IT Accessibility and Blended and Online Learning

Introduction to Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning

Web accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) are two concepts that are often talked about together in education. At its root Web accessibility is making sure users with disabilities can interact with your electronic content. However, seeing the pedagogical problem simply as, “How do I make sure students with disabilities can participate?” misses the richness of what research has taught us about the way people learn. Every student comes to a course with a unique way of processing information and expressing what they have learned. Some of those students just happen to have a disability. Universal Design for Learning is a set of principles that respects individual ways of learning and maximizes the ways students can engage with a subject. In a sense, accessibility is a subset of UDL. Instead of concentrating simply on “making content accessible”, applying UDL principles allows you to rethink how you construct curriculum so that all people can be engaged.

Introduction to Universal Design for Learning

For an introduction to Universal Design for Learning, watch one of the following videos

• 1. UDL: Principles and Practice, (6:37) by the National Center on Universal Design for Learning.

  2. UDL at a Glance, (4:36) by CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology).

If you have more time and want to see some UDL principles in action, watch the following video segments from Dr. David Rose's lecture on Universal Design for Learning, (45:13):

• 1. (0:00 - 11:45) Introduction to UDL as applied to students with disabilities.

  2. (20:16 - 37:10) Demonstration of universally designed technology.

Introduction to Web Accessibility

For an overview of Web Accessibility in specific and how students with disabilities use the Web, watch:

• 1. Keeping Web Accessibility in Mind, (11:35) by WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind).

Video Accessibility: Key Considerations

Video accessibility overview

• • Deafness: Inability to acquire info in audio-only format

  • Hard-of-hearing: Difficulty acquiring info with specific frequencies, insufficient volume, or background noise

  • Physical impairments: Limited (or no) use of limbs may prevent usage of pointing devices

  • Blindness: Inability to acquire info in visual-only format

  • Low-vision: Difficulty acquiring certain visual info (e.g. limited visual fields, color or motion perception)

  • Cognitive/neurological: Difficulty perceiving, processing, and retaining video content

Video accessibility strategies

• • Provide captioned content

  • Provide audio description

  • Provide a transcript

  • Use accessible media players

  • Implement accessibility policies/processes

Video accessibility resources

General

• How do I make multimedia accessible? (DO-IT)

• Video Accessibility Checklist (HowTo.gov)

• Accessible Technology Resources for Teaching and Learning (CSU/ATI)

Captioning

• Captioning FAQ (WGBH)

• Getting Started with Captions and Transcripts (YouTube)

Audio description

• All About Audio Description (Audio Description Project)

• Example video with audio description and captioning

Accessible media players

• Accessible HTML5 Media Players (WebAxe)

Networking

After the session you can network with peer professionals who are implementing UDL and achieving web accessibility at their institutions, through the EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Constituent Group (ITACCESS).

Web Accessibility Evaluation Resources

Validation Tools

• Check a web page for valid HTML

• Check a web page for valid CSS

Tools to do manual spot checks:

Overall checking:

• • WAVE toolbar (Firefox)

  • Firefox Accessibility Extension (Firefox)

  • Web Developer Toolbar (Firefox/Chrome)

  • Web Accessibility Toolbar (Internet Explorer)

  • WAVE (Web based)

Color contrast:

• • Juicy Studio Accessibility Toolbar (Firefox)

  • Colour Contrast Analyser (Win/Mac)

Screen Reader:

• Jaws is recommended for testing

• NVDA is an up and coming free alternative

  • Voiceover for Macintosh computers is built in