Distance Education and Individuals with Disabilities

Legal Requirements Educational institutions are governed by a variety of state and federal laws that impose the requirement that we provide "equal and equitable access" to our programs and services (For a listing of these laws and requirements). A series of recent legal rulings have further defined the "equal and equitable" requirement to mean that we must provide the exact same level of access to individuals with disabilities as we do to the nondisabled. The very nature of Distance Education makes this burden complex and often difficult to comply with, but this complexity does not relieve us of our obligations under the law. If an individual with a disability chooses to participate in a school's distance offerings we must provide, as much as possible, the same level and type of services that we would provide a student in one of our campus based offerings. In asynchronous offerings such as web based courses the accessibility needs to be built into the product being offered, or an alternative must be offered that is comparable in content and access options (for a more detailed explanation of these factors see the Web Access Guidelines). Specific Programmatic Obligations Any student with a disability who participates in the Distance Education programs of a college or university must be guaranteed equal and equitable access to the program. If the location delivery system, or instructional methodology limit student access, participation, or ability to benefit, the student has a right to reasonable alterations in those aspects of the course (or program) to accommodate their disability, as long as it does not change the nature of the course. Each request for accommodation is judged on a case-by-case basis, and the presence of a disability does not always justify the need for an accommodation. Publication: Any publication which describes services, programs, or activities must include a statement regarding availability in accessible formats. The opportunity to request accommodations based on an individual disability must be clearly specified in all registration/information materials. Site Accessibility: All program delivery sites must be wheelchair accessible. This accessibility must extend into the facility in which the participant will receive the program. If required to use a computer workstation there must be wheelchair accessible workstations available. For individuals with hearing impairments assistance listening devices must be available or the room must be wired with a hearing assistance system. For individuals with visual impairments alternative access to video presentation must be available. Program Access: Web pages All web pages must be constructed in an accessible format. Web pages need to be designed to be accessible across multiple platforms (speech output, screen enlargers etc.). If media is in embedded into pages an accessible alternative must be provided in the form of descriptive text or captioning. (See the Web Access Guidelines) Video workbooks Video workbooks must be made accessible upon request. Captioning, either post production or real time is required and the method selected is dependent on the time between taping and delivery of the course. In the instance of a teleconference real time captioning is the preferred method of accommodation for the hearing impaired. Interactive courses Interactive video courses must take into consideration the possibility of a number of accommodations which may effect the structure and logistics of the course, such as placement of overheads, interpreters, real time captioning of the presentation, etc. Alternative format versions of all class materials must be made available. Required Academic Accommodations: Taped or electronic versions of the course texts must be available upon request. This may require a significant amount of lead time if the text is not available from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic and will need to be recorded. …