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Compliance

UMass Boston Conference Covers Collaboration, Assistive Technologies in Higher Education

The University Conference on Teaching, Learning & Technology talks about how technology can increase classroom collaboration and ADA compliance.

May 21, 2015 Jessica Kennedy Leave a Comment

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An introduction to Jeff Coburn’s lecture on Section 508 and WCAG 2.0.

Session attendees talk about Jeff Coburn’s lecture, and get ready for Marylin Morgan’s talk on collaborative technologies for her class.

“You have to use computers today when using archives materials,” Marilyn Morgan said during her lecture. “My students designed a website [for their projects], which some of them have never done before…I wanted students to learn how to digitize.”

Marilyn Morgan, Director of the History and Archives Track at UMass Boston.

Marilyn Morgan had some help with her lecture on collaborative technologies by her colleague, Marta Crilly, an archivist for the Boston City Archives.

Some of Marilyn Morgan’s students talked about Evernote during her lecture. The students said Evernote was challenging to use at first, but then became their go-to for communicating with classmates and Morgan.

UMass Boston held its annual Conference on Teaching, Learning & Technology this past Monday.

The conference featured day-long activities that addressed teaching and technology issues present in today’s higher education curricula.

The conference featured multiple workshops that presented solutions to some of those issues, including how colleges can better integrate ADA compliant technologies on campus, and how to increase classroom collaboration with technology.

Jeff Coburn, Senior Web Services Manager at UMass Boston led a session called “A Presentation on the 508 Refresh that Never Was,” which detailed Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act and how its progress has been slacking since 2006.

Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act details standards that institutions must follow to make their website accessible to everyone, especially those with disabilities.

Coburn said that even though the committees behind the 508 are behind on their promised progress, he has seen a draft of it, and the public can too.

He also said that colleges should not slack on the accessibility to their ADA compliant technologies either.

“There are people that you know that have disabilities,” Coburn said. “Your duty is to include those people in your work.”

Coburn also covered the most common disabilities seen in higher education, and which technologies colleges can make accessible to students.

He said that mobile solutions are gaining popularity in students with disabilities.

“Technologies like VoiceOver on Mobile is interactive and can be used on mobile devices,” Coburn said. “Technologies like this are built into devices. Computer and laptop industries screwed up years ago when this started, during years where there was no good, adapted technology. Now that we have some awareness, you see a lot of cool stuff on mobile.”

Coburn also detailed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0), and the role it plays with Section 508 to make web content more accessible to students with disabilities.

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Jessica Kennedy
Jessica Kennedy

Jessica Kennedy is an editor at TechDecisions Media, targeting the higher education market. Jessica joined the TechDecisions team in 2014 and covers technologies that improve teaching and learning.

Tagged With: Collaboration, Higher Ed, Legal, Regulations

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