7 Lessons Learned for Sustaining Accessibility in Higher Education CSUN Conference 2020
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This document outlines 7 lessons learned for sustaining accessibility in higher education. The lessons are: 1) Tell more stories early and often to be relatable yet interesting; 2) Invest in everyone through student, faculty, and staff development; 3) Focus on progress, not perfection; 4) Understand your own role and abilities; 5) Change approaches over time to avoid becoming stale; 6) Ensure initiatives follow the organization's strategy and direction; and 7) Lead informally through relationship building. The document was authored by Nate Evans of Michigan State University and Phil Deaton of the University of Michigan.
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7 Lessons Learned for Sustaining Accessibility in Higher Education CSUN Conference 2020
- 1. 7 Lessons Learned: Sustaining Accessibility in Higher Education Nate Evans, Michigan State University Phil Deaton, University of Michigan
- 2. Why?
- 4. Tell more stories. Early and often.
- 5. Try this ● This was one of my failings in my early work at MSU. ● Pick stories that are relatable, but unrelated at the same time (interesting!) ● Find impactful images, and describe them (e.g., Pixabay) ● Wrestle with lots of options. ● Practice makes perfect.
- 8. #4 Know yourself. Then know your role.
- 10. Try this ● Things can get stale. ● Change the location/space from time-to-time. ● Force yourself to try a new approach to presenting. e.g. Google: “Pechakucha” ● Follow other good storytellers, then practice.
- 11. Your initiatives should serve your strategy and direction. Your constituents should know your strategy and direction.
- 13. Try this ● Challenge: Meet someone new, and ask them out for coffee or tea during CSUN. ● Build up “relational currency.”
- 14. 7 Lessons Learned 1. Tell more stories, early and often. 2. Invest in everybody. Students, faculty and staff development matters. 3. Progress, not perfection. 4. Know yourself. Know your role. a. Top down, and bottom up. b. Good cop, bad cop. 5. Change it up. 6. Your initiatives should follow your strategy and direction. 7. Lead with pinball.
Editor's Notes
- Story 2.5 minutes House divided with division, at end use plus sign to create um plus spartans = commitment to accessibility Picture ideas: MSU logo and U-M logo Can I tell you a story there not too many people know about me? I did my undergraduate at seminary. And what you need to know about seminary, is there is usually a class were you learn how to teach called homiletics. And what you need to know about me and seminary and homiletics, is: I was pretty bad at it. C- is the grade that comes to mind... When it came to public speaking, I lacked confidence, I didn’t know how to become confident, and I blamed it on being an introvert. Over the years, I learned a lot about public speaking by failing a lot. And similarly, I have learned a lot about sustainability in this work - that is hard, but is so worth working to improve. My name is Nate Evans and I am Pd: And my name is Phil Deaton. I work as the Digital Information Accessibility Coordinator at the University of Michigan. I guess a fun fact about me is that I used to work at Michigan State University. The neat part is that our two universities work together very closely on digital accessibility. And today we wanted to talk with you about seven lessons learned for sustaining accessibility in higher education. We’ve got a caveat. We are not here to provide sagely guidance, but to reflect on some things that have worked for us and some other things that have...not worked for us. This to say that while we feel that some of our talk discussing our lessons learned could be helpful, we certainly don’t think that either of our institutions has a perfect approach to accessibility. In fact, part of my interest in this talk is to reflect on the fact that higher education institutions that do accessibility work need to talk about failure when they talk about success. Which kind of brings us to why we are here to talk with you today.
- Image by forcal35 from Pixabay. Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/united-states-washington-dc-2361405/ (Phil) There are three reasons why we wanted to do this talk. Firstly: we’ve been here a while. We’ve worked through Administration changes, sweeping commitments to accessibility, lack of interest in accessibility, and investment in the space. What we’ve learned is how important it is to sustain accessibility programs through leadership churn and staff turn over. We kind of want to reflect on that. We’ll talk about that more today. We’ll probably talk about that more throughout the conference. Secondly: we want to talk about some successes and some failures. There is not enough conversation on failures in the space. Why do things work/not work? How do folks new to the field help us grow? How can they know the answer to that question when we don’t talk about failures? As folks that do accessibility in higher education, we must commit to the importance of talking about how learning happens in our field and in our individual work. Thirdly: we think we need to embrace accessibility as both a technical and creative challenge to organizations. Just as the lived experiences of people with disabilities are varied. We should consider Jay Dolmage, a disability studies scholar, and his linkage of the Greek concept of metis to disability. Metis is “cunning, embodied, or adaptive strategies” which reflect the “sideways” thinking that disabled people use to exist in a world that is designed by non-disabled people to reflect the agency and pride of able-bodied existence and serves as a barrier to people with disabilities. We hope that this talk gives you the chance to reflect with us and that maybe some of our discussion will support your creativity and your mission to sustain accessibility in your organizations.
- Image by Andreas Riedelmeier from Pixabay. Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/pizza-stone-oven-pizza-stone-oven-1344720/ (Phil) Pd: Alright, so let’s talk about the inception of this talk, before we talk about this talk. Like many great things, this talk began with pizza and coffee (though not at the same time). We met one day in East Lansing, back when there was sun in the sky and a need to catch up on how our institutions were doing. We talked about doing a CSUN talk and talked about some of the things that we’ve learned and what we might share. So we decided to present on some of our lessons learned. Our second meeting involved neutral ground for Wolverines/Spartans: Pizza. You see, we had to put our slides together for our CSUN talk. The Wolverine was early and the Spartan was late. There was no judgement at all, though. Before we jumped into it, we did our usual. We reflected on things that were happening at our institutions and began to vent. Before you knew it we had beverages in hand and were talking through deep failures that had darkened our moods or successes that had surprised us. We realized that we were (re)making our presentation. We want to talk with you about successes. And mistakes. And lessons. Mind you, these aren’t lessons coming from people with all of the answers, but rather things that we have learned. So you are kind of here listening to our self reflection as we think about accessibility in higher ed. We appreciate your support. Let’s get started. Before we started talking about our presentation, reflecting on things that were going well/poorly at our institutions Realized that is our talk, really. We want to talk about some successes, as well as mistakes.
- #1: Tell more stories. Early and often. (Phil) Picture: false start football? One thing that we talk about a lot on our campuses is the importance of cultural change to create accessibility progress. Not only do we feel like stories help to act as levers for cultural change, but we also feel that they ground our values in practice and reality. We can’t just set about to change the culture without changing our practices and moving forward. Stories drive culture, and stories drive progress and a real desire to change. Nate shared a story earlier which demonstrated the winding paths we take to get to being accessibility advocates. My path to accessibility in higher ed begins with a very frustrated student (me) being upset about how far behind MSU’s accessibility strategy was. Phil(story) short story about being student advocate, first year CSUN, then how I came to want to do this work in higher ed. We already talked about this one Talking with leadership this is great way to get more resources Brandon CIO story? Copy editor story? Think about how data can tell stories too! Charge: Every month try to find the opportunity to tell someone’s story
- (Nate)
- Image by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto from Pixabay. Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/cactus-watering-can-houseplant-4161380/ 2. Invest in everyone. A lot of people don’t have the intention of doing this work. Let’s change that, for gosh sake’s we’re in higher ed Teachaccess, Knowbility Brooke, Gabrielle stories? Mack and Trenton? The perpetual challenge in higher education: We are a feeder system for the for-profit space. You’re welcome. Phil: this was my first CSUN talk, we’re still trying to figure it out Charge: Create intentional ways for students, faculty and staff to engage with accessibility
- Image by Patrikphotos from Pixabay. Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/art-shiva-divinity-traditional-4918696/ #3: Aim for progress, not perfection. Technology changing. Individual diversity of learners and members of our community. Moving target of guidance, and lack of clarity around successful execution. These are moving targets Accessibility is a human/relational challenge as much as a development and design challenge Importance of feedback Put new ideas out there, try something new, fail faster We haven’t figured this out in higher ed Charge: Lift up and support someone else in accessibility
- Idea on this one. Image - tributary #4: Work with what you have. (Know yourself?) Your strategy has to reflect your institution (e.g. leadership, culture) Don’t burn it out (it happens so often in higher ed) Get accountability buddies Talk with peers Try it: Grab a drink with a new colleague while you are at CSUN. Look on the ATHEN, Educause IT Access, BTAA, etc. Know your role Define clear ownership at executive levels Who… Enforces? Supports? Partnership Trust your partners Try it:
- Image by marcinjozwiak from Pixabay. Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/road-drone-aerial-trip-travel-4564817/ #5: Change it up.
- #4: Work with what you have. It is okay to land the plane, stop, assess, and consider what to do next. This a sign of maturity in accessibility programs, when a team can pivot and adapt to meet a new direction. Your strategy has to reflect your institution (e.g. leadership, culture) Don’t burn it out (it happens so often in higher ed) Get accountability buddies Talk with peers Try it: Grab a drink with a new colleague while you are at CSUN. Look on the ATHEN, Educause IT Access, BTAA, etc.
- Image by Raila Spindola Raila from Pixabay. Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/pinball-videogame-arcade-games-179631/ #Y: Lead with pinball. Be willing to pause. One day a meeting invitation popped up on my calendar from our Director of Web Services. I didn’t meet with him often, and didn’t know what to expect but I accepted figuring is was about the accessibility of the university framework. I had questions… Do you ever have that? Where you are like, “I’ve been meaning to connect with that person; i have a bunch of questions for them…” I met him at his building, and immediately jumped into the conversation. Full tactical mode. “Hey, I had some questions about the focus visible style sheets... “ And he stopped me, and was like. “Hey, we’ll get to that. Let’s hit Pinball Pete’s first and grab some food.” And I was super confused. But I went along with it. 30 minutes later we’d devoured burgers, and were playing arcade games like a couple of teenagers. We it was fun. We were laughing, and it was great. And it changed every conversation that we’ve had since then. Web accessibility is primarily a human challenge. We have the tools to fix it technically, but the greater challenge is relational. It is working alongside your colleagues to help them understand why access it important as it relates to your mission/vision - and even better, for them to own this perspective for themselves. MSU has been in a constant state of transition for the past 2 years: Executive changes. Staff vacancies. Unhealthy culture. In that period of time, I have had 15 staffing changes for folks that either I report to, or team members that report to me working on digital accessibility. Including a new President, Provost, CIO, and 4 ADA Coordinators.
- We wanted to question what we are doing. We don’t want to pause momentum or progress, but pause to reflect on failures, successes, relationships, and work.