Transcript Online Student Research - Grand Rapids Community College

December 10, 2013
TEAM MEMBERS
Dominic Dorsey, Director of Accessibility, Chair
Klass Kwant, Video Content Production Manager, Co-Chair
Frank Conner, Department Chair, Psychology
Lyttron Burris, Professor of English
Sarah Rose, Coordinator, Disability Support Services
Kathy Keating, General Counsel
Paula Sullivan, Associate Dean, Faculty Evaluation & Hiring
MaryBeth Beighley, Director of Staff Development
Jeremy Osborn, Director of Center for Teaching Excellence
Introduction:
The campus community of Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC)
relies on administrators, faculty and staff to provide equal access to all
programs and activities for individuals with disabilities. By providing ease of
access in addition to reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals
with disabilities, GRCC remains committed to adhering to the requirements
of Sections 504 & 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 as amended (2008).
Our Responsibility:
To ensure that members of the campus community are not excluded from
participation or denied the benefit of information, advertisement or
academic instruction. Communication mediums must be as effective for
individuals with disabilities as they are for others. It’s about student
success and accessibility to the community.
Statistics on Retention:
1. College graduation - 12.8% of the hearing population graduated from
college whereas 5.1% of the deaf or hard-of-hearing population
graduated. (http://research.gallaudet.edu/Demographics/deaf-employment-2011.pdf)
2. As compared to a 47% dropout rate for students without disabilities, the
college dropout rate for students with hearing impairments is 71%.
(http://www.handsandvoices.org/articles/education/ed/V13-1_beyondHS.htm)
Why We Can’t Wait:
UC Berkley (1999), LaTrobe University (2008), Ohio State (2009), University of
Kentucky (2011), Daytona State College (2011), University of Maryland at
College Park (2013) all faced class action lawsuits from advocacy and special
interest groups like the National Association for the Deaf for lack of accessibility in
college resources including but not limited to: Course Content and Classroom
Environments, Sporting Events and Entertainment; Safety, Emergency and any other
Announcements
National Association of the Deaf (NAD) vs. Netflix
-"...the court’s determination that Netflix’s streaming video service qualifies as a
“place of public accommodation” extends the jurisdiction of the ADA to any
organization that publishes video."
Audiovisual Captioning Policy
•
In accordance with the academic principals of equity and accessibility in both the
curriculum and in the campus community; a policy on the use of audiovisual
media must be implemented by the institution.
Americans with Disabilities Act Requirements:
•
Title II mandates state and local governments:
•
May not refuse to allow a person with a disability to participate in a service, program, or
activity simply because the person has a disability.
•
Must provide programs and services in an integrated setting, unless separate or
different measures are necessary to ensure equal opportunity.
•
Must furnish auxiliary aids and services when necessary to ensure effective
communication, unless an undue burden or fundamental alteration would result.
•
Shall operate their programs so that, when viewed in their entirety, they are readily
accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities.
Benefits of an Audiovisual Captioning Policy
•
This policy would specifically benefit individuals who are Deaf or hard of hearing who must
have captioned media in order to access the auditory and visual media from one location.
•
Individuals with learning disabilities, ADD/ADHD, or other cognitive impairments benefit from
the open captions supplementing the audio
•
Persons on this diverse campus where English is their second language benefit from the
captions as well as persons globally who see GRCC produced media productions
•
Enhance playback for viewers watching in noisy environments. Anyone in the audience when
variations of sound quality or surrounding noise cause distractions would benefit greatly from
captioning.
•
Individuals without disabilities have stated that captioning helps in taking notes and improves
understanding and recall.
Proposed Policy Statement
•
To support an inclusive environment geared towards universal design concepts
which removes barriers and equalizes communication access, all audiovisual
media used as part of classroom activities, instruction, distance learning, training
modules for institution personnel, campus sponsored events, and cocurricular activities should be closed, open or real time captioned.
Changes and Revisions:
•
Added definitions for Open, Closed, Real Time and Real Time Embedded
Transcripts to the policy
•
Added a section on Best Practices for the Captioning policy including:
– Captioning Required
– Captioning Encouraged
– Captioning Not Required
•
Added item 4 under Procedures section for Impromptu Classroom Materials
X. Best Practices:
– Captioning Required: if the uncaptioned video creates a barrier to
instructional material for a student who has a documented disability
which would be accommodated by captioning or if the video is being
shared in an unrestricted way (i.e. the video is publicly available). If you
are not restricting access and you cannot be sure no one in the audience
requires captioning, you must caption the material.
– Captioning Encouraged: Captioning of online video is strongly
encouraged for any online video which will be used in the future for an
undefined audience and even in cases where the current audience has
been restricted to a group where it is unknown who will need the
accommodation. For example, any audiovisual media used each time a
class is taught should be captioned for future students who may need
the accommodation.
X. Best Practices (cont.):
– Captioning Not Required: Before coming to the determination that
captioning is not required, always inquire as to whether or not a
video/clip/film is essential to a course outline.
Once this has been determined, given the current expense, captioning is
not required for any online video that will be used for a limited duration
when the audience is restricted to a group of users unknown to need the
accommodation. If you are restricting access by some means and you
are certain no one in the course is in need of captioning, then you are
not required to caption the material.
*English language captioning is also not required in courses where foreign language or
comprehension and recall of spoken word would be negated by the addition of these captions.
However, if subtitles in the germane language are available, they are
encouraged.
XI. Procedure
4. Impromptu Classroom Materials
When utilizing Audiovisual Media in a classroom setting for the purposes of enhanced learning
such as YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, or like online video streaming services, every effort must be made
to seek a captioned version of the video or clip. If a captioned version is not available the remaining
options include:
a)
First, make a determination if the video/clip/film is essential to a course outline; then
b)
Seek an alternative video/clip/film with closed-captioning; or
c)
Offer an alternative assignment to a student in place of viewing a non-captioned
video/clip/film.
d)
If the video will only be utilized for a limited duration and the audience is restricted to a group
of users known not to need an accommodation, the material is not required to be captioned.
However, it is still recommended to exhaust options a through c before making this
determination.
Current Processes Supporting Policy
Implementation:
Captioning Request Procedure: The GRCC Media Department has an established process and
procedure for the conversion of audiovisual materials into an accessible format. This office
already responds immediately to accommodation requests verified through DSS and as long as
audio is discernable; files can be captioned in a reasonable turn around.
Center for Teaching Excellence: Through workshop offerings in faculty professional development,
courses are offered in Camtasia Relay which shows participants how to create recordings with
editable automated captions.
Distance Learning and Instructional Technologies: In compliance with Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines (WCAG) issued by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act issued in the Untied States Federal Government, we’ve instructed all faculty to
adhere to accessibility standards required under the Assistive Technology Act, Section 508 while
creating and posting Blackboard content.
Points to Consider
•
The purpose of this policy is not to penalize faculty members. The spirit of
this policy is to provide equal access to all members of the GRCC campus
community.
•
AGC policies are customarily passed with a grace period to establish
procedure before implementation.
– (i.e. Admissions Application Cut-Off policy date of decision 4/10/12,
Provost charged Student Affairs Office to develop implementation plan
by Winter 2014)
•
Policies give us the ability to advocate for necessary resources.
NEXT STEPS
1.
Share once again with your departments.
2.
Direct all feedback to [email protected] by December 20, 2013
3.
Committee will consider recommendations and make revisions to policy.
4.
Policy will return to AGC on January 14, 2014 for vote.
Feedback/Questions: