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Thank you Kim

Good morning

I've very excited to focus on, can you hear me ok?

It's ok, good. I tend to talk softly

and sometimes it carries a bit, but

not always. And we were talking about

a really good video, that I was telling

Jennie about that I would love to share

someday. It's a video about people who say

oh, I don't need the mic, I talk loudly.

That's a bad idea but it's a great video

because it's true it might make a big

difference in terms of communicating sound

effectively. You have no idea how much of an

impact talking loudly does not do the same

thing. So, that's why you have a mic for me.

So Jennie and I asked to come talk to you all

and I'm very excited to hear your stories

because usually, when I come in front of an

audience, on the job, to persuade you on why

accessibility matters. It sounds like you

already know that (laughter).

So, thank you (laughter).

I have a slide to talk about that so I'm

going to go ahead and go over some of the

basic stuff to make sure that we are all on

the same page but most of you have said

that you know you are here to hear about

accessibility and you want to support

accessibility. So to give you a little more

details about that just so that, not only

do you have that information but you can talk

to other people who you may need to

persuade, on why you do what you do.

It's good to have those tools in your tool

box is useful when you are planning your

role and what you are trying to do. So we

will spend some time on that and then Jennie

is going to talk about getting to and making

content accessible. This is my section of

the slide and my title is Chief Information

Accessibility Officer and I think that's the

best title in the state because you say CIAO.

So, we are part of the Office of

Accessibility. We are housed in Minnesota

IT services or MNIT. We don't have the dock

anymore in those slides, I'm sorry.

And (indiscernible).

Our role is standards that effect the state

of accessibility standards and related

standards, outreach, education, we often get

involved in procurement, making sure the state

buys stuff that is accessible. And so we have

to look at the standards when buying new

content management systems, buying software,

buying new systems, we want to figure out

that what you buy is accessible and how to

build that into the system. We also have

accessibility coordinators, like Kim

introduced herself as an accessibility

coordinator for MDE. We want to have

every agency and division or your organization

if you want, to have at least two

coordinators. Somebody on the IT side and

somebody on what we call the business side,

or the non-IT side and they will partner

with each other. Ok, so we organize

meetings every month and other activities

for the coordinators as well.

So, I'm going to give you a quick quiz

to see where you are at and what your

understanding of accessibility is. Can

anybody give me an answer or have a guess

at the difference between accessibility

and accommodation? We tend to use those

words very often, sometimes interchangeably.

But, they are not interchangeable. So who can

say what the difference is between accessibility

and accommodation? Anybody want to give

a shot at it? Ok. Accessibility is literally

making content controls accessible to people

with different abilities. Accommodation is

changing instruction to meet those needs

as opposed to how it's physically works.

That's interesting, I've never heard that

answer before. That's an interesting answer

because you're talking about making content

instruction accessible, which I know

people in here are coming from. Let me

give you my answer and then we will

see how the two line up, ok. Because that's

a very interesting way of putting it. For me,

accessibility is the foundational concept.

It's making something that everybody

can use, in every way. So, kinda what you

said about putting it in there. So, what

we do, I'm not looking at the house

I'm looking at the curb cut because in

a digital world, we call digital accessibility

this is an electronic curb cut. It's an example

of putting something there regardless of

whether or not we anticipate a need.

So for example, with the curb cut, when they

built the sidewalk, they didn't walk around

we need to poll any resident to find out if

there is anybody in a wheelchair within five

blocks. They just put the curb cut in so it's

not about whether or not there is a known need.

It is built into the system so accessibility,

like you said, is what we build into it. The

accommodation, at least in the digital world,

and not necessarily a change in construction,

that is one way to do it, right. For example,

what your perspective would be like, is

somebody who wanted a text version of a

audio file. Then in our interpretation would be

an accommodation is something that is specifically

an instruction or a technology for that person.

So assistive technology, for example is

an accommodation. For example, a screen

magnifier, a screen reader, a pair of glasses,

a refreshable braille reader. Those are things

bolted onto the system to serve a particular

purpose or requirement. However, the

accommodation may not have any value if the

technology itself is not accessible. We could

have an inaccessible website, put a

refreshable reader right on there and

say have it, they still can't use it. The

accommodation does not work because

the technology itself is not accessible.

Which is a slight difference from what you

are saying because accommodation, from your

perspective, which is a valid accommodation,

is taking in accessible content, reformat it,

make it accessible and then give it as

an accommodation. That is doing something

after the fact. I built an inaccessible PDF, oh oops, too bad.

I can't read it so I'll print it out, make it a text file and

then give it to somebody. That's the accommodation,

to fix something that was not accessible. Where

the accessible PDF file, where everybody

could use it, but then I happen to require

Read Write Gold, which is assistive

technology to actually read the PDF. That's the

slight difference of what I'm talking about

where you're talking about accommodations

to fix something that's not working and is

not accessible. I was trying to not work

the assistive technology because I thought

that was the next question (laughter).

I taking if from my own child's needs

where his instruction is an accommodation for

his instructional needs (indiscernible). And again,

to your point, some of the accommodations

when it's in a non digital world -

Jay - right -

really does require physically changing

something after the fact, because text

books aren't necessarily accessible in of

themselves, the way they are printed off.

Exactly, so, it sort of depends on the

situation, like you said, and what we are

trying to do today, or what we are

trying to do in your world, is

trying to make things accessible so

that we can get the bar higher and

require less accommodation because

accessibility covers what they need. And then

accommodations are only added for those

that have specific needs because of mobile

issues, sight issues or from my perspective,

hearing issues. But, that is the other thing

about accessibility and accommodations,

we're changing that bar as the time evolves

as for example, captioning, it's no longer

an accommodation it's part of the accessibility.

So, I shouldn't have to request an accommodation

for captioning cause it's just built in. As

opposed to somebody needs a screen reader.

You don't build a screen reader into web

browsers, yet. Down the road, they

may be building screen readers into web

browsers. Microsoft is already doing that

with Microsoft Narrator. Ok. The difference

there is that requires you to use one product

as opposed to having a need you prefer

or have a need for something else.

And so things get a little tricky there.

I'm not going to talk about that today but

I am saying that the definition though the

line between accessibility and accomodation

is evolving and will continue to evolve,

through the roof. Ok, so, accessibility,

accommodation and then assistive

technology is the third word that I'm

assuming most of you know what that is.

That in the digital technology world,

assistive technology is something that

we need to be sure we are buying

is readable by something like a

refreshable braille reader. Ok. Is there,

as you pointed out, are there other

accommodations besides that of AT,

such as reformatting a document or

providing other concrete mechanisms.

Ok, so, we've talked about accessibility,

we talked about accommodations. What

people (indiscernible) word is how do I

make this ADA compliant? They have

the right idea, they have their

heart in the right place. But they are

using words that I consider to be inactive.

And, so one of my missions is to increase

more clarity and (indiscernible) in the terms

that we use. So that we are clear and

we can communicate more effectively about

what we are trying to do. Most of you have

heard about the Americans with Disabilities

Act, or the ADA. The ADA was written

before the internet was invented yet. Which

means that when the ADA was written there

was no internet. There was no concept

of digital accessibility. And that is why

the ADA was updated in the 1990s

they (indescernable). For involving for your

son or for involving like people needing

ramps, floors, handlebars. Ok. So there

is nothing in the ADA law that has anything

to do with digital technology. So how do you

make something that is ADA compliant?

There is nothing there. What is there is

that the ADA there are three titles for the ADA

or five. The first one is involving requirements.

The second is we have state and local

governments. And the third involving

(indiscernible). And the fourth is the

Department of Justice. And the Department

of Justice is several civic and federal courts.

That have determined that public

accommodations in the public sphere

now extends from the physical bonds

to the digital bonds. And so case law

has subjects that have started to target

law suits way back, maybe you have talked

about Target quite awhile ago, with an

inaccessible website. That is when the ADA

started evolving into the digital space.

But, there was still nothing written into the

ADA itself. They have been writing or

rewriting something called an advanced

mode of supposed rule making.

(indiscernible)

And they were taking there time doing it,

as you know ((indiscernible). And they

were getting close to it and then

(indiscernible), now we know where they are

at. So, we don't say ADA compliant, because

they're not the same. But we do say is

how do I make this work for everyone? And

that is what you want to do cause that

makes sense to people. How do you make it

work for everyone. And (indescernable) building

something you want it for one the people who

can see. Do you ever say that? I want it only

for people who have full use of their legs

and arms. Do you ever say that? You don't

say that. So think about it in this way,

(indiscernible) compliance. But, there are rules

(indiscernible) written in the ADA, so we will

go over those rules very quickly. First of all

how many of you have heard about the

web content accessibility guidelines 2.0?