48.9 million Americans are living with disabilities (ICI, n.d.), which include but are not limited to mobility issues, visual or auditory impairment and different levels of cognitive ability. The law mandates that places of public accommodation are made accessible to people with disabilities (Johnson, 2009).
Classrooms in higher education (both traditional and online) are considered places of public accommodation and need to be accessible to people with disabilities (deMaine, 2014). What this means is not always clear, especially since not all disabilities are disclosed and not all disabilities are visible or permanent. For example, according to Wentworth’s Disability Services, approximately 30 students in any given academic year sustain injuries or experience illnesses that create barriers to access. While many of these situations are complex with no simple answer or solution (and in many cases individualized accommodation will still be necessary), there are some commonly agreed upon practices that make courses more accessible.
Documents
Common Challenges
- Difficulty locating documents
- Trouble reading/understanding information
Strategies to Document Sharing
- Be consistent with how documents are shared
- Use Bb to organize and share documents
- Use consistent course structure (e.g. Week 1, Week 2, etc.)
- Label links, files and icons consistently with meaningful and self-describing names
And don’t forget your syllabus – it can go a long way by providing a road map of your course!
Strategies for document readability
- For hard copies, be mindful of document font size, color and contrast
- Whenever possible, post electronic versions that are searchable (text vs. image)
- Break large chunks of text into smaller segments
- Accessible Word documents convert to accessible PDF, scans don’t
- Use a true hierarchy (Heading 1 vs. “bold”; numbered or bulleted list vs. – or *, space or tab)
Lectures
Common Challenges
- Difficulty seeing what is being projected or written on the whiteboard
- Difficulty hearing if professor’s back is to the room
- Getting confused/feeling lost
- Having difficulty taking notes while listening to and processing what is being said
Strategies for Accessibility
- Font/color/contrast – is your PowerPoint visible from the back of the room?
- Be aware when you are not facing the class and make sure to repeat essential information facing the class
- Avoid color as a highlight
- Add interactivity/assess understanding throughout (polls, discussion)
- Record lecture and post in Blackboard for future review
Videos and Images
- If using images, such as scans or charts, make sure they can be seen from the back of the room. When posting in Blackboard, keep in mind that images cannot be interpreted by screen readers and provide text-based description of the meaning
- Make sure that audio quality is clear
- Make sure that video contains no flickering
- If posted in Blackboard, make sure that video can be paused and restarted
- Provide text-based alternatives (e.g. description, transcript/captions) when possible
Video/audio captioning is required when:
- Videos are played in the classroom where a student with hearing impairment is present
- Videos are played in a large classroom where a student with hearing impairment may be present
- Videos that will be viewed more than once (e.g. every semester) are posted in Blackboard
Note: Automatic captioning in YouTube videos is not accurate and is not acceptable for accessibility purposes
Related Resources:
On-demand accessibility workshops are available from LIT. Please contact us at LIT@WIT.EDU for more information.
References:
deMaine, S. D. (2014). From Disability to Usability in Online Instruction. Law Library Journal
106, 531.
Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) (n.d.). Basic facts: people with disabilities. Retrieved
from http://www.serviceandinclusion.org/index.php?page=basic
Johnson, K. (2009). Testers Standing Up for Title III of the ADA. Case Western Reserve Law
Review 59, 683