Michael Young: We are committed to the notion that everyone should have an opportunity
to participate in higher education
whether it be from the learning perspective or the research perspective
or an opportunity to work here at this institution.
We benefit from that because we get to enjoy the talents and the skills
of those people who come in and also their perspective
which in many cases will be different from the perspective of others on campus
so accessibility becomes a very important value at the university.
Tracy Mitrano: We're a leading university globally.
We want the best talent in the world
for our students, our staff, and our faculty
and we want to be sure if that talent has a disability
that they know that we are a welcoming community.
Pablo Molina: We are competing with other prestigious and highly accomplished institutions.
We want to make sure that we can target the right candidates
to join our community regardless of their disability status.
Edward Ray: In fact we genuinely believe that excellence is achieved through diversity
and that a commitment to equity and inclusion
really enriches each of our lives.
Michael Young: What the university offers and makes available
has to be offered to everybody.
We can't afford to waste the talents or the brilliance or the minds of anybody
and making things accessible
allows everybody to engage in the university.
Tracy Mitrano: Think about accommodation as really the beginning of the conversation about disability.
It was the appropriate measure that was taken in the Americans with Disabilities Act
that was passed in 1990 and that's well over a generation ago.
I think now we really have to think less about
how we're going to measure
specifically this accommodation and that accommodation
and recognize that we can make accessibility open and available
so that individual staff, faculty, or students
do not have to go to get an accommodation.
It will be automatically available
in the web page that they visit, in the device that they use.
Gerry Hanley: The first step really needs to be
an assessment of where we are
so we can then inform our planning process,
develop plans, implement a project,
and then really assess the results of it.
Pablo Molinda: Key to our approach to making sure that our campus
and our technology is accessible to people with disabilities
is to ensure we do this by design.
This is not an afterthought that we do after we have implemented a new classroom.
Instead this is something that we do from the initial conception of a new project or idea.
The same way we do this for privacy and security
we do this for accessibility.
Tracy Mitrano: A policy really is an important way to go
because it will focus everyone's attention.
It's also probably the way that you have to go now that there are legal pressures
on higher education in this area.
The second thing I would say about policy is
there really are two types in general.
One is a policy that you have because you have a law.
For example, the Family Education Rights Privacy Act policy.
So you want to be clear and sure
that you're going to have compliance on your campus.
There's another kind of policy that I would call aspirational policy.
And maybe accessibility fits a little bit in both.
But you most certainly can err on the aspirational side.
An aspirational policy is something you establish for your institution
as a path moving toward something, moving forward.
It does not have to have 100 percent compliance
because it's really a direction that you're setting strategically for your institution.
Gerry Hanley: We begin with our vendors saying a> this is not only important,
that this is required for working with the CSU.
Every student who comes into our institution
we have to provide equally effective access to those service
and you are a partner in delivering those services to us.
So we will tell you what we need
and then we will help you inform your staff, educate your staff,
provide them some consultation and guidance in partnership with us
so you can deliver the successful service for us.
Bruce Maas: If we go about things in an ad hoc approach, one by one,
we're not likely to get the same results
as if we work together as a community in higher education
to work with vendors to improve accessibility for everyone
with regard to the products that are offered.
That's a much more pragmatic approach, rather than institution by institution.
Gerry Hanley: Making accessibility a priority in their development roadmap
is going to be driven by the market demand
and if an institution never says a word,
the vendor isn't gonna do anything about it.
So if we begin to communicate our demands collectively,
then the vendor will recognize the market value of accessibility.
Michael Young: Accessibility requires effort on the part of everyone
in the higher education community - faculty, staff, technology vendors.
If we all do our part, our institutions can provide everyone
with an equal opportunity to participate
and we all benefit from the perspectives of a diverse group.
Edward Ray: I would say to those out there who are just getting started
or may be struggling to figure out how to use technology
to advance accessibility on their campuses that
there's no such thing as a bad time to start.