When Colleges Need the Technological Touch for Better ADA Compliance

“Students don’t have time to invest in solutions if they don’t know which ones will help them,” says Aaron Ferguson, Director of the Office of Disability Services at WPI. “They want to know what is it and how do I use it.”

Check your accessibility

Hill says to make sure you campus is aware of its accessibility points, and how to utilize those points to help students. She says accessibility awareness starts from the moment vendors bring a new technology to campus, and extends to periodic audits and additional professional development for staff.

“Training staff is very important, so they know when they create an electronic document, they need to make it accessible, so they know how to make it accessible,” she says. “Those are really important strategies, [alongside] making it a priority from the beginning.”

Anticipate future needs

Luttrell says colleges should keep their eyes on future ADA compliance needs. That way, they can save for a future ADA compliance-supportive investment, or tweak a current solution to support a new ADA compliance requirement.

“One university reached out to me…and asked me [if a doorway could be widened]. I said yes, make it [bigger] so they don’t have that kind of a problem later on if they think it’s going to be an installation that’s going to be permanent and leads to the next thirty years,” he says. “A lot of things change, especially at universities, but it’s little things like that, and verifying when you’re putting in interfaces, do you meet the standards?”

Remember the point

Luttrell says that while support systems and new technologies might be costly, colleges should remember the true importance of abiding by ADA compliance: equality for both disabled and non-disabled students.

“The whole point of ADA is so that people don’t feel restricted anymore by a visual impairment or a wheel chair,” he says. “Especially in higher education, it’s not just about learning – it’s about experience. If you’re not getting that experience, the university is failing that student. One thing that ADA does is that it opens up doors for everyone to enjoy the same amenities, get to class without having anyone help them, to have freedom and independence, which is what we all want.”