easy Way to Make Classroom Websites

It's easy to create accessible classroom websites even if you don't know HTML, the code used to create web pages. One simple way is to use Word or Powerpoint (part of the Microsoft Office). Many schools already own these software programs making this a cost effective and simple option.

You can use a Web page template. A template is a file that contains the structure for shaping elements such as the style and page layout of finished files. Or you can save a document as a Web page, creating an HTML file.

This is an uncomplicated way to get started creating a classroom websites. However, there can be accessibility issues when using this feature making your website hard to use for students or others with disabilities. If one understands web accessibility standards and the best practices formatting with Microsoft Office many accessibility issues can be resolved.

The Illinois Accessible Web Publishing Wizard for Microsoft Office is another alternative that does not require technical knowledge of HTML or accessibility standards. It provides a simple way to create highly accessible and standards compliant web versions of Office documents that are more accessible and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities.

The HTML generated by the Wizard supports everyone from legacy browsers and slow Internet connections to the needs of blind users with screen readers. The Wizard does this through the support of W3C XHTML, CSS, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the federal government's Section 508 accessibility requirements. Documents created with the Wizard can be put on the web, e-mailed to colleagues, shared on intranets and read with a wide variety of web browsers.

If you would like to learn more about this tool there is a Webcast on Wednesday June 14, 2006. The web cast will present the Accessible Web Publishing Wizard for Microsoft Office and how it can assist in meeting accessibility mandates as well as providing content for a wider range of users. The session is free, but you must register at www.accessiblewizards.uiuc.edu/webreg.php

There is a demonstration version of the Wizard available for free to "try before you buy". The demo is fully functioning with the following limitations:

• Powerpoint: Only converts first 5 slides
• Word: Only converts first 1200 characters
• Excel: Only converts first worksheet or chart

It can be downloaded at www.accessiblewizards.uiuc.edu

There is a special discount happening until June 30, 2006. The Wizard can be purchased at 25% off the regular site license pricing! For large institutions with over 4000 computers, the cost is as low as $1.69 per computer.