Date: January 27, 2007
To: Robert Dumas and development managers at Blackboard
From: WebCT Accessibility Interest Group partnership with Blackboard
RE: Formalization of WebCT Disability Access Interest Group with Blackboard
Partnership Background
In October of 2004 a group of people representing several universities using
WebCT, including the University of Illinois, University of Minnesota and Purdue
University, created a whitepaper on the accessibility issues and feature
enhancements needed to improve the accessibility of WebCT and the
instructional content created by instructors. Since that time the group has grown
to over xx institutions and had a productive relationship with WebCT through
Robert Dumas to improve the accessibility of Vista 4. The group continues to
evaluate and report on accessibility issues of Vista 4 and propose feature
enhancements for future releases. Group members have expended many of
hours of their own time and resources to help WebCT improve the accessibility of
the Vista product. The group would like to continue this relationship with
Blackboard and expand the accessibility enhancements to all of Blackboards
products.
The purchase of WebCT by Blackboard has brought uncertainty to the current
relationship and the group would like to have a more formal understanding with
Blackboard on the role and recognition of the accessibility group in improving the
accessibility of both current products and future products from Blackboard.
Blackboard has said that it plans to eventually consolidate the product lines of
current WebCT and Blackboard products into a single product and the group
would like to make sure that advances in accessibility of the WebCT product are
included in future developments. The maturity of AJAX and Web 2.0 design
techniques will probably also be included in future Blackboard products and it is
critical that accessibility be considered during the design of these new
technologies to ensure people with disabilities will have functional access to
these products when they are released. The W3C Accessible Rich Internet
Application specifications are currently under development and provide the
markup needed to make Web 2.0 and AJAX applications more accessible and
these techniques need to be used in these future products.
The group feels it has made and continues to make significant contributions to
the accessibility of Blackboard Vista 4 product and would like to reaffirm this
relationship with Blackboard through a more formally defined relationship and
expand the collaboration to other Blackboard products. There has been
considerable goodwill built up over the past 2 years through the WebCT
collaboration and we would like to ensure this continued goodwill with
Blackboard. A more formal relationship will insure that there are no
misunderstandings of the role of the Accessibility Interest Group and
Blackboard’s commitment to accessibility.
Formalizing Partnership with Blackboard
The group would like to see the following items included in a more formal
relationship with Blackboard:

Recognition of the group as a business partner and information about the
group and how to participate is included on the Blackboard website.

The group be able to review and comment on Blackboard accessibility
design techniques for meeting Section 508 and W3C Web Content
Accessibility Guideline requirements.

The group be able to review and comment on Blackboard Quality
Assurance (QA) procedures for accessibility

Timely access to development servers to identify and test for accessibility
issues during the beta test period of product development

Propose feature and resource improvements, like:
a. Support for instructors to test html, Adobe PDF and Office
document resources for accessibility and report the accessibility
issues to instructors.
b. Support for accessible authoring within Blackboards built-in
authoring tools.
c. Development of accessibility guidelines for 3rd party software addons for Blackboard products and a logo program for add-ons that
comply with accessibility guidelines
d. Improve documentation on how people with disabilities can use and
configure blackboard products for disability access and
accommodation.
Benefits to Blackboard of Partnership
There are many benefits to Blackboard in creating a more formal relationship
with the Accessibility Interest Group.

Improvements in usability of Blackboard products to everyone, including
people with disabilities.

Positive publicity as a leader in making web applications more accessible
to people with disabilities.

Cost effective consulting relationship to get detailed information on
accessibility problems and enhancements to Blackboard products.

Improved marketing opportunities to government and other public
organizations that need to buy accessible products.
Conclusions
The group would like to thank Robert Dumas and the other WebCT staff who
supported and implemented the accessibility features in Vista 4 for their time,
effort and dedication in improving the accessibility of Blackboard Vista 4. We
look forward to a continued successful partnership with Blackboard. Please
direct all communications to Dr. Jon Gunderson, University of Illinois
Urbana/Champaign.
Sincerely,
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D.
Director of IT Accessibility Services
University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign
Rehabilitation Education Center 124
MC 574
1207 South Oak
Champaign, Il 61820
Voice: (217) 244-5870
Fax: (217) 333-0248
E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu
Consortium members
Jon Gunderson, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign
Hadi Bargi Rangin, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign
Kostas Yfantis, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign
Phil Kragnes, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Kimerly Wilcox, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Jenny Blaine, University of Minnesota
David Schwarte, Purdue University
Saroj Primlani, North Carolina State University
Lisa Fiedor, North Carolina State University
Don Amos, Pellissippi State Technical Community College
Erin O'Driscoll, Excelsior College
Marsha Allen, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jodi Roberts, Mississippi State University