Date: April 9, 2007
To:
Peter Segall, President of United States Higher Education
Jessica Finnefrock, Vice President of Product Development
David Yaskin, Vice President of Marketing
From: Blackboard Accessibility Interest Group Educational technology Officers
RE: Blackboard disability access policies, resources and services
Partnership Background
In October of 2004, individuals 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
necessary for improving the functional accessibility of Blackboard Vista
Enterprise (formerly WebCT Vista 4). Blackboard also has a history of working
with different disability groups including WebAIM and private consultants to
improve the accessibility of Blackboard Academic Suite products, but has not
developed a functioning accessibility users group. The current interest group has
invited Blackboard users to participate in a new combined Academic Suite and
WebCT Enterprise accessibility interest group that now includes over 30
institutions with a productive relationship with Blackboard through Robert Dumas,
Manager of Blackboard User Interface Group. We would like to commend the
work of Robert Dumas in working with both the Accessibility Interest Groups and
within Blackboard to achieve the improvements in accessibility of the Blackboard
Vista Enterprise product line.
However, development is only one component of accessibility. We would like
accessibility to become an intrinsic part of customer support services, quality
assurance and instructional content development at Blackboard.
Expanding the Partnership with Blackboard
 Establish a standardized process and timeline for providing input on
design techniques for accessible features and enhancements to future
Blackboard product releases.

Propose new features and utilities for the evaluation and creation of
accessible content by instructors and course developers.

Develop accessibility guidelines for third party add-ins and a Blackboard
accessibility logo program for companies that comply.

Support users with disabilities by improving customer support resources.

Identify a representative from the Blackboard Quality Assurance group to
participate in the Accessibility Interest Group.

Identify a representative from the Blackboard Customer Support group to
participate in the Accessibility Interest Group.

Identify a representative from the Blackboard 3rd Party add-on support
group to participate in the Accessibility Interest Group.
Recommendation
We recommend that Blackboard representatives work with the Blackboard
Accessibility Interest Group to make Blackboard the premier Course
Management System for accessibility. Please respond with plans for addressing
the above points, along with questions or comments to Dr. Jon Gunderson at the
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign and the Blackboard Accessibility
Interest Group. We look forward to the accessibility improvements in the
resources and services offered by Blackboard, and the benefits they will bring to
all students and educators, including those with disabilities.
Sincerely,
Your name
Your Title