Who is impacted by inclusion of accessible materials? Often students may have a disability and choose not to disclose for various reasons or they may have a preference for how they access content. Individuals who:
Are blind/have low vision.
Are deaf/hard of hearing.
Are unable to use a mouse or keyboard.
Have learning disabilities.
Have difficulty reading.
Have different learning styles.
Are in a public location and cannot access audio content without disrupting others or ability to maintain privacy.
It is important to check (and recheck) documents and content in your courses for accessibility. Some check items require manual checking, others have a built in accessibility checker.
Designing your course to be accessible takes time and practice. In the long run it is worth it for you and your students. Some changes are relatively easy to implement, others may take more time or thought. Checking accessibility can sometimes be accomplished with a built in checker but some things you simply need to "eyeball" and look manually. Some things you may be doing already!
A 2023 WebAIM audit found that nearly 97% of the world's 1 million most popular web homepages had web accessibility errors (WebAIM, 2023). These findings are consistent with similar studies conducted for the previous 4 years indicating little improvement. Accessibility is important and improvements need to be made.
It is important to be proactive rather than reactive. Creating accessible documents initially is much easier and less time consuming than have to revise and update documents. It also saves you stress and pressure if you do have a student with the need for accommodations.
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