7.3 - Introduction to Accessibility

  • Reading time: 3 min.
  • Video time: 0

"Like many of her peers, Ann Wai-Yee Kwong struggled in statistics while working towards a bachelor's degree in psychology at UC Berkeley. But because she is legally blind, she had an added challenge of not being able to see the diagrams and notes projected in the lecture hall or assigned for homework.

Tools like screen readers could ease this issue for Kwong, who is now a Ph.D. student at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California Santa Barbara. But a common problem prevented that: some faculty have been slow to catch up with technological advances, and many wait until students ask for accommodations rather than having accessible materials from the start."

from Improving Accessibility Often Falls to Faculty. Here’s What They Can Do. Links to an external site.

As you are likely aware, accessibility is an important issue for everyone who teaches online and hybrid classes, both in terms of regulatory compliance and in providing equitable opportunities for all students to succeed. What does it mean to make your class accessible? "'Accessible' means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use." (Office of Civil Rights definition as quoted by Sheryl Burgstahler In ADA Compliance for Online Course Design Links to an external site.)

Are You Ensuring Accessibility?

Let's take a deeper dive than what we reviewed in Accessibility: Both Federal and State Requirements and Universal Design for Learning and Accessibility. Take a few minutes to reflect upon what you currently know about accessibility and the efforts you make toward this end, as well as what you would like to learn about accessibility.

Compliance with every technical accessibility standard can seem daunting. Sheryl Burgstahler provides 9 essential tips for faculty creating course web pages, documents, images, and videos in ADA Compliance for Online Course Design Links to an external site.:

  1. Use clear, consistent layouts and organization schemes for presenting content
  2. Structure headings (using style features built into the learning management system, Word, PowerPoint, PDFs, etc.) and use built-in designs/layouts (e.g., for PPT slides).
  3. Use descriptive wording for hyperlink text (don't use "click here" or the actual "http" link as the text).
  4. Minimize the use of PDFs, especially if the PDF is an image of text rather than selectable text; make sure the text is accessible by testing to see if you can copy and paste it. Always offer a text-based alternative as well.
  5. Provide concise alternative-text descriptions of content presented within images.
  6. Use large, bold fonts on uncluttered pages with plain backgrounds.
  7. Use color combinations that are high contrast and can be read by those who are colorblind.
  8. Make sure all content and navigation is accessible using the keyboard alone.
  9. Caption and transcribe video and audio content.

 In addition to the list above, consider the following:

  1. Add a Disability Accommodations statement to your syllabus.
  2. Add links to Vendor Accessibility information for any specialty products used in your course (i.e. technologies that are not supported by the college).
  3. Create instructional content following accessibility principles related to Structure, Images, Links, Tables, Color, and Captions & Audio Descriptions.
  4. Follow application-specific recommendations for creating accessible content (using tools such as Canvas, Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs, etc.).
  5. Use accessibility-checking tools provided with applications (these may be built into the application, or may be a third-party add-on).
  6. Ensure readability through word choice, sentence structure, font choice, and text formatting.

What are you already doing well when it comes to accessibility? What are your areas for improvement? Resources on the next page may help.