Accessible Classroom
Accessibility for Academics
Optimizing the Classroom for Accessibility
"Classroom" will often be used to refer to everything that you do in a physical (or digital) Classroom including but not limited to classroom management, lesson design and preparation, lecturing, and more. This is because building an accessible course starts with the aforementioned fundamentals-- it is built into the course from the ground up rather than the top down.
The physical classroom is often where we meet our students for the first time. Creating a welcoming, open, inclusive, and accessible classroom will allow students to know that we care for them. Some classrooms, whether physically or pedagogically, are not immediately well-suited to providing for accessibility. However, with some minor tweaks, they can be. Some of these tweaks are obvious while others are a bit more nuanced. As we continue this lesson, you may find that you already do much, if not all, of the things that we mention here. In that case, however, consider how you implement those things. Can you streamline your processes? Better integrate the pedagogy and skills we mention into your classroom? Provide more representation of your students in course materials?
We will start with a basic introduction to the Universal Design for Learning, a pedagogy framework widely considered to be inclusive and accessible, to looking at specific aspects of the classroom including designing lectures and course content, the physical classroom, and classroom management and inclusivity. There is more to creating a fully accessible classroom, but you can use this lesson as a primer of sorts to get you started.
Accessible Classrooms are a Must
Classroom accessibility is a must. New York State and the Federal Government both provide guidelines and laws for Accessibility and Reasonable Accommodation that Canisius must adhere to and, in effect, that you as an instructor must adhere to as well. More on the specific laws can be found in the "How this Resource Works" section.
Even without these guidelines and laws, we here at Canisius often say "We meet people where they are at", a very inclusive Jesuit sentiment. Hang on to that statement for a moment.
What does it mean, in general, to you? Write out a list of say your top 5 interpretations or actions.
Now put it into the context of this lesson. Think about "accessibility" and what it means to you. Does anything change? Do you need to add anything?
How this Resource Works
This site is a self-paced development resource covering accessible text development in a series of pages. Each page is available via a navigation menu at the top of the screen. Also, pages have "Next" and "Back" links at the bottom so that the entire site can be treated as a linear, page-by-page guide. The last page features a proficiency quiz, that can help you get a sense of whether you have grasped the major themes and important points within the guide.
COLI periodically updates it's resources so this guide will occasionally change. We expect to improve it regularly. Major changes are listed within the site's Change Log, and the "Last Updated" date reflects when the last changes were made. The Change Log, together with a list of further resources on the topic, can be found under Site Resources in the upper menu.
The resource is not a complete guide to requirements for web accessibility under Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (as amended), or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Nor does it contain complete guidelines for developing websites or long-form professional publications. Links to more comprehensive resources are available in the site's further resources page.
This site serves as a guide to assist faculty in developing content that is accessible for students at an inclusive university, particularly in formats such as documents (.docx, Google Docs, .pdf) and web pages within content management systems (such as D2L) that are globally compliant with web accessibility standards.