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It May Be True, But is It Effective? An Examination of Points Often Used to Justify an Organizational Accessibility Initiative

Proposal No: 1922

Bios & Handouts

Speaker(s)

Disability Area:          

Topic Area:                

Length of Session (in hours): 1-hrFormat: Lecture Expertise Level: All Levels Type of session: Not provided

Summary of Session

We will take a look at some common points made when we talk about a business case for accessibility in higher education and talk about just how effective they are. This will be a discussion, so come ready to ponder and contribute.

Abstract

Some institutions of higher education have robust and thorough technology accessibility programs on campus. Others struggle to commit any resources to the cause. What is it about technology accessibility that can make it such a hard sell on campus? We have a lot of different ways to phrase the points in our business cases in higher education. We have all found that some points work with certain audiences more than others. We have also probably found that, no matter how accurate a statement is, it may cause our audience to go glassy-eyed and shut down. We can all help one another to improve how we explain and advocate for technology accessibility on campus, and what better place to do it than at AHG? We will talk about at least 10 notions that we have all heard, spoken or otherwise tried on our campuses. My goal is to moderate a conversation and share some of my own experiences, but we will spend most of our time in a conversation about points in the business case.

Kepoints

  1. A good list of business case fundamentals.
  2. How to identify the right audiences to address on campus.
  3. How to better shape our message for certain audiences.

Speaker Bio(s)

Rob Carr

Rob Carr, CPACC, is the Web Accessibility Manager at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Rob provides expert guidance to the UAB University Relations team with respect to accessibility in design and development. He also collaborates with groups across campus, working toward a comprehensive and sustainable digital accessibility program. Before working at UAB, Rob led Oklahoma ABLE Tech’s technology accessibility program. There he worked with state agencies and higher education institutions across Oklahoma. Rob has also spoken about and trained on technology accessibility at events and conferences throughout the U.S., and even once in Canada. Rob still calls Oklahoma home with his wife, 2 boys, dog, and cat.

Handout(s)