There are more than 400 NIU students registered with the Center for Access-Ability Resources office who may qualify for special consideration in the classroom. CAAR personnel serve as liaison between the students who require services and the campus community. Students registered for classes may need interpreting services, extended time for tests, assistive technologies, or other reasonable accommodations. Early and effective communication between the student, faculty member, and CAAR counselor is important so that the student has access to the tools they need to have equal access to NIU classes and opportunities.
Northern Illinois University must comply with the Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act. This legislation requires that electronic and information technology for public use be accessible to people with disabilities. This includes web sites, software, any hardware with a memory module, and all electronic files.
The accessibility of NIU's web presence is improved for those sites which use the templates that are available through the NIU Public Affairs office. The Web Presence Team will assist NIU faculty and staff with the process of redesigning inaccessible content. For more information, please visit the NIU Web Presence Project site.
Faculty who prepare electronic files for use with online education or electronic reserves should remember to make them accessible to those who use assistive technologies. Image-based PDF files, for example, are not accessible. PDF files should be properly tagged so that the content can be tabbed through and read in logical sequence with screen-reading technology. To determine whether or not a PDF is accessible, attempt to use "Control+F" to search for a word known to be present within the document. If the search function doesn't work, and the content can not be tabbed through, then the PDF is an image-based file and therefore inaccessible to many. In this case the content should be scanned using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology and put into the appropriate sequence.
OCR scanning technology is available in most public computing labs. To rescue a document that has already been scanned as an image-based file, Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 includes a built-in OCR tool. This product is available through the Information Technology Services Software Distribution web site. To learn how to develop an accessible PDF document, see the Adobe web site.
Faculty assistance with Blackboard is available through NIU Faculty Development and Instructional Design.
NIU Human Resource Services
Diane Tyrell, ADA Compliance Officer
815/753-6000
NIU Office of the Ombudsman
Tim Griffin, University Ombudsman
815/753-1414
the NIU Presidential Commission on Persons with Disabilities
pcpd@niu.edu
ACT is a grassroots initiative formed in 2000 by six representatives from Information Technology Services, Center for Access-Ability Resources, Housing and Dining Services, University Libraries, and the Illinois Dept. of Health and Human Services. Several student representatives have participated over the years, as well as interested faculty.
ACT meets on the first Wednesday of every month in the Holmes Student Center Blackhawk East room in the lower level cafeteria (or other location to be determined). The group meets at 11:30 for a brownbag lunch, and an informal meeting begins at 12:00 noon. There is no agenda, no minutes are recorded, and no official roster exists. The opportunity is set aside each month to promote an open dialogue about technology needs and available resources. Members from all service and academic divisions are encouraged to participate. Attendance is not required, but is guaranteed to make participants feel part of a very worthwhile endeavor.
To be included on the mailing list, write to: pcpd@niu.edu