Overview
Until Accessible Information Management (AIM) was launched, students, faculty, and staff in the Student Accessibility Services (SAS), Sign Language Interpreting & Captioning (SLIC), and Alternative Text and Media program areas used multiple home-grown systems to request and deliver services. Communication and data-sharing capabilities were inefficient and not always in real time.
The AIM system is a web-based platform that provides a centralized and secure workspace for access and disability-related student information and operational processes. It provides a secure, confidential, and paperless environment where students who request accommodations, and faculty and staff who prepare and provide the accommodations, have portals customized to their needs for easy navigation and mobile access. AIM provides a platform for easy and confidential communication for students, faculty, and SAS staff to upload, download, track, and electronically sign documents.
Accomplishments
The staff portal was soft-launched on November 7, 2022, for use by SAS staff. The student portal was launched on December 1, 2022, for students to use for their spring 2023 accommodation requests. The Alternative Testing module will be launched on May 30, 2023. Due to the direct participation of student, faculty, SAS, and Testing Center staff in the administration of testing, it is the final, and most challenging, module to launch.
- More than 5,440 active student profiles and over 25,000 inactive student profiles—students formerly receiving SAS services—have been audited and loaded into AIM.
- 588 new students have submitted applications for services through AIM and 2,896 students have made accommodations requests for the spring 2023 semester.
Impact
Student Accessibility and Social Support Resources has leveraged AIM to reorganize Student Accessibility Services, Sign Language Interpreting & Captioning, and Alternative Text and Media by putting them under one administrative umbrella, led by an executive director. The new department is called Access and Disability Support. AIM has created a platform where operational processes have been streamlined, allowing for more efficient communication and data-sharing between our operational units and between students, faculty and staff.
Students can easily request accommodations and track their request status, receive accessible instructional materials after they have been converted, and deliver and retrieve classroom notes. Faculty can view accommodation notices online, send instructional materials for conversion into accessible formats, and schedule accommodated testing. Overall, AIM has had a positive impact on the accessibility and inclusivity of our campus community.
Next Steps
- Integration of AIM with Colleague and Workday to help all Access and Disability Support staff gain access to students’ academic records, class attendance lists, student-level course information, textbook requirements, and faculty information.
- AIM’s text messaging system will be implemented for student and faculty notifications and reminders.
- IT and SLIC staff are working with AIM programmers to refine AIM to make it more efficient and useful for scheduling sign language interpreters.