Presented at 3:00pm in Virtual C on Wednesday, November 18, 2020.
#32178Speaker(s)
- Sarah Arnold, Digital Accessibility Consultant, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Kat Moore, Digital Accessibility Consultant, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Session Details
- Length of Session: 45 minutes
- Format: Lecture
- Expertise Level: Beginner
- Type of session: Pre-conference
Summary
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's new Digital Accessibility Office will discuss our process for research, development, and review of the policy and two standards created for the UNC-CH campus. This includes Digital Accessibility Policy and standards for digital accessibility, resources and technology and standards for procurement of these same technologies. This discussion will touch on guidance we received from our institution, language choices and definitions of terms we considered, exceptions for the policy, and what we included from our research. We will also share what to consider when working through your policy process and our key takeaways to help you learn from our experience.
Abstract
Policies in higher education help guide practice and provide consistency across a campus. With drives to be more inclusive, including digital accessibility in the policy process has become of greater importance in recent years.
At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's, our new Digital Accessibility Office was tasked with developing a digital accessibility policy for campus. We started by learning about the University’s policy development process, receiving guidance and input from key campus stakeholders, and researching other higher education institutions.
In this presentation, we will present a case study of our process for research, development, and review of the policy and two standards. We will also share what to consider when working through your policy process and our key takeaways to help you learn from our experience. We will also reflect on our communication plan and roll out after the policy and standards were published in December 2019.
Keypoints
- Considerations for developing a new policy including content, culture, and communication
- How to approach researching policies from other institutions
- Tips for starting and working through the policy process
Disability Areas
All Areas
Topic Areas
Administrative/Campus Policy, Legal, Procurement, Research, Uncategorized
Speaker Bio(s)
Sarah Arnold
Sarah focuses on accessibility audits and consultancies with campus partners. She also oversees the Digital Accessibility Liaison program.
Sarah joined the Digital Accessibility Office from the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries, where she worked as the Content Strategy Librarian in the User Experience department for four years. She collaborated with colleagues to improve the usability and accessibility of the library's digital content. She has extensive experience with user research and testing methods.
She earned her Master of Science in Library Science from Carolina’s School of Information and Library Science.
Kat Moore
Kat conducts accessibility audits and communicates with campus partners. Her specialty is in web design and web accessibility.
Prior to joining the Digital Accessibility Office at UNC-Chapel Hill, Kat was a web designer at the University of Florida. There, she worked with a team of instructional designers to build online courses.
Kat has her Master of Web Design and Online Communication as well as certificates in Instructional Design and Disabilities in Society.