December 5, 2017 2017-102
The Governor of California
President pro Tempore of the Senate
Speaker of the Assembly
State Capitol
Sacramento, California 95814
Dear Governor and Legislative Leaders:
As requested by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, the California State Auditor presents this audit report concerning the California Community Colleges’ monitoring of services for technology accessibility and the procedures for upgrading information technology (IT).
This report concludes that the three community colleges we reviewed are not adequately monitoring their performance in responding to requests from students with disabilities for course materials in accessible media formats, and one has not established a goal for how long it should take to process these requests. Additionally, the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges (Chancellor’s Office) has not provided guidance to community colleges on monitoring their compliance with accessibility standards. As a result, the colleges cannot demonstrate that they are meeting students’ requests for accessible materials within a reasonable time frame. When students do not have equal access to instructional materials and their requests for an alternate format are not addressed promptly, they do not have equal educational opportunities.
Although the colleges and related districts we reviewed have some processes and tools for replacing and upgrading their IT equipment, none of them have formalized these processes to ensure consistency and continuity in the future. Additionally, the Chancellor’s Office does not provide guidance to all of the colleges and districts related to upgrading or replacing IT equipment. We also noted that college instructional departments could not consistently provide documentation showing the stakeholder input received when deciding on what IT to replace or upgrade. Without formalizing their processes by documenting procedures for instructional department staff to follow when making decisions on technology equipment, the community colleges cannot ensure that these processes are consistently followed and are transparent.
Respectfully submitted,
ELAINE M. HOWLE, CPA
State Auditor