While expanding online and technology-enhanced course offerings will advance the educational opportunities Eastern can offer, at the same time, the university must ensure that those new opportunities are open to all students.

The newly created associate vice president for academic affairs for technology position will be responsible for leading Eastern’s technology into the future of technology-enhanced and delivered education.

Three finalists recently participated in on-campus interviews, so the new leader in technology at Eastern is close to being chosen.

That new leader will be responsible for making online and technology-enhanced education available to students with disabilities. Those accommodations will differ from arrangements made for students with disabilities in a traditional classroom setting.

The Dean of Graduate Studies, Bob Augustine, who has also been filling the new position in the interim, said he envisions that assisting students with disabilities will potentially change in the relatively new realm of online and technology-enhanced classes.

“I think it’s possible that the accommodations might be different,” he said. “That certainly is a possibility.”

Kathy Waggoner, disability services assistant director, will be responsible for providing students with disabilities equal learning opportunities in the online age.

In an e-mail response, Waggoner said that universities must ensure that a comprehensive policy exists so that students with disabilities are always presented with equal opportunities instead of simply having special needs addressed as they occur.

With that in mind, Waggoner said her office must ensure that those opportunities exist with online and technology-enhanced education.

“The courts have held that a public entity violates its obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act when it simply responds to individual requests for accommodations on an ad-hoc basis,” she said. “Students with disabilities must be provided an equal opportunity to participate in any course, course of study, or other part of the educational program or activity offered by the recipient of Federal financial assistance.”

The university is taking steps to address accessibility issues, a task that involves multiple departments, Waggoner said. Academic Affairs, The Center for Academic Technology Support, the Instructional Technology Center and the Center for Academic Support and Achievement are all aware of the need to facilitate some students special needs, she said. In addition, individual faculty members are responsible for adapting their course Web Sites.

Facilitating those accommodations throughout the various departments will require planning and funding. Waggoner was chosen by Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs, to evaluate the resources necessary to support the new online and technology-enhanced courses.

“I was asked by the VPAA to write an initiative for the 2003 year addressing the need for new money to help ensure technological access for persons with disabilities,” she said, noting that the new associate vice president for academic affairs for technology might also have a large impact on the future of technology and accessibility. “I have attended two of the interview session(s) for the associate VPAA for technology because this person could be a key player on campus to take the steps to ensure technological accessibility to persons with disabilities.”