Report 2017-102 Recommendation 2 Responses

Report 2017-102: California Community Colleges: The Colleges Reviewed Are Not Adequately Monitoring Services for Technology Accessibility, and Districts and Colleges Should Formalize Procedures for Upgrading Technology (Release Date: December 2017)

Recommendation #2 To: Community Colleges Chancellor's Office

To ensure that community colleges promptly address any complaints they receive related to alternate media requests and web accessibility, by June 2018, the Chancellor's Office should provide guidance to the community colleges on developing procedures to track and periodically review complaints received related to accessibility services, and to address any accessibility complaints in a timely fashion.

1-Year Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office has issued guidance to the community college system titled "Addendum to Guidelines for Producing Instructional and Other Printed Materials in Alternate Media for Persons with Disabilities". This guidance clarifies the timeliness of alternate media production, the student request process, and specifics on monitoring college performance related to this task.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

A thorough analysis of the issues has been conducted. During a meeting with all college disability directors on 2/28/18, the three colleges who participated in the audit shared their experiences and passed on the guidance that they received from the auditors to all colleges. Also during the meeting, focus groups were convened to discuss what current policies exist with regard to producing alternate media and tracking complaints. The Chancellor's Office staff circulated amongst all participants to gather first-hand the issues the colleges are dealing with.

In addition, a short-term workgroup on alternate media met 3/27 in Cerritos. The group includes accessibility experts, alternate media providers and program directors so that multiple points of view and expertise are incorporated into the development of the policies and guidance on producing and tracking requests for alternate media. The group started by compiling all of the relevant literature, current guidance, and pertinent court cases on the subject. Then existing procedures in use at the colleges were evaluated and compared against the recommendations of the CSA report. Also noted were current legal precedents as listed in a UC Berkeley settlement (University of California, Berkeley campus and Disability Rights Advocates, 2013) and a Cal State Fullerton case (Docket Number 09-03-2166 US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights v. California State University, Fullerton). There was a second meeting April 16th to further establish the timeliness aspect of the guidance. May 1st another meeting took place to tackle the complaint provisions required to be in the guidance. The draft was finalized and presented to the DSPS Regional Coordinators for comments on May 22. This guidance is scheduled to send out to the field in June.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

At the time of its response, the Chancellor's Office indicates it expects to send out guidance to the colleges in June. See one-year response in late June 2018.

60-Day Agency Response

A thorough analysis of the issues has been conducted.

During a meeting with all college disability directors 2/28/18 the three colleges who participated in the audit will share their experiences and pass on the guidance that they received from the auditors.

Also during the meeting, focus groups will discuss what current policies exist with regard to producing alternate media and tracking complaints.

A short-term workgroup will convene to assist in the development of the guidance for the colleges so that they are consistent across the system and meet the objectives set forth by the auditors.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2017-102

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.