Commitment 1:

  • Overview: Hold professors responsible for implementing access-centered pedagogy in their classrooms.
  • Point Person(s): Jan Roberts-Breslin, Heather May, Deans, Chairs
  • Updates:
    • Fall 2021: Academic Affairs feedback: "all programs and tools are voluntary in keeping with the College’s Freedom of Expression policy and the practice of academic freedom in higher education. The College can, and does, provide the means (pedagogical guidelines, workshops, forums, peer mentorship, department discussions, among them) for faculty who seek to deepen their learning and respond to the student action plan. Investing in faculty development and innovative and responsive pedagogy is in keeping with the College’s strategic goal of academic and inclusive excellence ––something that the College has done, and will continue to do, consistently and continuously."
  • CITL and ITG are available to support professional development for professors to add access-centered pedagogy to courses.

Commitment 2: 

  • Overview: Require all academic materials to be accessible to all students. 
  • Point Person(s): Jan Roberts-Breslin, Heather May, Deans, Chairs
  • Updates:
    • Fall 2021: Library and ITG have provided support by converting pdfs to accessible versions and with captioning.  Centralized funding and increased allocation of staff resources is needed if increased accessibility needs are to be met in these areas.
    • ITG turned on the Ally Course Accessibility Report in Canvas this summer: this gives faculty a holistic view of their course’s accessibility and more granular information about each item’s accessibility score.

Commitment 3:

  • Overview: Ensure syllabi include the current version of required statements such as the SAS and diversity statements and consider setting new requirements for syllabus language that reflects access-centered pedagogy.
  • Point Person(s): Jan Roberts-Breslin, Heather May, Deans, Chairs, Jenn Stevens
  • Updates:
    • Fall 2021: From ITG: Every new Canvas course has a Syllabus page that has the current semester's policy language. However, if a previous course's material is copied in, it overwrites the Canvas template. In Summer 2021, ITG re-reviewed to see if there was a way to make sure all Canvas syllabus pages have current policies. Unfortunately, any automated change of the syllabus page would wipe out any faculty work already on it. Faculty are encouraged to check Canvas for updated policy and syllabi language.