Oral Presentations - Session 1A: UC 326
Advocacy: Retrofitting Access to Educational Information Technologies
Presentation Type
Presentation
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Elizabeth Hubble
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Women and Gender Studies
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Historically, barriers to students with disabilities accessing Post-Secondary Higher Education have been comprised of architectural, programmatic and attitudinal inaccessibility in the campus environment. Although effective implementation of the ADA resulted in the continual removal of architectural barriers through the renovation and new construction of the physical environment, new barriers to programmatic accessibility have been created as the access to course materials has evolved to become more reliant on emerging educational and informational technologies. At the University of Montana, the failure to implement equal access to educational and web technologies has presented significant barriers to students with disabilities and abridged their civil right to post-secondary education guaranteed by Title II of the ADA and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The pervasive capability of attitudinal barriers surrounding disability has managed to impede equal access and successfully helped to construct programmatic barriers to accessible educational technologies at the University of Montana. Informed and effective, student advocacy reemerged to remove these barriers to access for students with disabilities at UM and other post-secondary institutions, reestablishing sustained efforts to ensure an institution remains committed to continual implementation of unfunded federal civil rights law for students with disabilities.
Advocacy: Retrofitting Access to Educational Information Technologies
UC 326
Historically, barriers to students with disabilities accessing Post-Secondary Higher Education have been comprised of architectural, programmatic and attitudinal inaccessibility in the campus environment. Although effective implementation of the ADA resulted in the continual removal of architectural barriers through the renovation and new construction of the physical environment, new barriers to programmatic accessibility have been created as the access to course materials has evolved to become more reliant on emerging educational and informational technologies. At the University of Montana, the failure to implement equal access to educational and web technologies has presented significant barriers to students with disabilities and abridged their civil right to post-secondary education guaranteed by Title II of the ADA and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The pervasive capability of attitudinal barriers surrounding disability has managed to impede equal access and successfully helped to construct programmatic barriers to accessible educational technologies at the University of Montana. Informed and effective, student advocacy reemerged to remove these barriers to access for students with disabilities at UM and other post-secondary institutions, reestablishing sustained efforts to ensure an institution remains committed to continual implementation of unfunded federal civil rights law for students with disabilities.