Articles on Topics that May Affect Your Policies

To kick off 2024, the Blog Committee shares some of the articles they have been reading related to policy administration in higher education.

Academic Integrity

A Brief Guide to How Colleges Adjudicate Plagiarism Cases
By Beth McMurtrie, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 3, 2024

Administration

3 policy developments college leaders should keep an eye on this year
By Natalie Schwarz, Higher Ed Dive, January 10, 2024

Biden admin dives into next round of higher education regulations
By Michael Stratford, Politico Weekly Education Newsletter, January 8, 2024

Education Dept. Outlines Possible Changes in Accreditation, Distance Education, Other Rules
By Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, January 3, 2024

AI

Creating an AI Policy for Your Marketing Communications Team
By Georgy Cohen, Inside Higher Ed, January 9, 2024

How Will Copyright Law and Plagiarism Change in the Age of GenAI?
By Dan Lohrmann, Government Technology, January 8, 2024

Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

After Months of Political Pressure and a Failed Vote, Wisconsin’s Regents Approve Deal on DEI
By Erin Gretzinger, The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 14, 2023

Better integration policies for international students needed at universities
By Benjamin Maiangwa, University Affairs, October 10, 2023

Judge suspends adoption of pro-Palestinian policy by McGill student union
By Jesse Feith, The Montreal Gazette, November 22, 2023

University of Rochester Creates New Digital Accessibility Policy
By news staff of Government Technology, January 5, 2024

University principal slams Quebec’s proposed French language policy
By Isaac Lamoureux, True North, December 24, 2023

UPEI releases 5-year plan for fixing problems highlighted in scathing review
By Carolyn Ryan, CBC, January 3, 2024

Will New House Bill Help Pregnant Students?
By Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, January 9, 2024

Free Speech

Can a simple procedural reform fix universities’ speech policies?
By John Hasnas, The Hill, December 29, 2023

Institutional neutrality policy adopted at Laurentian University
By Heidi Ulrichsen, Sudbury.com, December 31, 2023

The Ford government is ignoring its own campus free speech policy
By Creso Sá, University Affairs, November 28, 2023

Human Resources

DOL independent contractor final rule announced, will take effect March 11
By Ryan Golden, Higher Ed Dive, January 10, 2024

Illinois becomes third state to enact paid time off for all workers
By Lauren Warnecke, WGLT.org, January 4, 2024

These universities have embraced remote work—and they’re seeing some big wins
By Alcino Donadel, University Business, October 10, 2023

Making Your Policies Accessible to All Audiences

Most institutions are now aware of the need for recognizing and respecting the differences among the members of our stakeholder communities. As policy administrators, many of us are building equity review into our policy development processes.

Most of us now publish our institutions' policies online and share our policy drafts electronically, rather than in paper policy manuals or through paper documents. Just as it's important to consider adding equity review to the development of policies, it's also important that we consider how to prepare the content for distribution in ways that make it accessible to a wide range of people, including those who use assistive devices.

Here are some considerations for your institutions, all of which we’ve put in place here at Washington State University (WSU):

• Establish a policy and/or procedures for improving the accessibility of online and electronic content. As an example, here at WSU we have an executive policy and supporting procedures:
  • University Web Accessibility Policy
  • Ensuring Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility
• Require web accessibility training for all institutional online developers and webmasters.
• Provide issue reporting and complaint/grievance procedures regarding accessibility issues.

At WSU, our Web Communications unit handles web accessibility problems and our institution's ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) coordinator is responsible for managing access complaints and grievances.

Creating Accessible Word and PDF Documents

Most of us use Word to create our source documents and either Word or PDF for drafts and creating web versions of our policies. Taking in consideration of assistive devices, here's some key components for making Word and PDF documents accessible to all:

• Headings:
  • Headings create a hierarchy in the document that a screen reader can follow.
• Document Title, Description, and Tags:
  • A default document title is necessary for a screen reader to be able to scan and read out loud to its user.
  • A document description gives screen reader users a brief summary of the document they are about to read.
  • Document tags allow a screen reader to know if they are looking at an image, a paragraph, a heading, etc.
• Hyperlinks:
  • Hyperlinks need to have clearly defined labels of the destination of each link so that a screen reader is able to read them out loud when scanning the document.
  • It's preferable to embed link URLs (attach the URL in the background to a word or phrase using the Link function), also known as contextual links, rather than writing out URLs in the document.
• Tables:
  • Clear table structures and headers are necessary for a screen reader to be able to scan the document.
• Alt Text:
  • Alt Text data allows a screen reader to scan a description of tables, figures, or images that may be on the document.
• Lists:
  • The built in formatting tools of Word make it easier for the screen reader to scan the document.
• Capitalized Words:
  • Use bold for emphasis and avoiding capitalization of words.
  • Assistive devices may provide capitalized words to users by reading each individual letter, instead of complete words.
• Tab/Reading Order
  • For PDFs, identifying the reading order of a document’s text helps a screen reader present the text as it is meant to be read, rather than just as random blocks of text.
    

Creating Fully Functional PDFs from Word

With the latest versions of Word in Office365, all accessibility functionality in a Word source document may be directly transferred to a PDF version:

• Select File->Save As
• Change the file type (suffix) from the default Word Document (.docx) to PDF (.pdf).
  A PDF file created in this way includes all of your active hyperlinks and other functionality.
  

Creating Accessible Documents from Scanned Images

In order to make scanned document images accessible to a screen reader user, a few things need to be done, otherwise none of the information on the document can be read by a screen reader:

• Make or convert the scanned image to PDF
• Under Tools (in Adobe Acrobat Pro):
  • Select Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
  • Select Text Recognition and In This File, and
  • Select the pages to be included
• Under Tools:
  • Select Action Wizard, then
  • Select Make Accessible
  • Select Find Recognize Text Using OCR
• In the Recognize Text -- General Settings window:
  • Select the applicable language and
  • Select Searchable as the PDF Output Style
• Select OK
  

Accessibility Guides

The process of increasing equity in our policies and policy access is ongoing. Here are some accessibility guides to provide you with further ideas as you get started:

• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
• U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) 18F Accessibility Guide
• WSU Web Communications Accessibility Guides

Considering the Words We Use

An important aspect of policy writing and editing is wordsmithing, i.e., making changes to improve the clarity and style, as opposed to content. The language choices we make can affect a reader's impression of our organization and affect their emotional, as well as intellectual, ability to "hear" the information we're trying to convey.

The words we choose may change over time, as our understanding and appreciation of the impact of our language changes. As my administrative policy office approaches writing and editing new policies and/or updating existing policies, we try to use "new eyes" to view and plan for changes to the words we include, as well as the content we're asked to communicate.

While the wording in an existing or new policy may have been through a number of iterations and appear to still be applicable or agreed upon, it can be useful for policy administrators to review the language for possible updates. Here are some choices to consider:

Inclusive language -- Use inclusive language, replacing oppressive terms with terms that support persons and reduce bias. Inclusive word choices reflect awareness of and respect for the differences inherent in all individuals. Approaching language from a perspective of kindness and respect makes it easier for our audiences to feel safe and more open to accepting the content. It's important to remember that understanding is a function of the heart, as well as the mind.

Plain talk – Plain talk allows readers to find what they need, understand what they find, and be able to use what they find to meet their needs. Even if not mandated for your institution, as it is for federal agencies and Washington state agencies, following plain talk guidelines can greatly increase the usability of your policies and procedures.

Jargon -- Avoid jargon (special words or expressions used by a particular profession or group that are difficult for others to understand), when possible. Define the words when jargon terms must be used. When writing for institution-wide audiences, it's advisable to write your policies and procedures to be read and understood by non-subject matter experts.

Positive vs. negative -- Make positive statements, rather than negative statements, whenever possible. Positive phrasing is easier to understand than negative. And a positive tone affects how readers react to the writing, even just subconsciously.

Useful References

Here are some related references you may find useful:

• Inclusive Language Glossary (Crowdsourced list created by Anti-Racism in Academia (ARIA)):

  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EK39wLk4DgVvye8UagK9l8BnxxaETqioqOuTZ21LNNU/edit#gid=0
  

• Guidelines for Inclusive Language (Linguistic Society of America):
  https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/guidelines-inclusive-language
  

• Plain Language Guidelines (Plain Language Action and Information Network, with support from the U.S. General Services Administration):
  https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines