FAQ

What is the Distance Education Captioning and Transcription (DECT) Grant?

The DECT represents a commitment by the California Community Colleges to expand access to distance education to all students. Further, DECT provides a means for colleges to promote faculty innovation in the use of audio, video, and multi-media content in distance learning classes. The system's substantial support for DECT is also a recognition that distance learning is the fastest growing segment of CCC enrollment. Funding has been authorized by the Chancellor's Office to aid California Community Colleges in improving their capacity to serve disabled student populations and, in some instances, the general public, by ensuring the accessibility of aural information. Services will be provided to colleges through a process whereby the grantee contracts with outside captioning vendors to provide assistance to any community college that elects to use these vendors as well as establish policies and procedures to reimburse colleges that contract these services directly with a captioning vendor not under contract.

Why do you need this funding?

• To ensure student access
• To support faculty innovation
• To support mission-critical technological advancement
• To comply with federal and state legal requirements

The following is a list of qualifying projects:

• Online classes
• Hybrid classes (some instructional hours offered at a distance)
• Realtime Captioning

Description of the types of 3rd party videos that qualify for funding and other details:

• If a video with captions is available for purchase, please consider purchasing the available version rather than requesting DECT funding. DECT funding should not be requested for videos that are already available in a captioned format.
• If a captioned version of the video is held in your library or media collection, please consider licensing this video so that you can stream it in online classes.

As a reminder, the following types of videos do not qualify for funding:

• Newly purchased videos - since federal and state regulations require that colleges only purchase accessible instructional materials, DECT funding should not be needed for this purpose.
• Legacy videos in a college collection - the CCCCO provided funding to caption existing collections of videos over a decade ago, so current DECT funds cannot be used for this purpose.

Finally, please note the following language that is included in the DECT application for funding: Regulatory Compliance - By signing this Application and Agreement and accepting Grant funding, Applicant District agrees that it will comply with all California Education Codes, Public Contract Codes, other applicable laws and regulations and Applicant District's policies and procedures and, further, certifies that Project as submitted is allowable within the terms of the Grant as described on the website: www.CCCDECTGrant.org

Does Audio Description qualify for captioning under the DECT Grant?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), Level AA include audio descriptions: “1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded): Audio description is provided for all prerecorded video content in synchronized media. (Level AA)” If a college wishes to strive for WCAG 2.0 AA compliance, it might choose to provide audio descriptions in instruction.

Are community education or community extension classes eligible?

The DECT grant does NOT cover community services/continuing education material. The DECT covers apportionment generating classes only--credit, non-credit, but not no-credit. Here is language from a legal opinion from the state Chancellor's office regarding the use of DSP&s funds for community services:

"The state funds Disabled Student Programs and Services (AAC) to offset the direct excess cost to community college districts of providing such services. However, AAC funds can only be used to serve students with disabilities who are enrolled in State supported activities. Therefore, support services for students with disabilities who are enrolled in community services must be funded from student fees or other college resources. While the need for accommodations should be assessed on an individual basis, it may be advisable to establish general policies and procedures for providing support services to students with disabilities in community services programs.">

What kind of reporting do you need to do?

We request that you fill out the End of Term Report at the end of the semester. We would like to track the outcomes of this funding. Accordingly, we ask that you provide us with two sets of data from the classes served.

1. The number of students enrolled in the class(es) at the start of the term and the number of students enrolled in the class(es) at the end of the term.
2. Student retention and success rates in the class(es).