Atypical Educational Settings (placements, laboratories, study abroad)

Self Evaluation Work Plan

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Description 

This section examines accessibility in diverse educational settings, and in curriculum that may utilize specialized equipment. 

Recommendations

Develop a practice of requesting internship hosts and laboratory PIs to provide information regarding the accessibility of their built and digital environments.
Develop a plan to ensure a prompt, adequate response to a student with a disability who requests and/or requires reasonable accommodation with an internship host and/or laboratory PI.
Ensure that accessibility of equipment is consistently considered in the process of purchasing.
Establish policies or procedures to ensure that equipment is adaptable or usable by persons with disabilities.
Establish policies or procedures to ensure that there is adequate clear floor space (for persons with mobility limitations) to maneuver around any specialized equipment.
Establish policies or procedures if a student with a disability requests a reasonable accommodation to utilize specialized equipment.
Ensure that instructors of online courses receive training on best practices for giving accessible presentations.
Develop protocols to ensure that on-line instructional materials are consistently checked for accessibility (e.g. e-books and pdfs that are accessible with screen readers, video materials that are captioned and audio-described).
Ensure that all videos use for instructional purposes are captioned.
It is recommended that all online presentations be captioned; minimally, online course materials should contain notifications regarding an attendees ability to request a reasonable accommodations including, for example, captioning.
Develop protocols to ensure that any website a student is required or requested to visit (e.g. faculty website, a research resource), is evaluated for accessibility.
Train employees who faciliate study abroad experiences on how to include disabled people.
Ensure disability is not treated as a disqualifying characteristic for study abroad.
Ensure relevant employees have infomration on the accessibility of study abroad programs.

Training

Leads should take the training themselves, then assign it to those employees in their unit for whom they believe it is relevant. Assigning to all employees is recommended. Any processes, procedures or protocols recommended for development in the training should be created. 

Atypical Educational Settings

Additional Resources

How to Talk and Discuss About Accessibility with Vendors (similar to link in Purchasing, above, but still applicable)

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