Accessibility
Preparing for Colorado's new accessibility law is a significant challenge for school districts across the state. COSPRA has committed to pull together resources and updates to help our members navigate it all.
This session examines Douglas County School District’s successful passage of a critical Mill Levy Override in 2023, following an unsuccessful attempt in the previous year. With significant challenges, including unprecedented property tax increases, the district enhanced its strategic approach by further intensifying community engagement and developing a dedicated website to inform the community about its funding challenges. Learn how these efforts communicated the essential need to invest in teacher and staff pay, ultimately securing community approval.
Presenters: Amanda Kujawa, Douglas County School District; Beth Egan, Finalsite
COSPRA is part of NSPRA's Southwest Region and every month different chapters will be presenting on different topics. Our chance is in March and given all of our focus on the new Colorado accessibility law, we will be sharing the universal lessons learned. Some of the content will likely be a refresher for our members, but we will aim to have new content too.
Here is what we covered:
- The new law and accessibility & 10 things you can do now to make your materials more accessible
COSPRA President Elect Dalton Sprouse
COSPRA President Randy Barber
- Partnering with members of your community
Jodie Carroll - Boulder County, Colo.
- What you need to know about video and accessibility
Diane Taylor & Sean Leveille -Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind
- Accessibility and Language
Don McGinnis - Boulder Valley School District
March 20, 2024 NSPRA Southwest Region - Accessibility Slidedeck
Resources shared during the session:
WhoCanUse Color Combination Checker
- Accessibility
Some representatives from Boulder County shared the work they've been doing to get ready for the new accessibility law before it takes effect in July, including an audit of their website, implementation of tools, and working with outside vendors and volunteers.
Boulder County's Accessibility Effort
Here is their presentation:
COSPRA Presentation.pptmAdditionally, they shared some of their work, including their website style guide and internal website resources on accessibility.
- Accessibility
Becca Bultsma, the Director of Communications at Westwind School Division in Alberta, Canada, spoke about generative artificial intelligence (including Chat GPT) and how it can help school communicators.
Whether you're a little apprehensive about robots taking over the world or you're ready to let AI give you a hand, Becca provided information to get us up to speed, shared tips on how to get started, as well as ways she is employing it to make her work in School PR easier.
Additionally, she was recently on the School PR Happy Hour podcast.
- AI
For COSPRA's first-ever Hot Topic, we focused on the new Accessibility State Law (HB21-1110), which requires all government entities, including Colorado school districts, to meet accessibility standards by July 1, 2024.
Membership Perspective: Poudre School District
As I said during the session, much of our strength is in our membership. It was great starting with the perspective of COSPRA member Madeline Noblett of Poudre School District, who shared the actions her school district is taking to address Colorado's new accessibility law, HB21-1110.
Additionally she shared several of the documents that she and her team have developed, including
- Notes from a few PSD Accessibility Workgroup meetings that have context and capture discussions that have taken place so far.
- A doc with info about our four smaller workgroups, along with their success criteria and deliverables
- A copy of a deck we use for training people on creating accessible content
- Link to our board's CASB resolution (scroll down to bottom of the doc)
Special Guest: Colorado Office of Information Technology
Karen Pellegrin with the Colorado Office of Information Technology then spoke about the law and actions districts can take to prepare prior to the July 1, 2024 deadline.
- Accessibility