Overview

Creating accessible course materials ensures all students have access to the course content and can fully engage with the learning activities. By reviewing the course materials and utilizing these help guides, instructors can create a welcoming learning experience for all students that meets universal design and accessibility standards.

Getting Started

• Start with the most important content the students need.
  • Is the syllabus accessible?
  • Are the videos closed captioned?
  • Do the required readings meet accessibility standards?
• As Thomas Tobin shares in his book (Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone), use the “plus one strategy.”    
  • Fix one thing today and something else tomorrow
  • If students are struggling with an activity, what could be changed to make it clearer and more accessible?
• Start small and work with accessibility in mind as you continue to make changes and design quality courses

Best Practices

• Use the accessibility checkers in Microsoft applications to ensure the files are accessible before posting in your Blackboard course
• Check the Ally scores for the files posted to make sure something wasn’t missed
• Include Alt Text for images, pictures, and graphics so screen readers can provide the item’s important information
• Check the course overall Ally score in Books & Tools: Accessibility Report

Learn More

The following is a list of the top 15 accessibility issues with information on what they mean and how to fix them. The list is in alphabetical order.

1. Accessibility Checkers - All documents and presentations (example: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDFs) have been tested with an accessibility checker.
2. Alternative Text - A written description of an image, graph, chart, or other visual element on a web page or a digital document, embedded for screen readers.
3. Accessible Applets, Scripts, Extensions and Plugins - Links are provided to all applets, scripts and plugins needed to launch various technologies.
4. Audio Description - Text describing what is being displayed in a video for persons with a visual impairment.
5. Color Contrast- The contrasting colors of brightness with backgrounds, images, and text. Text and graphics are meaningful when viewed without color.
6. Descriptive Links - Text describing the hyperlink to provide context to understand the purpose of the link. The link is embedded in the text.
7. External Tools & Resources - Accessibility of all tools, content, materials, and websites, including those from external sources, needs to be confirmed to meet accessibility standards.
8. Headings - Are used to organize content and make it easy to navigate.
9. Long Description - A text version of information displayed in a complex image, chart, or graphic. This is similar to alt text, but includes more detail.
10. PDF Tags - Tagging PDF documents creates a structure that allows assistive technologies to read through the document in a logical and understandable order.
11. Permalinks - Web addresses that point to a specific resource online and are designed to remain unchanged for years.
12. Reading Order - The order in which a screen reader will read out the text and text included.
13. Tables - Are ways to help organize information, but also need to be read easily by a screen reader.
14. Video and Audio-only Transcripts  - Video and audio-only transcripts are a text version of the audio content.  
15. Video Captions and Descriptions - Videos should all have the option to display captions (subtitles) synchronized with the audio.

FAQs

• General Questions about Accessibility

Use Cases

• Research tells us that there is a connection between course accessibility and student success. Accessibility and Disability Inclusion among top-funded US Undergraduate Institutions - PubMed.
• Accessible and Inclusive Online Learning in Higher Education: a Review of the Literature - JCHE article reviewing the ways “institutions are prepared for and actively providing students with accessible and inclusive online learning opportunities.”

Universal Design/Accessibility

• Universal Design for Learning - knowledge base page with information on how to use this framework in designing, developing, and teaching courses.
• Research study found that Universal Design for Learning (UDL) instruction showed moderate-to-large positive effects on student academic achievement - CAST Evidence and Benefits of UDL