{"id":9771,"date":"2018-09-12T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/?p=9771"},"modified":"2024-07-08T06:05:46","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T10:05:46","slug":"digital-accessibility-team-to-introduce-new-spg-tools-training-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2018\/09\/12\/digital-accessibility-team-to-introduce-new-spg-tools-training-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital accessibility team to introduce new SPG, tools, &#038; training"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_9793\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9793\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9793\" src=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-e1535658588524.jpg\" alt=\"&quot; &quot;\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-9793\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"http:\/\/chittagongit.com\/icon\/web-accessibility-icon-17.html\">(Free Icons Library)<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Accessibility is a priority at the University of Michigan and in Information and Technology Services (ITS).<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Becoming more accessible as an institution will mean a fundamental shift in approach to how we plan, design, develop, create, and instruct. This shift in approach will be widely beneficial to every facet of campus, as it will increase equitable access among faculty, staff, and students. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Accessibility is defined as providing an equitable means for all people to engage with the world regardless of (dis)ability. However, in order to make accessibility a campuswide effort, the university has further shown its commitment with the anticipated rollout, in December 2018, of a Standard Practice Guide (SPG) on Accessibility. The SPG is meant to make clear our commitment to accessibility, and spell out the implications of what it means to be \u2018accessible\u2019 in the context of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.section508.gov\/manage\/laws-and-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">legal requirements<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/webaccess.hr.umich.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">university expectations <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for equal access. A unified approach to accessibility is the only way to make accessibility scalable among the vastness of our U-M community.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1>Meet the Digital Accessibility team<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to the SPG, guidance documents are being constructed by our Digital Accessibility team:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jane Berliss-Vincent, ITS assistive technology manager<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gonzalo Silverio, ITS digital accessibility analyst<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Darrell Williams, ITS digital accessibility analyst<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ITS committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phil Deaton, the new digital information accessibility coordinator in the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ITS is charged primarily with ITS-produced technology and training, DEI addresses accessibility, among other things, on a unit-by-unit basis, and OIE coordinates accessibility efforts for the university at large.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1>An emphasis on training<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through coordination with the DEI initiative on campus, OIE, and ITS we are looking to reach every unit and campus to bolster and support their current approaches to accessibility.&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In-person courses on digital and web accessibility ranging from introductory (101) courses to accessibility for developers and designers will be offered to ITS staff. These courses are being designed to provide code and design-level solutions to common problems, as well as to educate on the human implications of producing inaccessible technology.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By working with the digital information accessibility coordinator, we hope to transform these courses for faculty to use in their instructional materials as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1>New tools to scan for accessibility<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Toward these efforts, ITS has acquired WorldSpace Comply from Deque Systems, an accessibility scanning application that scales to accommodate large companies or universities. We hope this tool will be instrumental in tackling high-incidence accessibility issues that are common throughout large universities, like color-contrast, heading structure, and alternative-text. ITS is currently configuring the software and will make it available to certain representatives on campus when appropriate. Also, a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UDoit <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pilot is underway (UDoit stands for Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool), which is aimed at increasing the accessibility of Learning Management Systems, and instructional materials.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1>Cross-campus collaboration<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At UM-Dearborn, UM-Flint, and Michigan Medicine, similar efforts are being made at every level to become more accessible. At the Dearborn campus, communications and ITS departments are injecting accessibility into workflows through content management systems, captioning policies, and accessibility review software. Additionally, accessibility use cases have gone a long way to help understand the needs of end users. We see similar efforts at both UM-Flint and Michigan Medicine. Increased coordination across U-M campuses will be instrumental in understanding the full scope and needs of our students, faculty, and staff in regard to accessibility. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our shared goal is to prioritize accessibility in a way that is relevant to the individual and to educate our staff, so we all embrace a culture of inclusivity. We still have a ways to go, but our commitment is present and strong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you would like to get involved with accessibility efforts, please speak with the DEI committee leaders within your unit, or email <a href=\"mailto:gsilver@umich.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gonzalo Silverio<\/a>, <a href=\"mailto:willidar@umich.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darrell Williams<\/a>, or <a href=\"mailto:pdeaton@umich.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Phil Deaton<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"omsc-box omsc-with-title omsc-with-bg-color omsc-with-icon omsc-icon-style-border omsc-icon-shape-circle\" style=\"border-color:#000000;background-color:#eff0f1;text-align:center\"><div class=\"omsc-box-icon-wrapper\"><div class=\"omsc-box-icon\" style=\"border-color:#eff0f1;color:#eff0f1;border-color:#000000;color:#000000;\"><i class=\"fa fa-university\"><\/i><\/div><\/div><div class=\"omsc-box-inner\"><div class=\"omsc-box-title\">DEI Summit Week is Oct. 8\u20131<\/div><br \/>\nU-M celebrates diversity, equity, and inclusion year-round and during an annual event in October. Learn about unit-sponsored and central events happening at <a href=\"http:\/\/diversity.umich.edu\/summit-events\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/diversity.umich.edu\/summit-events&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1536859572546000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEjhSx_3H5UUNwJV3zLXS0QglUNsg\">diversity.umich.edu\/summit-<wbr>events<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/diversity.umich.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9957\" src=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/DEI-signature-vertical-128x140.png\" alt=\"University of Michigan Diversity, Equity, &amp; Inclusion\" width=\"100\" height=\"109\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/DEI-signature-vertical-128x140.png 128w, https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/DEI-signature-vertical-183x200.png 183w, https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/DEI-signature-vertical.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accessibility is a priority at the University of Michigan and in Information and Technology Services (ITS). Becoming more accessible as an institution will mean a fundamental shift in approach to how we plan, design, develop, create, and instruct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":9793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_umich_oidc_access":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"1535631120","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[95,188,127],"class_list":["post-9771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-accessibility","tag-people","tag-software"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-e1535658588524.jpg",600,375,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-200x125.jpg",200,125,true],"medium":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-300x188.jpg",300,188,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-768x480.jpg",665,416,true],"large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-700x438.jpg",600,375,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-e1535658588524.jpg",600,375,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-e1535658588524.jpg",600,375,false],"excerpt-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"themonic-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-60x42.jpg",60,42,true],"ioslider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-658x300.jpg",658,300,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-665x416.jpg",665,416,true],"400x250-crop":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/web-accessibility-icon-17-e1535658588524.jpg",400,250,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Darrell Williams, ITS EAS","author_link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/author\/willidar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Accessibility is a priority at the University of Michigan and in Information and Technology Services (ITS). Becoming more accessible as an institution will mean a fundamental shift in approach to how we plan, design, develop, create, and instruct.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9771"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13168,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9771\/revisions\/13168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}