From: Jessica Finnefrock [jfinnefrock@blackboard.com] Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 12:06 PM To: Jon Gunderson Cc: David Yaskin; Hadi Bargi Rangin; Stephanie Cupp Subject: RE: Blackboard Partnership with the Blackboard Accessibility Interest Group Hi Jon- That's an excellent point. We are very much looking forward to having you (remotely) and Hadi (in person) at the Product Development Offsite in August to talk to the team and train the team up on accessibility issues. I think this training will be a huge step forward. My understanding is that Stephanie and Hadi have plans to meet next week at BbWorld. Stephanie will be bringing a few other members of the PD team along with her for those discussions. You are certainly welcome to share my feedback with the broader team. Thanks again to all of you for raising this critical issue with us! Best, Jessica -----Original Message----- From: Jon Gunderson [mailto:jongund@uiuc.edu] Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 11:13 AM To: Jessica Finnefrock Cc: David Yaskin; Hadi Bargi Rangin; Scott Whitmore Subject: Re: Blackboard Partnership with the Blackboard Accessibility Interest Group Jessica, Thank you for your response. Hadi, members of the interest group and I look forward to working with Blackboard on these issues. I would just like to note that accessibility issues are somewhat different than normal product development issues. Hadi and I participated in the GradeBook meetings, the meetings mostly discussed new features and watched demonstrations through a web based screen capture system used by the presenter. Questions related to accessibility, like show how to do this operation with the keyboard, were basically deferred to future sessions or the person would actually do the operation again using the mouse! Accessibility is not so much about what features Blackboard decides to implement (although some features will be critical for accessibility), but how Blackboard implements the feature. We did not have direct access to the demonstration website, so we could not test keyboard support and other markup and scripting issues related to accessibility. Direct access is critical for evaluating accessibility to help Blackboard create accessible coding specifications and quality assurance controls that can be used internally by Blackboard to ensure functional access by people with disabilities. Hadi will be attending the BbWorld Conference next week and I hope you and some of your colleagues have an opportunity to meet with him. I think that he can show you some of the issues on accessibility, that are difficult to understand without personal experience or observation. Can I share your response with the members of the Blackboard Accessibility Interest Group? Sincerely, Jon ---- Original message ---- >Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:08:30 -0400 >From: "Jessica Finnefrock" >Subject: Blackboard Partnership with the Blackboard Accessibility Interest Group >To: >Cc: "David Yaskin" > > Dear Jon and the other members of the Blackboard > Accessibility Interest Group- > > > > Thank you for the letters you sent earlier this > month. Your candid feedback is very much appreciated > as is your willingness to deepen the partnership > with Blackboard. Enhancing the usability of our > products for all users is a critical priority for > Blackboard especially as we design our future > solution products, and your help in this effort will > ensure our collective success. > > > > We'd like to respond directly to the suggestions you > made regarding ways to expand the partnership: > > > > o Establish a standardized process and timeline > for providing input on design techniques for > accessible features and enhancement to future > Blackboard product releases > o Propose new features and utilities for the > evaluation and creation of accessible content by > instructors and course developers. > > > > The Blackboard Idea Exchange (BIE) is the forum for > providing this type of feedback on the product > roadmap. We have recently created the capability for > BIE members to submit issues and respond to > surveys/requests for prioritization help on behalf > of a group versus as individual clients. > Applications for the BIE can be found on > http://connections.blackboard.com. If you have any > follow-up questions about joining the BIE or > submitting issues on behalf of the Blackboard > Accessibility Interest Group, please contact Jamie > Onuschak at jamie.onuschak@blackboard.com or > 202-463-4860 x2882. > > > > When the Product Development team initiates work on > a new feature, we send information on opportunities > for Product Development Partnerships (PDP) to all > BIE members. The PDP program will allow individual > Blackboard Accessibility Interest Group members to > work in a concentrated fashion with members of the > Product Development team on a feature that is of > particular interest. At a minimum, we'd like to have > a few members from this group participate in the PDP > for the New User Experience project we will be > working on starting in Q3. > > > > o Develop accessibility guidelines for third party > add-ins and a Blackboard accessibility logo > program for companies that comply. > > > > Great feedback! We have some information in this > area documented today, but have not done so in a > very organized fashion. The head of our Technical > Communications team, Andy Jacobson, will be reaching > out to you all shortly to kick off a project to > improve our third-party developer documentation. > > > > o Support users with disabilities by improving > customer support resources. > > > > As part of a new orientation process for Client > Support, we are educating staff members on > accessibility to ensure they have the necessary > skill set to provide support and can identify when > an issue needs to be escalated to Product > Development for a code fix. We are investing heavily > in a continuous training program for the team and > accessibility training is an important part of that > education. We are hopeful you will see positive > results from this training over the next few months. > Please let us know if you do not see improvement in > this area. > > > > o Identify a representative from the Blackboard > Quality Assurance, Blackboard Customer Support > and Blackboard 3rd Party add-on support group to > participate in the Accessibility Interest Group. > > > > Stephanie Cupp (Product Development) and Jason > Minkoff (Client Support) will be the lead > participants in the bi-weekly Blackboard > Accessibility Interest Group meetings. They will > bring other members from Blackboard into these > discussions as appropriate to present on specific > topics of interest such as a presentation and > listening session on the QA process for > accessibility. > > > > We are both looking forward to the opportunity to > speak with many of you in person at BbWorld in > Boston! > > > > Best, > > > > Jessica Finnefrock > > VP, Product Development > > Blackboard Inc. > > 202-463-4860 x2459 > > > > David Yaskin > > VP, Product Strategy > > Blackboard Inc. > > 202-463-4860 x2263 > > This e-mail is intended only for the personal and > confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. > It may include Blackboard confidential and proprietary > information, and is not for redistribution. Jon Gunderson, Ph.D. Director of IT Accessibility Services (CITES) and Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology (DRES) WWW: http://www.cita.uiuc.edu/ WWW: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jongund/www/