Upcoming Office of Disability Access Events

Courtesy Notification

Courtesy notifications are sent to faculty who have a d/Deaf or Hard of Hearing student enrolled in their course. The purpose of this communication is to allow faculty time to remediate any content so that it is accessible for all of their students. The Office of Disability Access is here to partner with faculty in accomplishing this task. It is often easier to make content accessible when initially creating the content; however, if your content is already created, please reach out to us if we can help you in making it accessible. 

This information is posted on our website, in addition to sending an email, to allow a greater audience to access this information. The trainings listed below are for any Faculty and Staff member of the UNT System, including student staff. 

Communication Access Services

The Office of Disability Access works with the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students here at UNT to ensure communication access in university courses, student organization meetings, and campus-wide events. Students must be registered with the Office of Disability Access to receive Communication Access Services for UNT classes or events.

Service Providers 

American Sign Language Interpreter - An American Sign Language Interpreter will interpret Spoken English into American Sign Language as well as ASL into Spoken English. This person will hold a State or National Sign Language Interpreter Certification.

CART* provider - A professional captioner that will use a steno machine, software, and a laptop computer to translate spoken English into printed text. A student who uses a CART provider will receive a complete transcript of the class within 24 hours of the class ending. The CART provider may be in-person or providing the service remotely through a tablet or zoom link.

Service Providers are assigned to the classroom to facilitate communication between you, the Deaf or Hard of Hearing Student, and the rest of the class. This service provider should in no way hinder the workings of the classroom or your course/teaching methods.

Media

Audio and Video components of your in-class lectures, or on Canvas, must be closed-captioned or they are not accessible to all students and any video content available to students must have accurate captions or it cannot be posted. A student cannot be assessed over content that is not accessible to them. YouTube captions are typically very inaccurate and will require review/editing before use.

The Office of Disability Access does not provide captions or transcripts for Audio or Video course content. Many departments will utilize a TA to add captions and review them for accuracy. If your Department is unable to add and edit the captions, you can contact Rev.com and they can edit the captions for you. This will then be billed to the department. Please contact ASLCART.ODA@unt.edu for instructions on how to setup your department to use this service.

Please also take time to review the CLEAR Accessibility Compliance Checklist (hyperlinked) as well as their Accessibility page for other helpful information. 

Faculty Training Opportunities

ODA has hosted training focused specifically on working with our Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. This training will be conducted via Zoom and will occur on the dates listed below. Please note that all of the trainings are identical so you do not need to attend multiple occurrences of these trainings. If you would like to have a follow-up training or additional training topic, please complete our Presentation Request form. If you require reasonable accommodations for this presentation, please contact us at ASLCART.ODA@unt.edu or 940-565-4323. The Provost's office has approved these for ABCA credit.

09/06/2023 - 10am-12pm

10/04/2023 - 3:00 pm-5:00 pm

10/05/2023 - 10am-12pm

11/01/2023 - 3:00pm - 5:00pm

11/02/2023 - 10am-12pm

Collaboration Meeting:

Providing an equitable experience for all of our students is incredibly important. Each student navigates this world in a variety of different ways. By ensuring your content is accessible, you are ensuring that no matter what student you have in your class, they have access. While federal law and University policy have accessibility requirements to make sure course offerings and programs are accessible to all of our students, we understand that you may want to know more about your specific student or discuss your specific class. We'd be glad to setup a meeting to discuss this further with you. Please contact ASLCART.ODA@unt.edu to setup a meeting.