AUL Open House: Notes from July 31, 2018

Open discussion: what do we want our required accessibility training to look like?

• One of the core purposes of our Open Houses is to provide the forum for the university to tell the accessibility program which direction to take.
• This session is focused on making a plan together for how we want to modify existing accessibility training for CU Boulder faculty, staf and students - its scope, location, and format.
• The team currently working on the training shared the decisions made so far:
  • Investigate moving training from SkillSoft to Canvas;
  • Re-work the content with less focus on compliance and more on empathy;
  • Change the emphasis from trying to turn everyone into an accessibility expert to teaching everyone why this matters and where to ask for expert help.
• Discussion point: should it be required and of whom?
  • Probably yes, with a core module applicable to all and then side-modules for specific audiences (like IT help staff);
  • To be combined with on-demand in-person sessions for specific departments and units.
• Discussion point: how to move from a compliance / checkbox approach?
  • Make the training truly interactive;
  • Move most of the content that doesn't need to be locked up inside the course shell onto the open web; reference from there;
  • Make discussion part of the training - have participants leave a comment in the forum (questions like "How does this apply to your work?") and have AUL / accessibility staff engage with the answers;
  • Curate the discussions, promote most useful and telling comments;
  • Investigate badging / certification;
  • Continue to focus on interactivity and engagement.