The document discusses the City University of New York's (CUNY) efforts to expand access to assistive technology software through university-wide licensing. This allows all CUNY students and faculty to access software like JAWS, ZoomText, and WYNN on any campus computer. It established the CUNY Assistive Technology Services project to research, test, and deploy assistive technologies across CUNY. The university-wide licensing model has expanded access both on and off campus and supported over 10,000 students with disabilities across CUNY.

1. University-Wide
Accessibility:
Supporting all
Students and Faculty
with Disabilities in
Higher Education
Carlos Herrera
Assistant Director of
Services for Students
with Disabilities,
Coordinator of the
CUNY Technology
Accessibility Task Force
CUNY
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2. EXPANDING ACCESS THROUGH
UNIVERSITY WIDE LICENSING OF
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE
A National Model

3. WELCOME
• Carlos Herrera, Assistant Director, SSD; Coordinator CUNY IT
Accessibility Task Force
• Shivan Mahabir, Manager, CUNY Assistive Technology Services
(CATS)
• Bill Kilroy, Mike Wood, VFO Group

4. BENEFITS
•Access for all students with
disabilities throughout CUNY
•Access to the software at home or
on the go
•Access for students with learning
challenges
•Access to students who may not
want to self-identify as having a
disabilityUniversity wide
licensing allows
for:

5. CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
• The City University of New York is the nation’s leading urban public
university.
• Founded in 1847, the University comprises 24 institutions: 11 senior
colleges, seven community colleges, William E. Macaulay Honors
College at CUNY, CUNY Graduate Center, CUNY Graduate School
of Journalism, CUNY School of Law, CUNY School of Professional
Studies and CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health
Policy.
• The University serves more than 272,000 degree-seeking students.
College Now, the University’s academic enrichment program, is
offered at CUNY campuses and more than 400 high schools
throughout the five boroughs. The University offers online
baccalaureate and master’s degrees through the School of
Professional Studies.

6. VFO GROUP
• AT Product Brands
• Ai Squared ZoomText Fusion
• Freedom Scientific JAWS MaGIC WYNN
• Optelec Optical and Video Magnifiers
• The Paciello Group Consulting

7. CUNY STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
• Approximately 10,000 students are registered with CUNY DS
offices across multiple campuses
• Staffing levels vary from campus to campus
• Most Assistive Technology staff are part time workers
• Staff work directly with students and in supporting
accommodations

8. DISABILITY SERVICES ACROSS CUNY
COSA
COSDI
Special
Projects
• Central Office for Student
Affairs (COSA)
• Council on Student Disability
Issues (COSDI) advisory
• Campus Disability Services
• Special Projects
CUNY Assistive Technology Services
Media Accessibility Project
Learning Disabilities Project

9. CUNY ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
SERVICES PROJECT (CATS)
• Researches and tests AT products
• Negotiates with vendors
• Supports deployment across University
• Trains the campus AT staff
• Maintains CATS website as University resource and training
archive (www.cats.cuny.edu)

10. CATS GOAL:
Our goal at CATS is to help promote universal design by
giving equal access to all students with disabilities. By having an
unlimited license to JAWS, Zoomtext. WYYNN and Open Book we
can install these software on all computers across CUNY which will
give students the tools they require at any workstation of their
choice.

11. MEDIA ACCESSIBILITY PROJECT (MAP)
• Provide Faculty and staff training and resources on media
accessibility.
• Provides captioning services and transcripts
• Creates accessible digital documents, such as Microsoft Word,
Microsoft PowerPoint, and PDF documents for online course
content

12. LEARNING DISABILITIES PROJECT
• The mission of the Learning Disabilities Project is to develop
CUNY students’ self-understanding of their own strengths and
limitations.
• The Learning Disabilities Project addresses these needs by
assisting students in receiving educational evaluations. Live
training and online resources are provided to faculty and staff
at CUNY to support students.

13. HOW AT IS PURCHASED AT CUNY
LOCAL PURCHASING
• Students often come with basic
training from VR agencies
• Campus by campus
• Software Maintenance
Agreements
• lack of home access
CATS VOLUME PURCHASING
• Allows for specialized training
• Sets standards and testing
• Recommends specific products
• University wide licensing expands
access to home usage

14. WHICH AT IS PURCHASED
TYPE
• Reading and writing suites
• Screen enlargement
• Optical character recognition
• Screen readers
BRAND
• Wynn; Kurzweil 3000, Text Help
• ZoomText, MaGIC
• Open Book, Kurzweil 1000
• JAWS

15. CUNY ACCESSIBILITY CONFERENCE
We are pleased to invite you to the 9th Annual CUNY Accessibility Conference!
Our Annual Conference brings together over 300 attendees that include
professionals and other important figures in higher education. This Conference
is an essential pathway to sharing information and cutting edge ideas
throughout CUNY.
Date: April 6th, 2018
Location: John Jay College of Criminal Justice
524 West 59th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenue
New York, NY 10019
2nd floor Dining Hall
Follow us on Twitter @CUNYAccessCon and on Facebook @CUNYAccessCon.
Register to attend at http://cats.cuny.edu/cac/

16. CUNY I.T. ACCESSIBILITY TASK FORCE
Members include senior level staff and managers from Legal
Counsel, Student Affairs, IT Services, Communications and
Marketing, Disability Services, Library Services and Human
Resources
Tasked with assessing the accessibility of IT products and
services and reporting back to University CIO.
Established Campus liaisons across all CUNY campuses

17. CUNY I.T. ACCESSIBILITY TASK FORCE
IT Steering Committee allocated $1,000,000.00 Strategic
Technology Initiative (STI) to purchase of University wide licensing
of assistive technology software and fund demonstration projects
Multiple pilots projects have been funded, including:
• STI demonstration pilots CUNY Start
• Blackboard LMS based Faculty Accessibility training
• Web auditing and remediation training
• School of Education learning modules at Lehman College

18. LICENSE ALLOWS FOR EXTENDING VALUE
THROUGHOUT CUNY DEPARTMENTS
Basic skills literacy development / remediation (installed in all
learning labs)
Educational opportunity uses for tutoring and academic supports
• CUNY Start
• Testing services
• Web content accessibility testing
• CLIP ELL students
• Special programs throughout the CUNY system

19. DEPLOYMENT CONSIDERATIONS
•Created a script with the authorization key for easier deployment
• Install with any imaging software to multiple computers
• Provide IT and Techs with software and installation documents

20. DEPLOYMENT CONSIDERATIONS
•Reaching out to AT Specialist/ IT
•Held a “Train the Trainers” workshop to demonstrate the
new features
•Help a meeting with Director/Chairperson of the
departments to inform them of what we are trying to
achieve.
These efforts lead to better understanding and
coordination of services in other areas

21. RECOMMENDATIONS
Basic skills literacy / remediation installed in all learning labs
College discovery uses for tutoring and academic supports
Staff usage (anyone with a cuny.edu email address
• CUNY Start (college prep)
• Testing services
• Web content accessibility testing
• ELL students
• Special programs throughout the CUNY system

23. CUNY ACCESSIBILITY CONFERENCE
We are pleased to invite you to the 9th Annual CUNY Accessibility Conference!
Our Annual Conference brings together over 300 attendees that include
professionals and other important figures in higher education. This Conference
is an essential pathway to sharing information and cutting edge ideas
throughout CUNY.
Date: April 6th, 2018
Location: John Jay College of Criminal Justice
524 West 59th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenue
New York, NY 10019
2nd floor Dining Hall
Follow us on Twitter @CUNYAccessCon and on Facebook @CUNYAccessCon.
Register to attend at http://cats.cuny.edu/cac/