resistance in organizations

In their discussion of power in Chapter 9, Cheney et al. note that "resistance implies something being resisted--usually a stronger force, resource, person, or institution" (p. 266). As the faculty in residence for the Accessible Technology Initiative in the College of Social Sciences I've observed instructors' resistance to making all their course materials accessible.

The initiative originated from the very top of the organization--the the CSU's Board of Trustees. The mandate is simple in its phrasing but has far-reaching consequences:

It is the policy of the CSU to make information technology resources and services accessible to all CSU students, faculty, staff and the general public regardless of disability.

This means that students will not need to self-identify as having a disability and therefore needing access to specific course material (although students still will need to register with the Disability Resource Center for services such as test accommodations). All new courses must be have course materials accessible by the end of the semester. All courses must be accessible by fall 2012.

My role is to help faculty in the college make all their instructional materials accessible to students. These materials include syllabi, handouts, digital slides (e.g., powerpoint), video (closed-captioned), and webpages. For documents, accessible means it's in a digital and editable format (so, for example, a screen reader can read the document or the student could enlarge the text), text equivalent information is included for images, hierarchical identifiers are included (such as headings), no extra spaces or lines, no text boxes, no relying on color for emphasis, no blinking visuals, and links to websites are described (rather than saying something like click here).

Most of the faculty I've spoken with do want to make their course materials accessible, although some are concerned about sharing all their class notes and digital slides because they view these materials as intellectual property. Others, however, are quite resistant for two reasons. First, they view ATI as another unfunded mandate from the CSU. I agree that converting all instructional materials into accessible formats is time consuming. But once you know how to design accessible materials, it's pretty basic. Second, they object to the increasing pressure for standardization in course materials, such as formats for syllabi, viewing these pressures as an infringement on their academic freedom. From my perspective, however, designing my syllabus in whatever manner I want isn't academic freedom; what I choose to cover in my class is where academic freedom comes in. If SJSU faculty truly want the campus to be a center of inclusive excellence, we must design our classes for all students.

~ Professor Cyborg