Document Type
Presentation
Abstract
A common misconception is that open educational resources (OER) are accessible for all students, in part, perhaps, because of the belief that digital content (as is typically the case with OER) is accessible by nature. As the situation at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, clearly demonstrated, however, this is not the case. UC Berkeley removed free online content from its website rather than adapt it to be accessible to those with disabilities following a U.S. Department of Justice investigation indicating online learning materials (i.e., YouTube videos, MOOCs, and iTunes U courses) were "not accessible to individuals with hearing, vision or manual disabilities."Financial constraints were noted as the reason for UC Berkeley's removal or restriction of access to over 20,000 audio and visual files, which went into effect on March 15, 2017. These financial constraints are the unfortunate reality for many disability services offices that typically carry the responsibility of remediating course content and providing accommodations to students with registered disabilities at colleges and universities across the United States. It is significantly more expensive to provide services such as transcripts and captioning after an educational material is produced, compared to ensuring accessibility during production. Historically, some may argue, commercial publishers have adopted a cavalier attitude toward the provision of accessible educational content, noting that individual institutions are responsible for these services. Copyright confounds the issue, limiting reuse or wide sharing of remediated commercial content, resulting in inefficiency, duplication of effort, and content restrictions that could otherwise benefit students without a registered disability. Copyright is not a barrier for OER, due to open licensing, which has the potential to reduce the strain on human and financial resources available within disability services offices. OER, when designed to be accessible from the start, have the potential to usher in radical transformation in how these offices operate and the level of service they can provide to students with registered disabilities. This presentation will investigate the extent to which adoption of OER impacts expenditures of offices for students with disabilities in higher education. We'll discuss how these offices are staffed and funded, what activities they typically support and how this impacts resource allocations for the university, and what, if any, impact OER adoption has had on disability services offices on campuses with robust OER programs.
Publication Date
10-10-2018
Language
English
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Reed, Michelle and Mitchell, Joshua, "Access for Whom? OER and Disability Services" (2018). Librarian & UTA Libraries Staff Publications. 125.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/utalibraries_publications/125