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Opening Doors to Accessibility

June 23, 2015

Gates at Harvard

Photo Courtesy of Campus Technology

"Too often, it takes drastic measures to get accessibility into the spotlight. Just last month, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and four deaf and hard of hearing individuals filed class action lawsuits against Harvard and MIT, charging that 'the schools discriminate by failing to caption the vast array of online content they make available to the general public, including massive open online courses.' While MOOCs purport to bring higher education to the masses, the lack of captions for some video content essentially closes the door to people with disabilities.

The lawsuits are not seeking monetary damages; instead, their objective is to change the universities' conduct. As NAD CEO Howard Rosenblum explained in a YouTube video, 'Both universities have many of these videos, so we are suing them first and expect to ensure full online video access at all other universities and colleges across the country. This lawsuit is part of our battle for full access to online media content. We want equal access for all.'

Read more at Campus Technology