LCC Accessibility Initiative

Mission Statement 

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law on July 26, 1990, LCC strives to ensure “people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life.” That means all of our resources must be accessible to all students and employees. Beyond being a legal requirement for the college, ensuring our students and employees have the materials they need to succeed is simply the right thing to do and in line with our mission as an institution.

About Accessibility

Accessibility can mean many different things for many different kinds of resources, but at a broad stroke, consider this:

• Word documents, PowerPoints and PDFs need to be readable by a screen reader or other assistive technology.
• Images need alt-text to describe the picture to visually impaired students, or they need to have another alternative that allows students to gain the information contained within the image.
• Videos need to be captioned to provide deaf and hard of hearing students with a text version of the audio.
• Third-party software used in the classroom, like MyMathLab or Quizlet, needs to be accessible.
• Online forms need to be navigable using just a keyboard.

LCC Policies

4.002 - ADA Reasonable Accommodations
4.011 - Nondiscrimination

laws and guidelines

Americans with Disabilities Act
Prohibits discrimination of persons with disabilities.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education.

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act
Prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in all programs, activities, and services of public entities.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
Requires Federal agencies' electronic and information technology be accessible to people with disabilities, including employees and members of the public.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.AA
Guidelines for web accessibility developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium.

Accessibility Plan and Progress

The Accessibility Initiative began with the creation of an Accessibility Workgroup, made up of representatives from academic and non-academic areas of the College, to steer the project. All departments were asked to identify course materials, forms, and documents that were being utilized at the College, determine their accessibility and make them accessible by the set deadline. Additionally, the workgroup focused on:

• Ensuring students and employees had materials they need to succeed.
• Following the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) law.
• Providing resources for employees working to make items accessible.
• Relaunching the College website in an accessible format and style.
• Making improvements to third-party integrations.

LCC has entered the next phase of its Accessibility Initiative. The College has formed the Accessibility Committee for Quality Assurance (ACQA, pronounced “aqua”). This committee, made up of representatives from academic and non-academic areas of the College, is charged with developing and monitoring an oversight and quality review process.

To that end, ACQA is focusing on the following areas:

Establishing Guidelines

To provide accessibility guidelines and to regularly evaluate and update those guidelines as needed.

Systematic Accessibility Review System

To conduct periodic, regular reviews of course materials, forms and documents, website in order to check their accessibility, provide remediation when necessary and ensure the College’s accessibility efforts are ongoing.

Consistent and Relevant Training

Provide training to ensure employees understand and support accessibility at LCC.

Communication about Accessibility

To ensure that the importance of accessibility is consistently communicated to the College community and to provide useful resources for best practices.

Aspects of the initiative like guidelines, training, and procedures are evolving as we learn more and as we continue improving accessibility for our students and colleagues. If you have questions or would like to be a part of ACQA please contact ACQA@star.lcc.edu