“It was apparent from our first interactions that accessibility was important to their entire company - that it was a language they spoke.”
The Office of Disability Services provides reasonable academic accommodations for students with disabilities. The team strives to provide the necessary tools, resources and support for individuals with disabilities to become responsible decision-makers and self-advocates in charge of their own future. They are dedicated to providing information and resources necessary for students to pursue their academic, personal and professional goals while at Rutgers.
Carlie Andrews is the Senior Director for the Office of Disability Services at Rutgers University. She oversees a team dedicated to working with students, administrators, faculty, and staff across Rutgers to create an inclusive environment for all individuals. As their mission statement says, “We in the Office of Disability Services firmly believe that disability is simply another aspect of the diversity that weaves the rich fabric of the student body at Rutgers.”
During the pandemic, Carlie’s team found itself seeking solutions to maintain business as usual despite closing offices and transitioning to remote learning and administration. The team implemented Olark live chat as an additional communication channel to ensure students and faculty could still get questions answered quickly. What started as a test has now become a mainstay in the office’s communication tech stack.
What led you to choose Olark for student communication?
The Office of Disability Services works with students with disabilities to ensure they have the academic accommodations to access the educational opportunities available at Rutgers. This requires a lot of communication with the students as well as their families and folks from their high school experience, such as guidance counselors, teachers, etc. All of these individuals play a role in obtaining and implementing accommodations, so everyone must be on the same page with our office throughout the entire process.
Pre-pandemic, we primarily communicated via email, phone, and walk-in appointments. When the pandemic hit and walk-ins weren’t possible, we explored live chat as another way to communicate with the necessary constituents.
We had never worked with chat before, primarily because we needed a chat option that was accessible—ADA-compliant and able to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards—and there were very few options on the market that were fully accessible. We refuse to put anything on our website that's inaccessible.
When we discovered Olark is fully accessible for the end-user, it seemed like something we should at least try. Additionally, it requires a low commitment to get started, so we could go month by month and see if people use it. Turns out, people did use it, and it was a great balance of connecting with people in a manageable number of chats.
How did you confirm that Olark was an accessible product?
Part of it was looking at the VPAT - that's always where we start with any vendor. We also talked with some Olark staff, and it was apparent from our first interactions that accessibility was important to their entire company - that it was a language they spoke. It wasn't simply a salesperson reading from a script and lacking a deeper understanding of the product.
We also had independent testers within Rutgers who were able to determine that it was, in fact, accessible. And Olark was very responsive to our needs throughout the entire process. For example, one of our testers discovered a color contrast issue within the chat box. When we raised that issue with Olark, they resolved it quickly. There was no question that it would get fixed; it was just a matter of how long. That was what sold me on a long-term relationship with them.
How was it onboarding the team to use Olark?
Our staff has a wide range of tech proficiency, so I had concerns that some people wouldn’t learn how to use Olark or would be resistant to it. But Olark is such a simple platform to use that everyone found it easy to utilize.
Olark’s agent experience is also accessible, so it gives us peace of mind knowing that if we have employees who have accessibility needs, this is a tool they can use.
Has Olark been a value add for your team?
Olark has made life easier for our staff and our students. Students have a way to reach someone on our team quickly from any device. For our team, chat allows us to answer easy questions quickly, and gives us more time for in-depth questions over the phone or email.
We’ve also trained our team to tag conversations consistently so we get deeper insights on frequently asked questions. This helps us improve our website messaging and other lines of communication. It also helps us understand who chats with us most frequently—student or guidance counselor, family member, etc.—so we can better tailor the information we provide.
Are you using Olark chatbots to answer questions?
No. Our staff members play a critical role in the process, so it was important to ensure that humans are answering questions. We always emphasize that the best way to reach our department is through chat on our site: https://ods.rutgers.edu/. It’s important to build trust that an experienced team member will be available to answer questions.
What advice would you offer your peers who might be considering offering chat?
Try it for a month. Try it for two months. Try it for a semester. If you don't like it, if your staff doesn't like it, if no one seems to be utilizing it, then just stop. There's no harm done. I think people will find, as we have, that there are benefits of providing additional ways for your constituents to communicate with your office, in a way that's easy for staff to manage.