ATI Newsletter - Fall 2023

December 5, 2023

A Message from our Accessibility Technology Initiative (ATI) Steering Committee Sponsors

It has been ten years since the Chancellor’s Office issued the original Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI) Policy on January 29, 2013. With the continuous efforts by our campus ATI Steering Committee, its subcommittees, and members of CSULB community, our campus has made substantial progress in all three major aspects of our ATI implementation and enforcement – instructional materials, Web services, and procurement services. In this issue of our ATI Newsletter, we are sharing with you the latest CSU-wide ATI organizational and procedural changes, the status of our campus annual ATI reports, the new ATI technology tools integrated with our learning management system (Canvas), and our accessible technology advice services. We are also drawing your attention to the updated Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards (WCAG 2.2). Additionally, we are making you aware of a new technology purchase compliance review process developed jointly by the Procurement Services and the Division of IT to help the campus purchase ATI-compliant technology equipment and services. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the campus community for making our campus and our educational programs accessible to people with disabilities and for keeping our campus compliant with ATI standards and requirements.

Beth Lessen, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs
Accessible Technology Initiative Sponsor & Co-Chair

Min Yao, Ph.D.
Vice President & Chief Information Officer
Accessible Technology Initiative Sponsor & Co-Chair

The Future of ATI in the CSU – Chancellor’s Office Report

The Chancellor’s Office engaged a consulting firm, Phil Hill & Associates, to conduct an assessment of the future of ATI in the CSU. Multiple stakeholders across the CSU campuses were interviewed between April 2023 and August 2023 to share their perspectives. Stakeholders interviewed included ATI executive leaders, ATI leaders in the core focus areas (web, procurement and instructional materials), and staff who devote time to ATI activities. Several interview participants have performed ATI-related work since the initiative began in 2006. These interviews also included former Cal State ATI leaders who continue accessibility-related work with other organizations.

Based on the findings from data collected across the California State University system, the report distilled a number of recommendations for the CSU Chancellor’s Office to resume responsibility for providing leadership, support, guidance and coordination related to ATI work being done at each campus and for the system. The following themes were identified as part of the report:

  • Reaffirm Commitment to ATI
  • Reset ATI Goals
  • Reestablish a Baseline
  • Define ATI Roles and Responsibilities
  • Make Changes to ATI Organizational Structure and Workflows

The time frames for recommendations were identified as Immediate (1-2 months), Short-term (3-6 months) or Long-term (over 6 months).

The report is still being finalized and campuses expect to hear more about next steps related to it in the coming months.

Text-To-Speech Software Available to all CSULB Students, Faculty, and Staff

ReadSpeaker WebReader and DocReader is a Text-To-Speech (TTS) tool with an easy-to-listen to voice available to use on your LMS Canvas. With customizable reading speed and reader-supported options, selected texts or PDF documents can be read aloud to you at home or work on your computer, laptop, and tablet, or on-the-go with your mobile device.

For more information on ReadSpeaker WebReader and DocReader, please feel free to reach out to Academic Technology Services (ATS) at canvas@csulb.edu. For more information on ReadSpeaker TextAid, which is available to students registered with the Bob Murphy Access Center (BMAC), please feel free to reach out to bmac@csulb.edu.

Accessibility Office Hours Offered to all CSULB Employees

Would you like help making your web content or document accessible? Do you have accessibility questions? Mark Mintz, the campus Web & Digital Accessibility Coordinator, offers open office hours. Jump in any time during these office hours for help with your accessibility questions.

  • First three Thursdays of the month. 3-4 p.m.
  • Every fourth Wednesday of the month. 10-11 a.m.

Join the Accessibility Office Outreach on Teams to access the meeting links.
*If these times don’t work with your schedule, please reach out to Mark at ATI-Compliance@csulb.edu to schedule a meeting.

WCAG 2.2 Guidelines Published Document Accessibility Training

On October 5, 2023, the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG) published (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 as a W3C Recommendation. This sets a new snapshot of success criteria to allow authors to make their web content as accessible as possible to the widest audience.

WCAG 2.2 supersedes WCAG 2.1 which has been the recommendation since 2017. WCAG 2.2 includes 9 total new criteria and removes one due to technology advancements making it unnecessary. The updated guideline includes simplified language explanations to make it easier to understand how and why to implement each criterion. The new features fill gaps left by previous success criteria, and add additional importance to consistency and simplification, which supports language learners, children, elderly, and some people with neurological and developmental issues. While CSULB is not required to meet WCAG 2.2 at this time, much of the criteria was already considered during our Drupal web migration in 2022, and we expect to fully conform to WCAG 2.2 in 2024.

A New Automated Web Scanning Tool Now in Use at CSULB

AppGate, the company that produces Compliance Sheriff (CS), the product CSULB had been using for years for automated web accessibility scans, announced that CS would no longer be supported after December 31, 2021.  In response to this announcement, CSULB participated in a Request for Proposal (RFP), put together by the Chancellor’s Office (CO), to look for an application to replace CS. This RFP process began in May 2021 with a final decision made in October 2022. The winner of this RFP was Level Access AMP. The DoIT team worked closely with the Level Access team and the CO to implement AMP by December 2022. The DoIT team performed the first quarterly web accessibility scans using the new product in January 2023.  Level Access reports are much easier to use and provide flexibility to update reports more frequently. It also closes some review gaps such as PDF and other downloadable filetype checking. This tool includes self-paced accessibility training by one of the most recognized names in the accessibility field.

Procurement to Launch New IT Compliance Review Process

Procurement Services and the Division of Information Technology have made changes to the ICT purchasing process and form to better guide the campus requests in providing necessary information for a review. This should also help streamline technology reviews for accessibility. See Fall 2023 Procurement Updates.

Earn a Disability Etiquette Certificate

Level Access AMP includes a variety of accessibility training modules available upon demand to any employee. To access this training material, click the Level Access AMP Chiclet in SSO, then click Academy on the left-hand side of the interface. One great training is the Disability Etiquette training. This training answers questions like:

  • “How do I talk about disabilities and people with disabilities?”
  • “What is the difference between a visible and invisible disability?”
  • “How do I schedule meetings where someone may need accommodations?”

This training is about 30 minutes and provides a certificate of completion.

Did You Know…

A360 Enterprises, LLC, (Allyant) has issued an accessibility Letter of Conformance (PDF) for CSULB’s desktop, mobile website and homepage.

More information can be seen at CSULB’s Accessibility Statement page.