As we move to a remote learning platform, please ensure that class expectations and materials continue to be accessible to students with disabilities. For support around this effort, below is a list of resources that you may find helpful in the following weeks. We hope this toolkit will help ensure that this rapid change to an online format does not result in lack of access for students with disabilities.
Endicott Accessibility Services Remote Learning Accessibility Tips (Google doc)
The non-profit group Explore Access (exploreaccess.org) quickly developed a remote education toolkit to assist campuses across the country who are moving to online education in response to COVID-19.
https://exploreaccess.org/accessible-online-course/
ADA Compliance for Online Course Design – Best Practices
For course web pages, documents, images, and videos, follow these guidelines:
- Use clear, consistent layouts and organization schemes for presenting content.
- Structure headings (using heading style features built into the Learning Management System, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint (PPt), PDFs, etc.) and use built-in designs/ layouts (e.g., for PPt slides).
- Use descriptive wording for hyperlinked texts.
- Avoid using PDF documents (especially those presented as images) Use a Word version instead as the primary source and link to the PDF as a secondary source to the content.
- Provide concise text descriptions of content presented within images.
- Use either Arial or Sans Serif font in black on white background. Use at least 12 font.
- Use color combinations that are high contrast and can be read by those who are colorblind.
- Make sure all content and navigation is accessible using the keyboard alone and choose IT tools that are accessible.
- Only use videos with captions.
- Ensure all videos transcribe audio content.
- Provide options for communicating and collaborating that are accessible to individuals with a variety of disabilities.
Other Helpful Resources
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AccessDL: A project of University of Washington, DO-IT, this site offers a variety of resources related to accessibility and distance learning.
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National Center on Disability and Access to Education: The National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE) exists to address issues of technology and disability in education policies and practices to enhance the lives of people with disabilities and their families. Be sure to check out their cheat sheets.
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National Deaf Center: 10 Tips for Educators: This resource is provided in response to the rush toward online instruction. The National Deaf Center also offers many other helpful resources for educators.
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University of Connecticut Accessibility Guide: https://accessibility.its.uconn.edu/
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University of Washington: Getting Started with Accessibility
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org: A project of the Center for Persons with Disabilities, Utah State University, WebAIM offers lots of resources to help people design with accessibility in mind and make their web content accessible to people with disabilities.
- Free audiobook, “Meet Me Accessibly – A Guide to Zoom Cloud Meetings from a Blindness Perspective” A guide to Zoom Cloud Meetings from a blindness perspective https://mosen.org/zoom/
Additional Websites offering support:
ADA Compliance for Online Course Design- Educause
https://ecacadtech.net/universal-design-for-learning/