Commitment to ADA Compliance

Accessibility Update (May 16, 2023)

The Orbis Cascade Alliance and Northwest Academic Computing Consortium are collaborating to provide webinars focusing on digital accessibility in higher education.

We invite you to join us for Untethered teaching and lecture capture. Promoting inclusion and universal design for learning.

June 14, 11am PDT – via Zoom (webinar will be recorded)

Register now! Registration is free, and open to anyone from Alliance and NWACC institutions. You are welcome to forward this email to anyone at your institutions who may be interested in accessibility.

Description: Untethered lecture capture (ULC) is defined as the integration of multimedia resources which permit faculty to be freely mobile within the classroom while simultaneously teaching and producing audiovisual digital recordings of lecture. The integration of cognitive load theory with multimedia instructional design principles promotes accessibility, universal design and facilitates student learning.

Presenters:

  • Lorretta Krautscheid, PhD, MS, RN, CNE. Associate Professor, George Fox University
  • Samuel Williams, MSEd. Chief Information Officer, Linfield University

Please visit the NWHeat website for additional information.

Accessibility Update (April 14, 2023)

After wishing Keith a fond farewell last month, we will be discussing best practices for Alternative Text during the first full month of spring. If you are interested in attending, you can register below.

Accessibility Education Webinar: Alternative Text
Date: Wednesday, April 19th, 2023
Time: 8:00 AM HST
Location: Hosted via Zoom & Frontier

Please ‍‍register here to save your seat‍‍ today.

If you are unable to attend the live call, please register anyway so we may send you a captioned recording afterward.

Accessibility Update (March 16, 2023)

The Orbis Cascade Alliance and Northwest Academic Computing Consortium are collaborating to provide webinars focusing on digital accessibility in higher education.

We invite you to join us for Lessons Learned on the Journey Through a Website Accessibility Audit, Co-hosted by WCET
April 12, 7:00 AM HST – via Zoom (webinar will be recorded)

Register now! Registration is free, and open to anyone from Alliance and NWACC institutions.

Description: WCET, a leader in the practice, policy, and advocacy of digital learning in higher education, recently partnered with WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind), to conduct a comprehensive website review for accessibility across the WCET website. For an organization who recently launched a new website and keeps accessibility on the forefront of all content creation, the results of the WebAIM audit were incredibly insightful. During this webcast, panelists will discuss the process of the website audit, results, and strategies for ensuring websites are accessible. They will also highlight major changes implemented to improve accessibility.

Please visit the NW HEAT website for additional information.

Accessibility Update (March 8, 2023)

This is an exciting but bittersweet Accessibility Education Community webinar; Keith is retiring in early April, which means that this will be his last webinar! He has had a profound impact to the Accessibility community, Siteimprove, and all the customers he has worked with. Please use this link if you would like to share a message, or quick thank you. We will be using this form to compile notes that will be shared with him after this month’s webinar.

Join us, via Zoom, on March 22nd, 2023 at 8:00 AM HST. You can save your seat here.

Accessibility Update (January 18, 2023)

This month Meghan Whalen will be hosting with Keith to show how she uses a screen reader to navigate the web!

Join us, via Zoom, on January 25th, 2023 at 9:00 AM HST. You can save your seat here.

Accessibility Update (December 16, 2022)

In case you missed the ARIA Basics webinar held on December 7th, you can access the webinar recording here. The webinar covered what ARIA is and what ARIA is not, how to being implementing ARIA techniques efficiently, and ARIA code examples.

Accessibility Update (November 30, 2022)

Keith Bundy and special guest Christina Adams, invite you to join them for the last session in December discussing ARIA. ARIA is a complex set of tools that can help create accessible digital experiences, however when implemented improperly can create a negative user experience or even prevent access altogether. In this session, they will go over what ARIA is, what ARIA is not, and how to begin implementing ARIA techniques efficiently.

This webinar will be hosted on December 7th, 2022 at 9:00 AM HST.

Accessibility Update (November 2, 2022)

The Orbis Cascade Alliance and Northwest Academic Computing Consortium are collaborating to provide webinars focusing on digital accessibility in higher education.

We invite you to join us for a Digital Accessibility Workshop from Microsoft
November 15, 10:00 AM HST – via Zoom (webinar will be recorded)

Register here! Registration is free and open.

Description: We are a team of passionate individuals that formed a virtual team to take Accessibility on the road. Our goal is to make individuals pause to think about Accessibility, reflect on who they can empower within their circle by making their world more inclusive through Accessibility and how they can leverage technology to achieve that goal.

Please visit the NW HEAT website for additional information.

Accessibility Update (October 26, 2022)

Thank you for your interest in this month’s webinar, National Disability Employment Awareness Month – Panel Discussion. Due to a family emergency, Keith is unfortunately unable to lead the presentation this week. Once Keith returns, we will work on rescheduling our next session, stay tuned, and thank you for your patience.

For those of you interested in a recording of the session presented on making PDFs accessible that was presented on October 5th, you can find the recording here.

Accessibility Update (September 29, 2022)

NW H.E.A.T (Northwest Higher Education Accessibility Technology) will be hosting a webinar on October 12th, 2022 at 8:00 AM, presented by Dr. Cyndi Rowland, the Executive Director of WebAIM, who will be giving a talk on “What can we be doing better? Anxiety and Accessibility Initiatives 2.0.” Register for a seat here.

Visit the NW H.E.A.T website for additional information.

Accessibility Update (September 28, 2022)

Join us in two upcoming Siteimprove webinars.

On October 5th, 2022, at 8:00 AM join us in a session where a digital expert will discuss best practices for accessibility within PDFs. Register for a seat here.

In addition, on October 26, 2022, at 8:00 AM, you can jump into a panel discussion focused on National Accessibility Awareness month. Register for a seat here.

Accessibility Update (August 4, 2022)

If you missed Keith Bundy’s July webinar that covered how to write descriptive alt text for your website, you can watch the recorded webinar here. The Alt Text and Multimedia webinar slides can be found here.

Accessibility Update (July 15, 2022)

Join us in Siteimprove’s July webinar over Zoom on July 27, 2022 at 8:00am where they will be discussing writing good alt text. Register here to save your seat today.

Accessibility Update (June 8, 2022)

Join us in Siteimprove’s June webinar over Zoom on June 22, 2022 at 8:00am where they are going to revisit their screen reader demo. Register here to save your seat today.

Accessibility Update (June 2, 2022)

If you missed Keith Bundy’s May webinar that covered the upcoming release of the WCAG 2.2 guidelines, you can watch the recorded webinar here.

Accessibility Update (May 20, 2022)

Join Kapi’olani CC in their free professional development event. All UH employees (including student employees) are invited to enroll in the free, online professional development program focused on digital accessibility. Register here.

This is a low-pressure, self-paced learning resource with the option to complete a competency assessment to earn a digital badge and/or certificate. Learn about important fundamental concepts of accessibility and how to apply your new knowledge to your digital content! For more about this program, see this video overview.

Accessibility Update (May 12, 2022)

Keith Bundy from Siteimprove will be hosting a webinar over Zoom on May 25, 2022 at 8:00am where he will be discussing the upcoming release of the WCAG 2.2 guidelines, which are set to be completed and published by September. Register for a seat in this webinar. If you cannot make the webinar, you can still register to get access to a captioned recording of the webinar.

Accessibility Update (May 9, 2022)

If you missed Keith Bundy’s April webinar featuring guest speaker Katie VanDixhorn on an overview of how manual testing is done and why it’s important, you can watch the recorded webinar here.

Accessibility Update (April 27, 2022)

Mitchell Ochi, Director of Client Services and Operations Center at University of Hawai’i will be hosting a webinar over Zoom on May 17, 2022 at 11:00am. Please join this discussion on the University of Hawai’i’s journey to improve the institution’s digital accessibility program. The discussion will focus on the institution’s experience working with the Office for Civil Rights, and how that has helped to shape the current state of their program. Register for a seat in this webinar.

Visit the NW Heat website for additional information.

Accessibility Update (March 15, 2022)

There are two upcoming accessibility webinar opportunities for faculty and staff.

Keith Bundy from Siteimprove will be hosting a webinar over Zoom on March 23, 2022 at 8:00am where he will be discussing What is ARIA? and will be reviewing how to use it for accessibility. Register for a seat in this webinar. If you cannot make the webinar, you can still register to get access to a captioned recording of the webinar.

NW H.E.A.T (Northwest Higher Education Accessibility Technology) will be hosting a webinar on March 31, 2022 at 11:00am entitled An Introduction to Document Accessibility. Register to reserve a seat in this hour-long webinar. This webinar will not be recorded, but a summary will be posted.

Accessibility Update (November 10, 2021)

NW H.E.A.T (Northwest Higher Education Accessibility Technology) will be hosting a webinar on December 2, 2021 at 12:00pm entitled Common Issues and Best Practices in Working with Vendors and Procurement. Register to reserve a seat in this hour-long webinar. This webinar will not be recorded, but a summary will be posted.

Accessibility Update (September 16, 2021)

NW H.E.A.T (Northwest Higher Education Accessibility Technology) will be hosting a webinar on October 14, 2021 at 11:00am entitled An Overview of OCR and How Accessibility Laws Apply to Digital Accessibility in Higher Education. Register to reserve a seat in this hour-long webinar.

Accessibility Update (July 30, 2021)

Travis Vermeulen of Siteimprove will be conducting a hands-on overview of the Siteimprove platform on Tuesday, August 10, 2021 at 10am. This webinar will cover the following topics:

  • What does Siteimprove do, and how does it collect data?
  • How often is data updated in Siteimprove? How can you force scans on pages, groups, and sites?
  • Quality Assurance – How can you troubleshoot broken links?
  • Creating and scheduling a custom dashboard
  • Siteimprove Scoring model – How can you assess and prioritize based on score weight?

No registration is required. To join the webinar:

Microsoft Teams (web or client): http://go.hawaii.edu/PSp
Call in (audio only):

  • +1 612-263-7231 (Minneapolis)
  • +1 323-553-2605 (Los Angeles)

Phone Conference ID: 699 962 915#

Accessibility Update (May 19, 2021)

There are two upcoming accessibility webinar opportunities for faculty and staff.

Keith Bundy from Siteimprove will be hosting a webinar over Zoom on May 26, 2021 at 8:00am where he’ll walk through how he navigates the world using assistive technology. Register now for a seat in this webinar. If you cannot make the webinar, you can still register to get access to a captioned recording of the webinar.

NW H.E.A.T (Northwest Higher Education Accessibility Technology) will be hosting a webinar on June 9, 2021 at 8:00am entitled Creating inclusive classroom spaces in which students thrive. Register to reserve a seat in this hour-long webinar.

Accessibility Update (April 20, 2021)

Keith Bundy from Siteimprove will be holding a webinar on accessibility best practices for hosting virtual events on April 28, 2021 at 8:00am hosted via Zoom. Register now for a seat in this webinar.

Accessibility Update (April 12, 2021)

NW H.E.A.T (Northwest Higher Education Accessibility Technology) will be hosting a webinar on April 27, 2021 at 8:00am entitled Accessibility in Procurement: How to Read a VPAT. Register to reserve a seat in this hour-long webinar.

And, if you missed Keith Bundy’s webinar last month on accessibility best practices for Google Documents, a recording of this webinar is now available.

Accessibility Update (March 15, 2021)

Keith Bundy from Siteimprove will be holding a webinar on accessibility best practices for Google Documents on March 25, 2021 at 7:00am hosted via Zoom. Register now for a seat in this webinar.

If you missed Keith’s webinar last month on accessibility best practices for Microsoft Office, a recording of the webinar is now available.

Also, a recording of Travis Vermeulen’s March 5 webinar is now available.

Accessibility Update (February 24, 2021)

Here’s more details for the Siteimprove webinar on March 5, 2021 (no registration required):

Who: Travis Vermeulen (Principal Customer Success Manager)
What: a “hands-on” overview with the Siteimprove platform as it relates to your responsibilities with the website. Focus topics will include…

  • how Siteimprove collects data and what the scores mean.
  • creating a custom dashboard.
  • Quality Assurance issues (spelling and links).
  • updates to Accessibility, including what’s happening in the industry and how Siteimprove is involved.
  • an introduction to Policy – create custom rules to find unwanted content, code, scripts.
  • an overview of our Help Center and Academy.

When: March 5th, 2021 @ 10:00 AM HST
Where: Virtual Session via GoToMeeting

You can also dial in using your phone.
(For supported devices, tap a one-touch number below to join instantly.)

United States: +1 (571) 317-3122
– One-touch: tel:+15713173122,,161981909#

Access Code: 161-981-909

Accessibility Update (February 17, 2021)

Several upcoming virtual training opportunities are available for UH faculty and staff.

Keith Bundy from Siteimprove will be holding a webinar on accessibility best practices for Microsoft Office. The webinar will be on February 25, 2021 at 8:00am hosted via Zoom. Register now for a seat in this webinar.

Travis Vermeulen from Siteimprove will be holding a “hands on” overview with the Siteimprove platform on March 5, 2021 at 10:00am. More details, including registration information for this session, will be posted soon.

Axe-con is a digital accessibility virtual conference being put on by Deque Systems. The conference is March 10-11, 2021, and registration is free.

Accessibility Update (October 19, 2020)

The UH Data Governance Office and UH ITS will be holding UH’s semesterly Data Governance and Information Security Briefing, which includes a section on accessibility updates. The briefing will be offered as two identical Zoom webinar sessions:

  • Friday, October 30, from 9:00am to 11:00am
  • Monday, November 9, from 12:00pm to 12:00pm

Register online for the October 30 session or the November 9 session. A session recording will be made available at the Data Governance website at a later time.

Accessibility Update (May 13, 2020)

UH faculty and staff now have access to Augusta ADA Solution, an automated captioning tool which creates caption and/or transcript files from uploaded video or audio files. Augusta ADA Solution also provides a built-in editing tool for the generated caption and/or transcript files.

Accessibility Update (April 15, 2020)

On April 7, 2020, Travis Vermeulen and Keith Bundy from Siteimprove presented an online training for UH faculty and staff covering the Siteimprove accessibility module, including what issues to prioritize now, and Siteimprove dashboard reports. A recording of this Siteimprove training is now available.

Accessibility Update (September 19, 2019)

The UH Data Governance Office and UH ITS will be holding Data Governance and Information Security Briefings this fall. Briefings are scheduled to be held at each campus, and include a section on accessibility. You can check for the date and time the briefing will be on your campus at the UH Data Governance Training and Presentations page (UH Username login required).

Accessibility Update (January 14, 2019)

The UH ITS Site License Office is now providing licenses for Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to all UH faculty and staff. Please go to the ITS Site License Office page for more information on the Acrobat Pro DC licenses, including how to request a license.

In addition, Adobe is providing a webinar series on PDF accessibility. There are several upcoming webinars that may be of interest to those working with PDFs, so please check out Adobe’s schedule of upcoming events.

Accessibility Update (December 12, 2018)

Online Accessibility Training

UH ITS has pulled together a number of recommended online accessibility training resources (opens in a new window).

The online training resources includes training videos through Lynda.com. Faculty and staff systemwide can obtain a free account to access Lynda.com by going to the ITS Site License Office.

Our systemwide Siteimprove license comes with access to Siteimprove Academy, a comprehensive e-learning hub for courses about accessibility, analytics, SEO, and more. To get started with Siteimprove Academy, please email itsada@hawaii.edu to create an account.

Recordings of the previously held accessibility training sessions in October are available online:

10/3/2018 Siteimprove Training

Working in Siteimprove
Accessibility Training
Presentation Slides

More Siteimprove resources are available at: https://www.hawaii.edu/its/siteimprove

10/10/2018 Adobe PDF Training

Introductory PDF Accessibility Training
Advanced PDF Accessibility Training
Adobe Exercises

More information about these trainings may be found at: https://www.hawaii.edu/its/adobetraining

10/11/2018 Cyxtera Training

Web and IT Accessibility Recording
Presentation Slides

More information about this training may be found at: https://www.hawaii.edu/its/cyxteratraining

Adobe Acrobat DC Licenses

Licenses for Adobe Acrobat DC will be available soon for all UH System faculty and staff. Another announcement will be made with more details once the licenses are available.

Accessibility Update (September 29, 2018)

UH ITS has coordinated accessibility training sessions led by Siteimprove, Adobe, and Cyxtera. The following sessions are available to UH system faculty and staff.

Siteimprove, a WCAG 2.0 compliancy optimization platform, training sessions on October 3, 2018 included:

  • Working in Siteimprove: 10:00am-11:30am
  • Accessibility Training: 1:00pm-2:30pm

For more information on the Siteimprove training sessions, please visit:

https://go.siteimprove.com/university-of-hawaii-manoa-training-landing-page (Link no longer valid)

Adobe PDF accessibility training on October 10, 2018 included:

For more information on the Adobe training sessions, please visit:

https://www.hawaii.edu/its/adobetraining/

Cyxtera training sessions conducted on October 11, 2018 at Kuykendall Hall, Room 201 from 9:00am-11:30am, included the following topics:

  • Legal Introduction to Web & IT Accessibility
  • Practical Introduction to Web Accessibility and WCAG
  • A Four-Part Simple Approach to Web and IT Accessibility

The Cyxtera session recording will be made available following open captioning on the following page: https://www.hawaii.edu/its/cyxteratraining/

Accessibility Update (September 7, 2018)

Siteimprove is now available to all campuses and units to leverage for website accessibility and content scanning. Siteimprove administrators have been identified on each campus to help facilitate access to Siteimprove and the reports generated by the scans. Two rounds of administrator training have been completed, on July 31st and August 28th, and additional training sessions are being planned for October 3rd when Siteimprove representatives will be in Hawaii. Requests for assistance with getting a UH website setup for scanning by Siteimprove can be sent to itsada@hawaii.edu.

UH is continuing to work out and refine our approach to achieve the necessary compliance goals. As a reminder, please coordinate efforts with ITS to help ensure consistency with other UH units.

UH will approach compliance with the VRA in a systematic and coordinated manner. It is important not to make or take any rash or forced steps that might set back our systemwide efforts, including creating unintended consequences such as the ad hoc removal of resources or imposing unreasonable policies on content creation. It is critical that the university community take a rational approach to compliance and ensure that any policies and changes to policies are properly vetted.

Accessibility Update (July 20, 2018)

Thank you to all of the participants at our annual IT All Campus Workshop. The accessibility training track sessions delivered by Tom Conway (UHM-CDS) were well attended. ITS will be scheduling additional training sessions along with updates on deployment of software tools and guidelines.

All UH content creators, managers and owners are reminded that we should continue to take a rational and coordinated approach to both existing and new content. Ad hoc actions and the imposition of unreasonable guidance on content remediation and creation do not help us. One of the important elements of the VRA is paragraph 3:

Undue Burden and Fundamental Alteration. This agreement does not require the University to take any action that it can demonstrate would result in a fundamental alteration in the nature of a service, program, or activity or in undue financial and administrative burdens. In those circumstances where the University can demonstrate compliance would result in such an alteration or burden, the University will ensure that, to the maximum extent possible, individuals with disabilities receive the benefits or services provided by the University.

It is important that as a part of our systemwide assessment, we can identify and inventory the online content where we can establish and demonstrate the requisite burden. Content owners and creators should also be aware that UH remains responsible for providing the benefits or services to the maximum extent possible.

We do expect to fully deploy our set of assessment tools, including the Siteimprove service, by the end of July. Administrators should already be in conversations with Mitch Ochi to coordinate access and training; the initial training course for Siteimprove administrators will be held on July 31st.

UH Commitment to ADA Compliance Reaffirmed (July 9, 2018)

As a matter of equity and diversity, the University of Hawai’i (UH) stands committed to ensuring that campus computing and information resources are accessible to disabled students, faculty and staff. Accessibility of our services has been a longstanding requirement under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; web accessibility standards are newer, but part of our accessibility obligations and commitment.

Voluntary Resolution Agreement

In the context of an examination of our compliance across the UH System, on May 15, 2018, the UH entered into a voluntary resolution agreement (VRA) with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education. The full text of the VRA is available at https://www.hawaii.edu/access/resources/uhvra/. Additional information relating to our compliance efforts, including current guidelines, will be available at https://www.hawaii.edu/access/resources/vra and will be continually updated there.

The following summarizes key provisions, all of which are consistent with existing federal law.

      1. New Online Content and Functionality. UH agrees that by May 1, 2019, it will establish a plan to ensure that all new online content and functionality developed, procured, or used after the date of this agreement will be fully accessible to individuals with disabilities. The plan will include any staff training that may be necessary.
      2. Current Online Content and Functionality. UH agrees that by May 3, 2021, it will: develop a strategy for identifying inaccessible content and functionality for individuals with disabilities; provide notice to persons with disabilities regarding how to request access to online information or functionality; and, develop a process to ensure that, upon request, inaccessible content and functionality will be made accessible in an expedient manner.
      3. Undue Burden and Fundamental Alteration. The agreement does not require UH to take any action that it can demonstrate would result in a fundamental alteration in the nature of a service, program or activity, or in undue financial and administrative burdens. In those circumstances where UH demonstrates that compliance would result in such an alteration or burden, UH will ensure that, to the maximum extent possible, individuals with disabilities receive the benefits or services provided by UH.

The VRA includes definitions, reporting requirements and other related provisions.

Compliance Steps Underway

UH Information Technology Services (ITS) is the technical lead for the UH System in establishing the required guidelines, training, outreach, and ensuring the availability of necessary assessment and remediation tools to support the above requirements across the university system. Work completed to date and planned includes:

      1. New Online Content and Functionality. ITS has begun work with an initial group of representative content creators, including the UH Mānoa Center for Disabilities Studies (CDS), to draft guidelines for the creation of new online content, including recommended training and tools for producing accessible content that will be acquired by the UH System for use across all campuses. ITS and CDS have been working to test and refine some of the content creation training to be provided across all campuses.
      2. Current Online Content and Functionality. ITS has completed procurement of an unrestricted use, systemwide license for the Siteimprove tool, to support the identification and diagnosis of web content that is not compliant with applicable accessibility guidelines. Siteimprove is now being configured so that all campuses will have access to the tool to provide accessibility assessments for all faculty and staff. In addition to providing diagnostics to identify non-compliance issues with online content, the Siteimprove tool will help UH responsibly monitor overall compliance efforts.

ITS will establish both in-house and external resources to assist campuses in their compliance efforts. ITS and Office of the University General Counsel (OGC) will coordinate any requests for technical assistance from OCR, and the submittal of all reports required under the VRA.

Once the tools, training, and resource requirements are identified, chancellors will be consulted on the best method to resource and finance the costs necessary to ensure compliance with federal law, in accord with the VRA commitments.

What You Can Do Starting Now

UH must approach our compliance with the law and the VRA in a systematic manner. It is not necessary to immediately remove all non-compliant content at this time, nor should individuals issue their own unauthorized interpretations of the law or the VRA to their colleagues without first checking with ITS and OGC.

We are aware from preliminary reviews that the most common causes of non-compliant online sites are the use within web sites of PDF files that cannot be read by screen reading software, the failure to “tag” images, and the use of uncaptioned videos. Many of these have straightforward remedies available. Tools and approaches will be identified and made available as part of our work to establish the plan for new online content as well as existing content, and to provide support across the UH system.

In the meantime, anyone who is creating or updating web content can take the following easy steps to ensure that their web content is accessible:

      1. When creating content from Microsoft Office, use the built-in Accessibility Checker (included in Office 2013 and 2016) to find and address accessibility issues. See more tips on creating accessible documents at:
        https://www.hawaii.edu/access/accessible-content/docs/
      2. Be sure that all images and graphics included on websites are tagged with alternate text, and videos inserted into web content are properly captioned.

Any questions relating to our plans and next steps may be directed to the Vice President for IT and Chief Information Officer at (808) 956-3501 or via email at gyoshimi@hawaii.edu.