The idea behind this blog post is to discuss how Clockwork meets Accessibility requirements for both staff and student users.
When there is any question about important issues relating to our industry such as the Accessibility of Clockwork, we feel we should weigh in.
We are always pleased to hear how students using other products are happy with the results. That is the bottom line for any accessible software. Rather than quoting specific commendations, we would point at the fact that literally thousands of students over the last 19 years have extensively used our web modules and we have heard of few problems. When we have heard, we have diagnosed and corrected in a timely manner. The proof of our effectiveness here is how many new schools continue to purchase Clockwork based on their discussions with other Clockwork clients. Our Test booking modules are a primary example of our stable performance.
Staff accessibility is a more complex issue as Clockwork presents itself as more comprehensive than our competitors with constant updates and improvements and new versions and modules they do not even have. Clockwork was always the product that sits on the Schools Servers and is therefore subject to far more variables in terms of even correcting a problem if one arises.
Assistive technology like all software goes through various phases of development and sometimes we discover a client’s technology is not the latest addition, or the school has not updated their Clockwork Version. Staff users can have varying degrees of proficiency with their technology, their career is not just about their assistive technology skills. Even with these realities, we have had very few staff-based accessibility complaints over the years and none we have not responded to.
Over the years we have had an updated publicly available VPAT. The VPAT is essential but is not the whole solution. Clockwork unlike many of our competitors is not “simple” it is comprehensive even complex not relying on keywords but performance and functionality. Consequently, we have always had a policy that if there is an accessibility issue the staff member should contact our service desk directly so we can make sure Clockwork is maximized to their assistive technology adjustments.
Our new Cloud-based solution also permits us to work with fewer variables than On-Premise as it sits on Microsoft servers and our staff can make the updates and adjustments for the department. In the future, we would encourage any user having issues with their assistive technology in Clockwork to contact our Service Desk directly at support@clockworks.ca
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George Melendy
ClockWork Student Sucess Consultant