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accessibility in XR

Regine Gilbert talks about accessibility in XR

https://skarredghost-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/skarredghost.com/2021/05/19/regine-accessibility-xr/amp/

What do you think is the current status of XR experiences? Are most of them accessible?

As with all technology, XR is evolving. The current status in terms of accessibility is that more folks need to be educated about accessibility in the VR space. In general, most experiences are not accessible, yet.

Oculus For Developers has some documentation for Designing accessible VR. You can find it here:
https://developer.oculus.com/learn/design-accessible-vr/

My current research with VEIL (Virtual Experience Interaction Lab https://www.veilab.org/) involves examining Design Patterns in VR. My future work involves research into inclusive and accessible XR. In addition, I am working on a book that will be related to XR and spatial computing.

How can people support you?

You can check out my book that is available online at this link: https://www.apress.com/gp/book/9781484250150

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more on XR in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=extended+reality

social media accessibility standards

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-08-28-colleges-face-investigations-over-whether-their-use-of-social-media-follows-accessibility-regulations

Nearly 200 colleges face federal civil rights investigations opened in 2019 about whether they are accessible and communicate effectively to people with disabilities.

As a result, colleges are rolling out social media accessibility standards and training communications staff members to take advantage of built-in accessibility tools in platforms including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

For example, last fall, a blind man filed 50 lawsuits against colleges whose websites he said didn’t work with his screen reader. And on August 21, in Payan v. Los Angeles Community College District, the Federal District Court for the Central District of California ruled that Los Angeles Community College failed to provide a blind student with “meaningful access to his course materials” via MyMathLab, software developed by Pearson, in a timely manner.

YouTube and Facebook have options to automatically generate captions on videos posted there, while Twitter users with access to its still-developing Media Studio can upload videos with captions. Users can provide alt-text, or descriptive language describing images, through Facebook, TwitterInstagram and Hootsuite.

California State University at Long Beach, for instance, advises posting main information first and hashtags last to make messages clear for people using screen readers. The University of Minnesota calls for indicating whether hyperlinks point to [AUDIO], [PIC], or [VIDEO]. This summer, leaders at the College of William & Mary held a training workshopfor the institution’s communications staff in response to an Office for Civil Rights investigation.

an online website accessibility center.

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more on SM in education
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=social+m+edia+education

Digital Accessibility ebooks

Digital Accessibility as a Business Practice

https://bit.ly/2PbrhC5 

Professional Web Accessibility Auditing Made Easy

https://bit.ly/2qufLTy/

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more on UDL in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=universal+design

Тechnology Procurement for Accessibility

7 Things You Should Know About Technology Procurement for Accessibility

Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Lori Kressin Kyle Shachmut Christian Vinten-Johansen Sue Cullen

https://library.educause.edu/resources/2018/10/7-things-you-should-know-about-technology-procurement-for-accessibility

ELI Educause : Technology Procurement for Accessibility PDF document

Despite general agreement among institutional leaders that they are obligated to provide accessible technology, efforts at many colleges and universities to fulfil that promise are often ad hoc, incomplete, or not fully implemented. Including accessibility requirements or guidance in institutional policies and practices for how technology is procured is one way for colleges and universities to demonstrate a commitment to ensuring equal access to information, programs, and activities and to comply with applicable legal requirements.

Due to decentralized purchasing and contracting practices, as well as the growing ecosystem of easy-to-deploy learning apps, applications and services are often deployed with little or no oversight from an accessibility perspective.

George Mason University, the university counsel, purchasing office, libraries, and IT services are collaborating to establish purchasing guidelines that ensure all IT purchases are reviewed for accessibility and conform to explicit standards and guidelines. The California State University system has developed system-wide vendor accessibility requirements, as well as an Equally Effective Alternate Access Plan (EEAAP) to address accessibility barriers while the product development team addresses remediation of those barriers (which are outlined in a product Accessibility Roadmap). Penn State University updated its policy for accessibility of electronic and information technology to reflect evolving standards and new best practices. The University of Washington uses a step-by-step checklist, including suggested language for contracts, to help users across campus ensure accessibility compliance in technology acquisitions. The University of Wisconsin–Madison tells stakeholders that they “must consider accessibility early and throughout the process as one of the criteria for [technology] acquisition.” As part of a process of “growing a culture of access,” Wichita State University has developed an in-depth Foundations of Accessibility course for staff and a technology audit rubric, among other tools

Consistent adherence to accessibility policies for technology purchases can be challenging because some technologies might need to be deployed even though they are not fully accessible.

Campus policies allowing decentralized technology purchases can create gray areas where buyers may be uncertain about—or may not even be aware of—their responsibilities to ensure that such purchases comply with institutional accessibility policies.

Changes in pedagogic practice to ensure broader adoption of accessible technology are tangible demonstrations of that enhanced awareness. Broader adoption of the principles of Universal Design for Learning may stimulate more institutions to be intentional about policies that ensure accessible technology purchases.

accessibility into elarning

from the E-Learning 2.0 LinkedIn group:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/138953/138953-6318793101762711552

Free eBook: Incorporate Accessibility into Your eLearning

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more on ebook in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=ebook

more on accessibility in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=accessibility

web accessibility

Web Accessibility

Adobe Connect webinar: https://desire2learn.adobeconnect.com/_a707373752/p1sx4w2gfir/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal

1. Build personal knowledge base in web accessibility for each participant

2. Create Accessible images, diagrams and charts

3. same for audio and video

4. same for HMTL content

5. same for other formats (PDF, Word, PPT)

outside of the box not enough

Destroying the box: Thinking outside of the box is no longer enough

1. The accessibility of online.

2. The importance of the tangible.

3. The priority of integration.

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more on higher ed in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=higher+ed

XR in academic libraries survey

Lischer-Katz, Z., & Clark, J. (2021). Institutional Factors Shaping XR Technology Accessibility Policy & Practice in Academic Libraries. Survey. The EDUCAUSE XR (Extended Reality) Community Group Listserv <XR@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>. https://uarizona.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1Ya9id4uCXoktLv

participate in a survey is being sent out to those responsible for managing and providing XR technologies in academic libraries. This survey is part of a study titled “Institutional Factors Shaping XR Technology Accessibility Policy & Practice in Academic Libraries.” The principal investigator (PI) is Dr. Zack Lischer-Katz, PhD (Assistant Professor, School of Information, University of Arizona) and the co-principal investigator (Co-PI) is Jasmine Clark (Digital Scholarship Librarian, Temple University).

An Institutional Review Board (IRB) responsible for human subjects research at The University of Arizona reviewed this research project and found it to be acceptable, according to applicable state and federal regulations and University policies designed to protect the rights and welfare of participants in research

Please feel free to share this survey widely with colleagues.

Introduction

Over the past five years, many academic libraries have begun systematically integrating innovative technologies, including virtual reality (VR) and other “XR” technologies, into their spaces and services. Even though schools, libraries, and the library profession all stress equitable access to information and technology for all community members, accessibility – understood in terms of the design of spaces, services, and technologies to support users with disabilities – is rarely given sufficient consideration when it comes to the design, implementation, and administration of XR technology programs. Because XR technologies engage the body and multiple senses they show great potential for providing enhanced means for disabled users to access information resources; however, without accessibility policies in place, the embodied aspects of XR technologies can create new barriers (e.g., chairs and other furniture that cannot be adapted, controllers that cannot be adjusted for different degrees of dexterity, etc.)

Purpose of the study

The purpose of this study is to develop new understanding about the current landscape of accessibility policies and practices for XRtechnology programs and to understand the barriers to adoption of XR accessibility policies and practices.

The main research objective is to understand what policies and practices are currently in place in academic libraries and their level of development, the existing beliefs and knowledge of library staff and administrators involved with XR technology programs and spaces, and the institutional factors that shape the adoption of accessibility policies for XR technology programs.

The survey will be open from February 1, 2021 to April 30, 2021. More information regarding confidentiality and consent can be found at the beginning of the survey.

Please access the survey here:

https://uarizona.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1Ya9id4uCXoktLv

 

Thank you in advance for your interest and participation,

Sincerely,
Zack Lischer-Katz, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Information, University of Arizona; email: zlkatz@email.arizona.edu

Jasmine Clark, Digital Scholarship Librarian, Temple University; email: jasmine.l.clark@temple.edu

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more on XR in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=extended+reality

more on XR in libraries in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=extended+reality+libraries

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