[Colorado-talk] Feds drop investigation into CU-Boulder's accessibility to visually impaired students

[Nehemiah Hall]

Feds drop investigation into CU-Boulder's accessibility to visually impaired students


The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its investigation into whether the University of Colorado's technologies are accessible to blind students.

Boulder campus leaders are lauding the decision, but some of the blind students who filed the complaint say not much has changed in the last year.

"After carefully reviewing the information that you provided as well as the information provided by the University of Colorado at Boulder, we have decided not to take any further action on your complaint," wrote Paula Rubin, a trial attorney for the Disability Rights Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, in an email to one complainant.

"Unfortunately, because the section receives thousands of (Americans with Disabilities Act) complaints each year, we do not have the resources to resolve all of them."

Rubin also wrote that the Justice Department "has made no determination regarding the merits" of the complaint. She said the CU students could pursue their complaint in another manner.

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Another trial attorney on the case, William Lynch, directed all questions to the Justice Department's press office. Officials in that office did not immediately respond to requests for comment this morning.

Bill Casson, a graduate student who helped file the complaint against CU last year, said he was disappointed.

"The university, ever since the DOJ complaint, has been taking steps to become compliant, but they still have technology that's not accessible," he said. "We don't understand why the DOJ has decided that the gross violations of the (Americans with Disabilities Act) and student rights — why our issues have not been considered significant enough to warrant a continuation of the investigation."

Casson said he's not giving up the case because the Justice Department halted its investigation. He said he will continue working on behalf of the 41 students with visual impairments — including three blind students — on the Boulder campus.

At issue were widely used CU-Boulder digital technologies.

Last spring, students with visual impairments complained that they couldn't access digital textbooks, campus email, websites for homework and course content, digital signs on campus and a portal to register for classes, pay bills and set up meetings with advisers.

The students said they had to work with someone to complete routine tasks and often spent hours trying to access university services that sighted students have no problems using.

Similar concerns have been raised at other colleges and universities in recent years. The Justice Department has reached settlement agreements with several institutions, including Louisiana Tech University and edX, the nonprofit online education platform created by MIT and Harvard.

Esha Mehta, a University of Colorado student who is blind, relaxes with her dog, Dragon, last year. (Cliff Grassmick /Staff Photographer)

CU takes steps

Since the complaint was filed last spring, the university has taken steps to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including appointing a chief digital accessibility officer, gathering feedback from the campus, launching an accessible technology website for online resources and documentation, and drafting an accessibility policy.

CU also set up a review process for how technologies will be made more accessible over time, if not immediately, and received funding for additional staff dedicated to digital accessibility.

Additionally, the university has posted online "accessibility considerations" for the most widely used technologies, including Microsoft Office and Google Apps.

A contract announced last fall with online education company Lynda.com includes access to video tutorials for faculty, staff and students on creating accessible documents.

Last fall, the university sought advice from peer universities with expertise in accessible technologies in a symposium it hosted involving University of Washington, Temple University, University of California and others.

Dan Jones, CU's new accessibility officer, said he understands the students' frustrations and added that the university's working groups are committed to ensuring accessibility for all students.

"Everyone knows we have a lot more work to do and we have hundreds of websites and different services," he said. "It will take time to work through all of those. We're addressing the most critical items and then, as new services are coming online that are campus-wide and used by all students, we're also working to address those. But it will take some time.

"There certainly is the commitment from the (campus) leadership."

Jones said part of the problem involves procuring software and technologies when some vendors are just now catching up on accessibility issues. He said the university is working with other schools to urge companies to design services everyone can access.

"That is definitely an issue in that we're finding that vendors are just becoming aware of this," he said. "There are more lawsuits and the Department of Justice is reaching out in their role to enforce the regulatory requirements, so vendors are conscious of this. But it's bubbling up."

Beyond ensuring that services are accessible on their own, Jones said the university needs to work with faculty to ensure that they're using the technologies appropriately. For example, he said, all faculty members need to be aware of how to upload accessible videos or files when they use course content services.

Not done fighting

Esha Mehta, an undergraduate who also helped file the complaint last year, said she and other students with visual impairments have been working with the university to test current and potential new technologies.

She said there have been several instances in which the university launched a new service before testing had been completed or in spite of the fact that the services weren't easy for blind students to use in testing.

"Something needs to be done, especially because CU is such a great university," Mehta said. "And I want the education that I'm paying for. And I want the opportunities that I'm paying to receive, and that's not happening fully.

"It's a matter of having equal access to education and different opportunities."

In an interview with the Daily Camera last year, Mehta said she had to meet with an algebra professor and teaching assistant at least five hours each week outside of class time because she couldn't access the digital textbook or online tool to submit homework and quizzes.

After hearing that the Justice Department dropped its investigation, Mehta said she won't stop fighting for equal access.

"I have a year left of undergrad but I know that I'm not going to be the only blind person to walk through the university's doors," she said. "It might be too late for things to really change noticeably and significantly while I'm still a student at CU, but it doesn't mean that I'm not thinking about the next generation of blind students coming through."

Sarah Kuta: 303-473-1106, kutas at dailycamera.com or twitter.com/sarahkuta

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