What is EIR and why are we concerned about accessibility?
We use a variety of electronic and information resources (EIR) on and off campus to provide information and services.
What are EIR?
web, mobile, and desktop applications (e.g., Adobe Acrobat, Blackboard Learn, Microsoft 365, University mobile app)
audio and video players (e.g., SoundCloud, MediaSite, Vimeo, YouTube)
plug-ins or widgets (e.g., Financial Aid TV - Ocelot AI Chatbot, Grammarly, WeatherBug)
email (e.g., email messages, email attachments like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents)
websites (e.g., TAMU-CC website, Gift Planning website)
social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter)
electronic documents and other files containing text, tables, multimedia, or other content (e.g., training courses, support documentation, video tutorials, audio podcasts)
desktops, laptops, and tablets (e.g., Dell computer, Apple iPad, Google Chromebook)
office equipment (e.g., information kiosks, transaction machines, copiers, printers, television equipment, gaming platform)
telecommunications equipment (e.g., mobile phones, telephone products, answering machines)
Imagine
You see an event on a website or email, and you want to add it to your calendar, but you can't highlight the text to copy/paste it in. Instead you have to type the whole thing out.
While this is an inconvenience for you, it is an accessibility issue for people who are blind: they can't see the text that was on that event image to know when to come or what it is all about.
We want to close those types of gaps and make all our lives a little more convenient as well as accessible to people with disabilities.
Accessible EIR provides the following benefits:
Increases effective communication
Extends learning opportunities to our diverse community in a university environment
Broadens employment opportunities to our current, and future, faculty and staff
Expands participation in, or benefits from, programs and activities
Keeps our university in compliance with federal and state laws, along with A&M System regulations
Provides everyone with more usable electronic and information resources, creating more ease and simplicity to our daily activities and tasks
websites or web applications that don't tell us why our answers won't submit on a form
computers that don't allow us to use our voice to give commands when we are unable to use our hands due to pain, injury, or loss
kiosks with color coding only when we cannot see color to know what status they are indicating
web page content (e.g. instructions for students in an unreadable image format)
email messages (e.g. deadlines or events using poorly contrasting colors)
Word or Adobe PDF documents (e.g. information without proper headings)
YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms (e.g. videos without closed captioning)
We want to progressively improve accessibility
It is true that much of what we use is inaccessible. However, given the great strides we have with technology, some of these issues can be resolved right now. Our goal is to educate ourselves and the companies we work with to create a more inclusive community and environment for learning.