Focus on Tasks and Not Technology
I recently worked on an issue of making a touch screen accessible for a screen-reader user. The user is faculty and the environment is a new classroom in which all the technology is driven from a touch screen. In the early conversations I was concerned that there was too much focus on the touch screen itself and not enough on the tasks involved. The tasks were pretty routine; things like, play a DVD, run a PowerPoint, play an audio file etc. These sorts of tasks are easily done from a laptop, so I didn’t want to put too much time into retrofitting some commercial interface.
The take away here is that if you encounter a request for an accommodation for which there is no commonly applied adaptation, then stay focused on the tasks involved and not necessarily on the offending technology. As I said in one of the early meetings on this request, “We didn’t reinvent wheelchairs to climb stairs, we provided ramps.” The goal of an accommodation is to get people
doing the same things as their peers, but they may not accomplish it in exactly the same way.
This story actually has a twist ending. This particular touch-screen product has a screen-builder component. IT support can make custom screens. I looked at it very briefly and it does hold out promise that it may make for keyboard accessible touch screens. I will look into this in the weeks to come and report back here. If the touch screen cannot be easily adapted, then I go back to the idea of running the various playback devices from the faculty member’s laptop.
Accommodation vs. Preference
This is a very slippery slope but it must be considered when evaluating accommodation requests. Sometimes a request or an aspect of a request may actually be more of a convenience for the student rather than an accommodation. Several years ago I was involved in deploying AT into general student computing labs. These labs were popular and there was usually a wait to get on a computer. A student with a disability requested an accommodation that would eliminate his having to wait in line. When DS evaluated the request, documentation and the student’s disability they did not see this as an accommodation and did not provide it.
DS offices need an articulated and published definition of an accommodation that they can refer to in instances like this. This is not about strict definitions or splitting-hairs, but it is about understanding the purpose of an accommodation and providing adjustments or adaptations that meet that purpose.
Legacy Accommodations and Expanding Technological Options
When you deployed your campus-wide AT it was built on some sort of prototypical computer system. Whether intentional or not that was the case. And this prototype included one, possibly two, internet browsers. These days there are up to four nearly mainstream options for internet browsers and each of them may interact differently with your AT.
If an AT user tries a new browser, they may very well have some trouble with its interaction with the screen reader. And then they may ask your AT staff for help. This is a bit of a grey area. It is mostly dependent on your staffing resources. I truly know of schools where one person is handling every aspect of DS management and deployment. In that case, the student may need to stay with the supported browser. If, on the other hand, you have AT staff then it may be appropriate for them to look into the issue.
DS should know and post what AT they support and what specific computer applications they support. Then DS is responsible for maintaining the functionality of those combinations on campus computers. And this list needs routine examination to consider either new software products or new versions of older supported software.
An aside to this topic is whether or not you want to work on student computers. My school has decided that the AT Center does not work on student computers. We simply do not have the skills to go into any brand of laptop or desktop and start making changes.
Carefully Consider Your Response
Don’t be hasty in offering your response to a request for a new accommodation. Your response should be thoughtful, clear and unambiguous. If it requires information gathering and testing, then you communicate this to the student. This is particularly true if you are trying something new. If you cannot guarantee meeting academic deadlines like the start of classes or finals, then don’t.
Steps in Evaluating a Request
- determine that it is within your institutional definition of an accommodation
- focus on tasks rather than “fixing” technology
- if this is new technology you may ask the student to stay with your supported technology, but consider adding the application on your next AT rollout
- provide a clear response including any unknowns that may effect the outcome
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