Sharing accessible materials: building collaborative repositories and registries

Handouts Media

Presented at 8:00am in WB I on Wednesday, November 16, 2016.

#4958

Speaker(s)

  • Sue-Ann Ma, Product Manager, Benetech
  • Gaeir Dietrich, Director, High Tech Center Training Unit

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format:
  • Expertise Level: Not provided
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

For years, post-secondary institutions have worked in siloes to create accessible accommodations for students. Recent trends reveal interest in sharing educational files, like tactile graphics, across organizations. Come hear about the latest collaborations in this space, including the DIAGRAM Center’s new tool-Accessible Image Repository/Registry.

Abstract

Are you an Alternative Media Specials who spends countless hours and financial resources creating accessible educational materials (PDF, Word, EPUB, tactiles, 3D models, etc.)? Do you ever wonder if you’re exerting time and effort towards creating content that has already been made accessible by someone else? There’s bound to be some overlap in the work that we all do and what we’re proposing is to develop collaborative platforms to minimize redundancies and maximize sharing of resources across campuses and organizations.

Come hear about the challenges around building an accessible repository or collective search/discovery platform. Learn about some of the legal, design, and infrastructure considerations from our speakers as they present on accessible educational collections they’ve encountered and mocked up in recent months. Finally, catch a demo of the DIAGRAM Center’s (the same folks who built and maintain the Bookshare collection) latest prototype addressing this need.

Keypoints

  1. Learn about top tools for the collaborative sharing and exchange of accessible educational materials.
  2. Hear about new partnerships and prototypes, including DIAGRAM Center’s Accessible Image Repository/Registry.
  3. Get involved - contribute files, partake in user focus groups, join a working group, or suggest your ideas!

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Mobility, Vision

Topic Areas

Administrative/Campus Policy, Alternate Format, Web/Media/App Access

Speaker Bio(s)

Sue-Ann Ma

Sue-Ann Ma is the Product Manager for Benetech Labs and has been responsible for the product development of all of the DIAGRAM Center technology since 2013, including MathML Cloud, Math Support Finder, and the Poet Image Description tool. She brings a varied and deep skill set to our team. Prior to working for Benetech, Sue-Ann worked as a Product Manager for a company producing Chinese Language learning materials and a Project Manager for Polo Ralph Lauren’s Project and Planning Division. She also is a member of the EdReady advisory board.

Gaeir Dietrich

Gaeir Dietrich is the director of the High Tech Center Training Unit (HTCTU) of the California community colleges, and the systemwide trainer for Section 508 compliance. Gaeir has served on the advisory boards for AHEAD, Bookshare, DIAGRAM Center, the Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC), and the Silicon Valley Independent Living Center (SVILC). In 2010-2011, she served as the chair for the Federal Advisory Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) in Postsecondary Education. She is a contributing author to Beyond the Americans with Disabilities Act, published by NASPA.

Handout(s)