Keeping Accessibility in Mind

Accessibility, with regards to distance education, is an important topic that we can NOT afford to ignore. Oftentimes, it feels like the 2-ton, pink elephant in our virtual room and it may be difficult to address. First off, I think we all would agree that it is important to us as educators that we want to know that our content is reaching EVERY student, right?
So let us follow through with the idea of reaching EVERY student and break it down into some things to think about. Oh, and keep in mind that it is a law that we must comply with and make our content accessible. (http://www.section508.gov)


As you know, all of our online courses provides the standard Disability Statement and suggests that if a student has a documented disability, they must contact our Disability Services office in a timely manner in order to be accommodated. If that is the case, would you be ready? Would you suddenly be in a scramble and have to make adjustments in your course so that student would have an equal experience in the course and be able to successfully meet the learning objectives?


I’d like to introduce to you the concept of Universal Design. Maybe you have heard of it? Basically, what universal design suggests is to design your course from the moment of conception to be accessible to EVERY student, not just students with disabilities. The purpose of UD is to “reduce barriers to the curriculum while maintaining high achievement standards for all.” (http://www.cast.org) The good news is that research shows that when we design our online content with accessibility in mind, there is a bonus affect where the other students will benefit from the design as well. The design will provide options for students with different learning preferences and styles.



Please keep in mind that some of your learners…

• may have low vision and they use a screen reader to assist them.
• may be hard of hearing and depend on closed-captioning or transcripts to understand audio content.
• may not have the ability to use a keyboard or mouse.
• may have a text-only screen, a small screen, or a slow Internet connection.
• may not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written.
• may have cognitive impairments such as dyslexia or attention deficit.
• may have learning style preferences.

So what can YOU do right now to ensure that your course is accessible? Here are some guidelines:

General Accessibility Guidelines

1. Provide equivalent alternatives to ALL auditory and visual content.
   a. Provide transcripts for audio
   b. Closed-captioning for video
   c. Use ALT tags for images
2. Do NOT rely on color alone to emphasize text.
   a. use headers, BOLD or italic instead
3. Use style sheets and/or simple HTML headers to control layout and presentation for maximum readability but also for use with screen readers.
4. Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's content. Content should be understandable and navigable. Providing navigation tools and orientation information in pages will also maximize accessibility and usability.
5. If you use tables, create them so they will translate gracefully with a screen reader by identifying the rows and column headers.
6. For any multimedia presentation (e.g., a movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives (e.g., captions) with the presentation.
7. Ensure that foreground and background color combination provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having color deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen.
8. Use header elements to convey document structure and use them according to specification.
9. Divide large blocks of information into more manageable groups where natural and appropriate.
10. Clearly identify the target of each link. In other words, don’t provide a link that says Click Here.
11. Instead present it like this: Go to http://www.google.com
12. Avoid any flickering, blinking or flashing content.
13. Be willing to arrange special access to online quizzes or exams.
14. Choose your images and graphics wisely; Make sure they are instructionaly supportive rather than just for decoration. Always use ALT tags.

Resources and articles for more information:

• World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3.org
• The law: http://www.section508.gov
• The Accessibility in Distance Education (ADE), University of Maryland University College: http://www.umuc.edu/ade/wia/benefits.html
• A free online textbook “Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age” http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/ Universal Design for Learning: www.cast.org
• Santovec, M. (2005, March). A New Way to Evaluate Accessibility. Distance Education Report, 9(5), 1-7. Retrieved June 29, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.