DRAFT_Accessible_Media_Policy

Edits/changes authored by: Sharon McCarragher Amy Mangrich

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Accessible Instructional Media and Materials Policy Draft: April 27, 2011


 * Background **

(Need to add language that makes it clear that the Digital Future dictates that this must happen.)

The increased use of media in the classroom poses barriers to some students with disabilities. For example, when a professor is inspired shows a video clip in class from YouTube that does not include captions, student who are deaf or hard of hearing are prevented from having access to the same information as their non-handicapped peers.

Although the legal support for this policy addresses accessibility for persons with disabilities, research clearly shows captions benefit a much wider audience. Captioning facilitates note taking, enhances understanding and recall and provides access to auditory content when variations of sound quality or surrounding noise creates distractions. With the expanding use of video for instruction and communications, captioning your YouTube, iTunes and recorded lectures will make the content more usable. C captions serve as the basis for enabling video to be searched, translated, and serves different learning styles for both native English speakers and ESL.

In early 2010 a workgroup comprised of staff from the University of Wisconsin, private colleges and Wisconsin Technical College campuses convened to address the issue of media used at their institutions that limited or prohibited access for staff, students and the public. Although federal law mandates this accessibility, institutions are often unaware of their responsibility and the risk of civil litigation related to using uncaptioned media. It was agreed that the first priority for this workgroup would be to develop a guide to assist Wisconsin postsecondary institutions in establishing captioned media policies and procedures that ensure compliance.


 * Current Status of Accessible Media at UWM **

In the fall of 2010, the captioning policy guide developed by the Wisconsin State Work Group was transmitted to the UWM ADA Committee for consideration, In response, a workgroup of the UWM ADA Advisory Committee was formed, comprised of representations from the library, the Student Accessibly Center (SAC), The Learning Center (TLC) and UWM’s PEPNet project. The workgroup was charged with proposing a postproduction captioning policy for UWM. In order to better understand how the lack of captioning affects the UWM community, the committee gathered real-life examples of the impact of the lack of a captioning policy. The following examples illustrate the range of barriers our students, faculty and staff, and campus visitors encounter and the legal exposure the campus faces by not having accessible media:

• A high school senior who is deaf is interested in attending UWM. The student looks on the UWM website and sees the "Is UWM for YOU?” video highlighting current UWM students talking about their experiences. Unfortunately, this video is not captioned so the high school student does not have access to the information. The clear message is that UWM is not right for this particular student despite our well-known reputation for campus services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

• UWM has used podcasting as a way to disseminate audio information. Students have access to archived lectures via a listing on a webpage of podcasted lectures. In addition, UITS offers podcasts about campus technology via a listing on a website. None of these podcasted audio presentations are captioned. As a result, staff and students who are deaf or hard of hearing are not able to access the information.

• A student who is deaf uses live captioning services during his classes. The professor brings in a DVD to show the class and assumes that the live captionist can provide the captioning needed by the student who is deaf. Providing live captioning or a sign language interpreter during a video offers only marginal access to the audio component because it is not possible to read captioning on a separate screen or watch a live interpreter and simultaneously view the video. The result is only a portion of the total information can be accessed.

• An instructor assigns students the task of viewing a video that is on the CD that accompanies the class textbook and then answering questions at the end of the video as part of a homework assignment. When the student who is deaf sits down to complete his homework, he discovers that the video is not captioned. As a result, the student cannot finish the required homework assignment.

• The increase in instructors using D2L to disseminate media for online classes causes access problems for students who are deaf, despite the fact that in some colleges these students pay an additional $275 fee above normal tuition for participate in an online class. Some examples:

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -9pt;">--A teacher dedicates a large portion of the course to <span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">the D2L activities requiring students to view videos and write reports through D2L. None of the videos, which are from Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, ect, have captions. <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -9pt;">--A teacher uploads PowerPoint slides with audio files<span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;"> instead of video lectures. The student is expected to listen to the lecture and take notes in preparation for a test on the course materials. The audio files are not accessible for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, <span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">yet the teacher feels it is "accessible" because of the written notes in PowerPoint. However, the existing PowerPoint notes are not fully accessible as a student who is deaf or hard of hearingering is not able to access the full lecture experience as his non-handicapped peers who are able to access the notes and the audio explanation. <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -9pt;">--An instructor <span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">copies a closed-captioned uploads a film clip to D2L. The original film was captioned, but these cannot be accessed through the digital video file. <span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">but the captions do not show up. The student has to take extra time outside of class to go to the library to view the captioned film or ask for the instructors personal copy of the film<span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">, which they sometimes are reluctant to loan out.

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -9pt;">//[**Note**: Clarify the nature of this problem: Is it a technical issue with D2L or a faculty training problem that the instructor did not change appropriate options to make the captions appear? **Note response.** Closed Captions do not "copy" well when delivering video online. In order to caption digital video files delivered over the web, special handling is required, including a specially formatted transcript file and a specially designed web player.] // <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -9pt;">--<span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">On the class' D2L page, the An instructor provides lecture videos from past classes as supplemental support for learning through D2L. These videos were not captioned <span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">and the previous content didn't always align with the current classes. However, some of the information from those video lectures appeared as exam questions. In this case, the inaccessible media creates a penalty for <span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">a student students who <span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">was are deaf because <span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">he was they are not able to access the same information as everyone else in the class.

// <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -9pt;">[**Note:** I've intentionally underplayed D2L in the above scenarios. It is important to understand that inaccessible media is not a failing of D2L. The scenarios above use D2L as a means to distribute the media, but D2L does not create the media. Additional tools outside of D2L are required to create accessible digital media. ]//

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">These actual examples at UWM reveal that the challenges of inaccessible media are widespread and pervasive throughout the institution (e.g., at the classroom level, at the institutional level) for students, faculty and staff and campus visitors. UWM currently does not have a policy requiring captioned media. Therefore, if a student is registered with the Student Accessibly Center (SAC), and requires captioned media for access to classroom related activities, SAC does its best to identify all of the media required for the student’s classwork. SAC then “retrofits” each piece of uncaptioned media by creating transcripts and adding captioning. This has proved to be a “band-aid” approach as it reactive and does not address the larger UWM community’s need for media access via captioning.

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">By developing a policy requiring captioned media, UWM would be communicate a clear expectation to all campus stakeholders that equitable access to information is expected in order to provide the best educational opportunities and to ensure that the institution is compliant with legal requirements. More importantly, an accessible media policy would create a universally designed environment not not only benefiting students registered with SAC who have disabilities affecting their access to aural information, but also the 240 students in ESL courses and programs and the hundreds of other students with “hidden” disabilities and literacy issues (estimated to be approximately 20% of the student population). Research has identified a number of benefits of captioned media for ALL users:

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 9pt; text-indent: -9pt;">• We all have different preferences for learning <span style="background-color: #fab7f8; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 9pt; text-decoration: line-through; text-indent: -9pt;">styles. Many students without known disabilities find that reading along with a video increases comprehension over just listening. <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 9pt; text-indent: -9pt;">• Captions in digital video are searchable, providing a way to find a video or a spot in a video much more easily. <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 9pt; text-indent: -9pt;">• Captions allow everyone to get the audio content, even if the audio isn't available because of environmental reasons (too loud), a technology issues (no sound card, speakers, or headphones), or a hearing impairment or deafness. <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 9pt; text-indent: -9pt;">• They are synchronized with the video, whereas a transcript is generally viewed/read separately from the video.


 * <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Action Steps **

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The ADAAC recommends to the Chancellor that the following two actions be taken as soon as possible:


 * 1) <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The adoption of a UWM policy requiring captioned media:
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The development of a UWM Captioning Center.

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Example of policy language:

<span style="display: block; font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: center;">UWM Captioned Media Policy

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.5in;">UWM is committed to the fundamental academic principles of equity and accessibility by providing all students and staff equitable access to campus programs, services, events, and staff development activities. The aim of this policy is to support an inclusive academic environment by incorporating design concepts that reduce or remove barriers. UWM will achieve this goal by by creating a policy on the use of captioned media:

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.5in;">All media resources purchased and/or used after (date) at this institution must be captioned. All new instructional, informational, marketing, and promotional audiovisual materials produced by this institution, including content posted on websites, will be produced with captions to ensure all subsequent copies will be captioned.


 * <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Proposal to Establish the UWM Captioning Accessible Media Center **

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 9pt; text-indent: -9pt;">In the ADAAC subcommittee’s discussion of a UWM policy requiring all media to be captioned, two general barriers requirements were identified as necessary for the successful to the implementation of such a policy were identified.

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">a) //<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Lack for c Centralized funding: //<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The cost of adding captioning to a piece of media is between $80 to $200 per media hour. Without a centralized funding source to fund this service, Instructors and units want ing to provide this service , but most simply <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> just do not have the funding to do so. Centralized funding would remove "cost" as a barrier.   <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">b) //<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Lack of a c Centralized campus source of education //<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">: Instructors and campus units have no need a centralized source of information and assistance to help them navigate the process of adding captions to newly developed or existing media. <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;">c) Centralized tool for captioning, video file management, and web distribution: Instructors, students, and staff need a centralized web-based tool which is integrated with D2L and captioning service providers. This tool allows for the distribution of captioned video through D2L and other websites, it also allows captioned video files to be shared across units and departments.

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">A UWM Captioning Center would address the barriers to the implementation of a campus captioning policy. This office would be responsible for providing campus education on the importance of universally designed media, the campus captioning policy, and the procedure for getting captioning services through this centralized office.

__<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">UWM Central Captioning Center __ <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.75in;">A UWM captioning center would be an extension of the captioning services that SAC already provides for registered SAC students. The office would provide services for SAC students as well as general campus needs. The captioning services would be provided using existing hardware and software currently housed in SAC as well using the out-sourced captioning services that are contracted with the UW-System. Budget for the centralized captioning office would include:

· 1.5 FTE’s to staff office and educate campus ($85,000) · (2) 25 hours/week student worker ($4000), · Upgrade/expansion of current SAC equipment ($6,000) · Funds to outsource 300-600 media hours of captioning ($25,000<span style="background-color: #fab7f8; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-$50,000) · Fund for a tool which integrates with captioning service providers, distributes captioned web-based video, and manages captioned video assets. ($20,000)  · Supplies/Misc ($5,000)

Subtotal: $145,000-$170,000

Some of this budget (approximately $25,000) is an expense that is currently incurred by SAC in the provision of captioning for SAC-enrolled students. This service would be done by centralized office instead of SAC office. thus reducing the overall budget requested. **Total budget requested:** **$100,000. ???**

**__<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Additional collaborations: __** <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in;">A centrally located UWM Post-Production Captioning Center could be a collaborative effort of a variety of units on the UWM campus. · <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">SAC would be instrumental in the development of a centralized captioning office because of SAC's experience in providing captioned media for students registered with its programs and SAC’s current ownership of captioning hardware and software. · <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The IMT’s Student Technology Services (STS) could assist in providing the technology expertise and staffing needed to keep the project growing. · <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">IMT Video Production is one UWM unit that has long recognized the need for post-production captioning on campus and has expressed support for the D/HH program’s development of this needed technology. · <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The UWM Library could assist in the identification of frequently-used media that is not currently captioned. · <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Learning Technology Center works with faculty and teaching staff regarding their educational technology needs. They work with instructors to develop pedagogically sound strategies for media use in traditional, blended, and fully-online courses, including the need for captioning. <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0.25in;">The R2D2 Center can assist in providing education in universal design and accessibility expertise to help develop the captioning program from one that serves solely students with disabilities to a program that meets the needs of all students, including students with disabilities.