Access to Online Education Project
Detailed Overview

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The CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) and the League for Innovation in the Community College are working together to promote the creation and use of accessible digital content by faculty, content specialists or students. Activities focus on disseminating and institutionalizing use of math and science solutions developed through NSF-funded research and development efforts. The project also encourages information technology specialists throughout the community college system to make use of work underway within industry standards organizations to create specifications for accessible learning platforms.

This collaboration will build a community of interest in and knowledge of access solutions for science and math presentations within learning technologies throughout the League's 700 member community colleges. It will also focus institutional attention on accessibility requirements that should be addressed within the design of distributed learning platforms and encourage review and implementation of emerging access specifications.

Over the 18-month project, with the coordination and support of the League, NCAM will schedule and conduct:

1. in-person presentations and workshops at the League's major conferences, including the 2002 and 2003 Conference on Information Technology, and the 2003 Innovations conference;
2. on-line presentation and Web seminar at the League's 2003 Annual Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference;
3. on-line training and development seminars through the League's on-line learning initiative, the Transformational Learning Connection (LeagueTLC), with Web links to demonstration models, guidelines and tools;
4. in-person accessibility forums at five League colleges as part of faculty development and training.

NCAM and the League will also work together to secure support to establish an accessibility thread within the Teaching and Learning track and the Math, Science, Allied Health and Technology track offered annually at the League conferences. The long-term goal of the League is to use this project as a springboard to encourage its members to use League resources to share innovative practices and program models, and collaborate on learning how best to recruit, serve and retain students with disabilities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.