Share Paper: From liability to opportunity: Ensuring web accessibility through technology leadership and teacher education

1. Natalie Shaheen, Towson University, United States
2. Sarah Lohnes Watulak, Middlebury College, United States

Abstract: Over the last several years, the attention of technology leaders in numerous districts has been unexpectedly diverted from emerging technologies to district websites in order to respond quickly to complaints filed against them with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Since 2014, over 2,400 complaints have been filed against local and state education agencies alleging disability discrimination due to the inaccessibility of their websites (Keierleber, 2018). This presentation will report the findings pertaining to web accessibility from a larger qualitative study, which examined the process by which five districts implemented technology accessibility policy. The findings reveal (1) ...