Teleconference Details

1. Review any updates to the wiki
2. Teams present any updates to Bb accessibility course
1. Kevin Price and Dean Brunsnighan – Accessibility Unit
2. Allen Maynard and Lisa Fiedor – Learning Styles Unit
3. Hadi Rangin and Jane Friedrich – Universal Design Unit
3. Review of changes to Bb accessibility course so far - Beth Stinson

Next Meeting

• Date: Tuesday May 20, 2008
• Time: 2:00 PM EDT; 1:00 PM CDT; 12:00 PM MDT; 11:00 AM PDT
• Phone: 217-265-6999

Action items

• Everyone on the BB-DOC Subcommittee needs to send credentials to add to the Blackboard Accessibility Course credits
• Cheryl Todd will send updated information for the Blackboard course regarding specific Assistive Technologies
• Cheryl Todd is completing a WYNN Pilot project and will send everyone information concerning her project.
• Beth Stinson will continue to update the course based on feedback for a release by Blackboard World in July
• Beth will be removing references to Wikipedia on the resources list.
• Once the course is finished everyone will need to advocate to put the accessibility course on their local blackboard portal.
• The committee will look to add “help” information for users with disabilities and possible case studies (point persons?)
• Need a BB-Doc representative at every General BB session.

Participants

• Lisa Fiedor, NC State, Chair
• Kevin Price, UIC, Co-Chair
• Hadi Rangin, UIUC
• Dean Brunsnighan, Purdue
• Beth Stinson, Blackboard
• Cheryl Todd, Meredith College
• Cindy Poore-Paraseu, Bristol Community College

Discussion

Review updates to the wiki

Beth has incorporated a lot of changes into the course including information about international accessibility. Japan/Asia has very little information about their accessibility available. Beth created a universal design page for course developers and has made modifications of the information based on course feedback. Cheryl Todd is going to add more specific assistive technology information from the research she is working on. Beth talked about add case studies that would be beneficial to the course. Beth reviewed how the course will be used where campuses will have a choice to use accessibility modules. Blackboard will promote the use of the module (especially at BB World) but it is up to the university to implement the course.

Questions about Implementation of the Blackboard Course and other accessibility documentation

Hadi asked about a help for people with disabilities incorporated into the course as a standard practice. Beth indicated that it wasn’t her decision on future modules but her goal was to work on the course only. She gave some of the background that she started the course on her own free time because of her interest in accessibility and when blackboard found out they connected her to the Blackboard documentation subgroup to use the course. There is some documentation created already behind the Blackboard and that Beth indicated the course would be added to future versions of the documentation. There was some discussion on whether accessibility modules should be incorporated into Blackboard courses so they are incorporated into design so there is no decision by the campuses on whether it is available. Beth indicated that accessibility modules are a choice by the universities because they can modify the implementation. Hadi believes many universities will not use the course or accessibility help so it would be better to be built in to the design. There has to be some advocacy to make sure the accessibility is included on their campus. Dean believed it should remain a choice because accessibility shouldn’t be specially forced on the Universities different than other modules.