Follow Up to the Unlikely Mash-Up of HTML5 and Student Affairs

The ideas of HTML5 and student affairs take time to make the connections in my brain, and I found myself thinking of my post from yesterday about how these two topics, HTML5 and student affairs work, continue to connect:

Tech comm and student affairs professionals value accessibility, diversity, and inclusion

Another place where I was able to make connections between HTML5 and the field of student affairs is in the way that the ideals of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion are promoted. In his book about HTML5, Keith advocates the use of graceful degradation in design where needed, but calls for the use of assistive technology wherever possible; to use these techniques as standard pieces of design. At colleges and universities, there are offices and services dedicated to those who require assistive technologies for learning. In the physical and technological classrooms, this is a natural place where the two fields meet.

This idea of access is wider than the use of assistive technologies and writing good code so that users with disabilities can view or hear web pages. Both fields struggle to provide the kind of access that all people need when it comes to diversity and technology, though both value inclusion. In universities, graduation rates are still lower for people of color than for white students, as reported in the Texas Tribune and reprinted in the January 1, 2011 New York Times article, Universities Are Challenged as Demographics Shift. "Nationally, 52 percent of Hispanic students and 58 percent of black students are unable to earn a bachelor’s degree in six years, compared with 40 percent of white students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics." For student affairs professionals, the need to provide services to students is great and offices of diversity and inclusion can include services that are technological in nature. Similarly, the professionals in our university offices that serve our students of color, and beyond just the offices dedicated to the delivery of services, should understand that today's students communicate and learn differently. As my Illinois Institute of Technology college Chris de Kok said today, "Gone are the days of the laptop on the desk from the nineties. People are using mobile devices all over campus to tap into our services. We need to be ready for that level of access."