Universal Accessibility Interest Group

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last person joined: 5 days ago 

Charge: Offers librarians, support staff, students, and other advocates networking and collaboration opportunities, information sharing and programming to promote accessibility in academic libraries, including web accessibility, assistive technology, reference and instruction for users with disabilities and captioning processes.
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  • 1.  Office for Civil Rights talk at Educause meeting today

    Posted Sep 07, 2022 02:52 PM
    Edited by Adina Mulliken Sep 07, 2022 05:19 PM
    Hi all,
    I got to listen to an Educause Zoom meeting today where two OCR representatives presented about what their office is doing now regarding digital accessibility.   I wanted to share one thing they said that's relevant to us, which was that when they do digital accessibility investigations, they're including library databases now, which they hadn't done [so much?] in the past.  I don't know exactly when in "the past," but the talk seemed to be an update to a talk they had done for Educause about a year ago.   I don't know if that news will help anyone at the moment, but maybe it is useful to know about or hope for.

    The OCR representatives explained, as I've heard them do before, that they provide technical assistance to schools about digital accessibility and that they will help communicate with vendors for the school, if the school is having difficulty with the vendor regarding accessibility.

    Sorry, the talk  wasn't recorded. (I've noticed OCR presenters usually request not to be recorded.)

    If anyone wants info about joining the Educause IT Accessibility listserv, which you don't have to be a member to join, here's info IT Accessibility Community Group .  They announce their monthly meetings on there.
    Adina

    Adina Mulliken

    Associate Professor, Librarian Silberman Social Work and Urban Public Health Library

    Hunter College, City University of New York

    2180 3rd Ave. New York, NY

    Phone 212-396-7665

    Pronouns she/her



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    Adina Mulliken
    Social Work Subject Specialist & Assistant Professor
    Hunter College, CUNY
    New York, NY
    She/Her/Hers
    am2621@hunter.cuny.edu
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  • 2.  RE: Office for Civil Rights talk at Educause meeting today

    Posted Sep 08, 2022 07:34 AM
    I can highly suggest joining, too! 

    One reason why they may be looking at library databases is because of the Payan v LACCD decision.  Part of it included that library databases and websites should be accessible and that the LACCD libraries must remedy barriers in its library databases. This caselaw may mean that libraries can be held responsible for subscribing to inaccessible databases, or it may mean that libraries need to present equally effective access plans for inaccessible databases (I'm not a lawyer and I'm not qualified to interpret the law). As I recall, the lawyers for LACCD were instructed not to continue appealing the ruling this year, so it seems to still stand. 

    Thanks,
    D.

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    Debralee Krahmer
    Colgate University
    No Pronouns
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    Original Message