Web Accessibility Plan

Institutional Implementation/Support

Fort Hays State University is committed to providing accessibility for our institutional, academic, and business services.  FHSU strives to employ principles of Universal Design and the use of the World Wide Web Consortium’s WCAG 2.0 standards in the design, development, implementation, and enhancement of its web-based information and services.The FHSU Web Accessibility Plan guides our institution towards ensuring the goals of Web Accessibility (WCAG 2.0) are met, and ongoing assessments and improvements of services are achieved. Under the guidance of leadership, the institution will collaborate interdepartmentally to adhere to best practices for training personnel, assessing web-based information and services, and creating accessible content.

The scope of the Instructional Services/eLearning subcommittee is to focus on all platforms and content through which FHSU delivers instruction to students.  The following outlines a preliminary version of FHSU’s Instructional Services action plan.

Instructional Services/eLearning Action Plan

Planning Phase: May 1, 2018 – May 1, 2019:

  • Request faculty member participation from each division to be involved in planning.
  • Committee to include an Instructional Designer with Accessibility and Universal Design training.
  • Committee to include a Faculty Development Coordinator to determine areas of greatest need for training.
  • Scope the current status of legacy instructional materials/multimedia/eBook availability.
  • Determine date by which all new instructional materials are to be designed with UD principles.
  • Review resource/software needs (eg: VidGrid) to accomplish goals in first year of plan.
  • LMS Committee Review to determine feasibility of Blackboard Ally implementation

(Year 1) To be completed by May 1, 2020:

  • Implement Blackboard Ally to benchmark currently state of accessibility of Blackboard course content.
  • Pilot Blackboard Ally in Fall 2019 with select faculty to determine scope of campuswide roll out.
  • Implement communication plan for January roll out of Ally.
  • Identify and prioritize remediation of course content (ie; captioning, scanned documents, alt tags for images)
  • Implement Ally campus-wide in January 2020
  • With Ally in place initiate faculty review and evaluation of legacy course documents.
  • Caption/Transcribe at least 50% of multimedia in all courses.
  • Promote VidGrid captioning capabilities with a goal to Caption/Transcribe at least 50% of new, faculty-created video on VidGrid media server.
  • Provide workshops/webinars each semester on designing accessible instructional materials.
  • Conduct personalized trainings as needed on designing instructional materials for accessibility.
  • Review resource needs to accomplish goals in second year of plan.
  • University leadership designates individual(s) with authority to ensure accountability and compliance.
  • Identify and create templates for cross-divisional accessible documents (syllabi, etc.).
  • Design and create self-paced Curatr course for faculty on Universal Design and accessibility.
  • Create dedicated accessibility webpage on FHSU.edu website.

(Year 2) To be completed by May 1, 2021:

  • Design and create self-paced BB courses for faculty on Universal Design and accessibility.
  • Ensure compliance with at least half of remaining legacy course documents.
  • Caption/Transcribe up to 75% of multimedia in all courses.
  • Caption/Transcribe up to 75% of current multimedia on VidGrid streaming media server.
  • Review resource needs to accomplish goals in third year of plan.

(Year 3) To be completed by May 1, 2022:

  • Ensure compliance with remainder of legacy course documents, or remove.
  • Caption/Transcribe remainder of current multimedia on VidGrid streaming media server.
  • All instructional materials in Blackboard* must meet accessibility standards, or have a written request for an exception to this procedure submitted and approved by the President/Provost.
  • Review resource needs to ensure ongoing compliance with web accessibility goals.

Ongoing:

  • Review and assess the Blackboard* learning management system platform (product accessibility).
  • Review and assess legacy course document accessibility.
  • Review and assess multimedia (audio and video) accessibility on BB/other third party vendors.