Colleges told to prioritize accessibility when buying new technology

Colleges and universities need to consider accessibility features in the early stages of each technology purchase, putting students’ needs at the forefront of their business practices, experts said Tuesday.

The pandemic has seen some progress on schools’ understanding of how technology can serve not only students with disabilities, but everybody in the classroom, said Sam Johnston, the director of postsecondary education and workforce development at CAST, previously the Center for Applied Technology. After COVID-19 forced schools to adopt online platforms, users became familiar with features like auto-captioning and saw that making materials accessible is much easier than expected, she said.