February 28, 2020 Meeting

Agenda


Room S-11
February 28, 2020
9:10 -10:00

 

Attention: All Meetings Will Be Audio Recorded

 

Agenda

 Welcome

  1. Approval of minutes (Amar)
  • Siteimprove Software update (Jason)
  1. SensusAccess software (Amar)
  2. Distance Education Accessibility Plan (Amar)
  3. Guided Pathways (Amar)
  • Meeting Adjourned

Date of next meeting: March 27, 2020

Minutes


Accessibility (508) Oversight Committee

 Room S-11

February 28, 2020

9:10 -10:00

 

 

MINUTES

 

Attendees: Jason Zsiba, Terri Smith, Nicole Avina, Vicky Jacobi, Adam Bledsoe, and Amar Abbott

 

       I.            Introductions

All the attendees listed above introduced themselves to the committee formally.

    II.            Approval of minutes

Everyone read the minutes, and Adam Bledsoe stated, if everyone approves and minutes, we can approve the minutes by unanimous consent.   The chair made a motion to move the minutes to get unanimous consent, and everyone agreed..

  • Siteimprove Software update

Jason gave an overview of Siteimprove software and how well it’s monitoring the website. Jason stated, there is a lot of errors that he’s managing to fix and the software’s tracking them. Jason also noted that the license needed to be renewed for another year. Amar stated that he believed Severo had enough money in his technology grant that he would probably renew the software Subscription. Amar also asked the committee if they felt the software was worth renewing, and Terri stated yes, along with the rest of the committee.

  IV.            SensusAccess software

Amar gave an overview of SensusAccess software that explained how it worked with the website and how it integrates into Canvas the LTI (Learning Technology Integration). Amar also stated that Jason and Nicole would have the software up and running in the following week.

 

 

     V.            Distance Education Accessibility Plan  

Adam explained he modified the Distance Education plan to fit Taft College’s needs for online learning. Adam stated that the Distance Education committee collaborates with the AOC to help identify what software and tools are out there to help the faculty be compliant with the accessibility laws.

Vicki had some concerns to make sure that the DE accessibility plan is aligned with our BPs and APs, and Adam assured Vicki that they were and also stated that he would reference it in an accessibility plan.

After the 508 committee recommended tools for faculty members, the next step of the plan would be that the Distance Education department to provide professional development training for the faculty to be of use the accessibility tools efficiently. The final step would be having a faculty implement the accessibility tools into their courses.

Adam went on to discuss the plan further and stated there are three options for faculty to choose from to make sure that their course are accessible. The first option would be if you go through the CVC-OEI process and have your course badged as being a high-quality course that is going to ensure accessibility because that’s one of the requirements in order to receive that badge. The second option would be we have faculty do their self-evaluation, and faculty would be sign off on their course assuring that all accessibility requirements were met. The third option would be to give adjuncts or tenured faculty an existing course that would be accessible that have been checked.  Faculty could elect for option three and say I have received a course shell that’s already been checked for accessibility.

For the record, Amar stated that he didn’t like option two, and there is an ongoing debate in the Distance Education committee about how to implement an accessibility plan.

Vicki suggested that maybe we should have a master spreadsheet that would keep track of the professors who have been trained and courses that have already been checked for accessibility.

  VI.            Guided Pathways

Amar stated that guided pathways group is a small group that’s will get disbanded in a few years when the funding is gone. The guided pathways group is trying to ensure that the guided pathways framework is institutionalized through the governance Council and have a top-down structure instead of a workgroup, and that is in charge of the implementation.

Amar stated the 508 committee is an operational group under the guidance of the president. Hence, the charter has to be revamped aligned with the status of the committee. Finally, Amar stated that he would talk to the president about the committee to make sure that she still wanted the committee and does the committee fit in the structure of the college. Nicole and Adam stated that they believe that the committee had value and should be kept in its current capacity, and Jason agreed with their assessment.