Ensuring Accessibility in Online Education

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hello and welcome to the Ensuring Accessibility in Online Education presentation. My name is Colleen Fleming and I am an Instructional Designer at the Adler School of Professional Psychology. The Adler School has a campus in Chicago, one in Vancouver, and several degree programs that are entirely online. Online education gives opportunities to a wide array of students, but also presents unique challenges for students with disabilities. Dealing with accessibility can be frustrating because solutions to these challenges are as diverse as the students who may require accommodation. Some examples of accommodations include providing transcripts or captions for videos, converting documents such as PDFs so that they can be read by a screen reader, making sure that all course functionality can be accessed using a keyboard, and giving students extra time on tests within the learning management system. Incorporating accessibility as part of the course design, course review, and faculty education process helps prevent rushed attempts to update a course to meet student needs. This presentation will outline the accessibility requirements for online higher education courses, the accessibility procedures and training that have been implemented at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, and practical ways to ensure that online course content can be used effectively by all students.
• #3: I’m going to do my best to cover a lot of material in this presentation. We’ll discuss the types of disabilities that you need to consider when developing online courses, accessibility laws and school policies, using and creating accessible content, educating faculty about the issue of accessibility, conducting accessibility reviews of courses, and I’ll provide you with some additional resources.
• #4: In education, and especially online education, the word accessible can mean many different things. It can be used as a synonym for “available” when instructors talk about being accessible. It can also be used when discussing whether content can be accessed using a particular technology. For example, someone might talk about how Flash content is not accessible on an iPad. However, today we will focus on accessibility as the ability for all students to access and use course content, regardless of any disability they may have.The quote on the slide above is from the Web Accessibility Initiative at an organization called W3C. They point out that “It is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with diverse abilities. Indeed, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes access to information and communications technologies, including the Web, as a basic human right.”
• #5: We will be discussing the four types of disabilities that we need to be aware of when working on accessibility issues for our courses: Visual, Auditory, Motor, and Cognitive.
• #6: Visual disabilities include blindness, low vision, and color blindness.Challenges for students with visual impairments may include:Documents/websites that cannot be read by a screen readerUse of images or color to convey informationAscertaining the order of items in a tableLow contrast between text and backgroundText and images that become pixelated when magnified
• #7: Imagine if you were a blind student or a colorblind student and you were asked to compare the laws on a certain topic for all of the states identified with the color red on the map below. If you were unable to see the map or could not distinguish between certain colors, you would be unable to complete this task. This is why images always need to have alternative text descriptions associated with them and you should never rely solely on color to convey meaning. In this example, the red-colored states should also be listed using text.
• #8: Auditory disabilities include various degrees and types of hearing loss.Challenges for students with auditory impairments may include:Audio clips (including podcasts and interviews) without a transcriptVideos without captions or transcripts Audio in multimedia that is not also displayed via text
• #9: Imagine that you are a student with a hearing impairment and an instructor gives you an assignment that includes listening to and evaluating the content of an audio-only interview. Could you complete that assignment?In this situation, the student would need a transcript of the interview in order to complete the assignment. If the interview were a video instead, the student would require either a transcript or closed captioning.
• #10: Motor disabilities include those resulting from injury and those resulting from diseases and congenital conditions.Challenges for students with motor impairments may include:Inability to use a mouse or challenges controlling a mouse or keyboardMay be relying on voice-activated software or eye tracking devicesLong lists and lengthy content can be difficult to navigate
• #11: Students with upper body mobility impairments may have trouble using a keyboard and may be unable to use a mouse at all.Imagine if you were a student who was unable to use a mouse or touchscreen and had to rely entirely on a keyboard to access a course. What would you do if you were taking a quiz that had a question where you had to use a mouse to select the answer (such as drag-and-drop questions)?Challenges such as these are why we need to make sure that students can access everything in a course using only a keyboard and that items are well structured so that it is easy for students to navigate without use of a mouse.
• #12: Cognitive disabilities include difficulties with memory, problem-solving, comprehension, and attention.Challenges for students with cognitive impairments may include:Timed tests or quizzesCourses and assignments that are not well-structuredLack of clarity in directions and information
• #13: Students with learning and cognitive disabilities may have difficulties with timed tests, especially those with lengthy written or reading comprehension sections. Imagine if you were a student with dyslexia who was taking a timed test that involved reading a lengthy case study and writing an essay response. Additionally, consider how you would feel if you also knew that any errors in spelling and grammar would have an adverse effect on your grade. Students with cognitive disabilities will often require extended text time and may also need to be provided with additional accommodations depending on their circumstances.
• #14: The accessibility laws that are applicable to courses at the Adler School of Professional Psychology include sections 504 and 508 of the U.S. 1973 Rehabilitation Act, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the British Columbia Human Rights Code. Because the Adler School has campuses in both Chicago and Vancouver, we need to make sure that our courses follow the accessibility laws for both locations.
• #15: Section 504 of the U.S. 1973 Rehabilitation Act states that “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States, as defined in section 705 (20) of this title, shall, solely by reason of his or her disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity* receiving Federal financial assistance or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency or by the United States Postal Service.”This definition includes institutes of higher education such as the Adler School. Section 504 gives a general guideline that people with disabilities should be able to benefit from any program that receives federal financial assistance, but does not go into specifics regarding technology.
• #16: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act was amended in 1998 to include specifics regarding technology. It states, in part, that “When developing, procuring, maintaining, or using electronic and information technology, each Federal department or agency…shall ensure, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the department or agency, that the electronic and information technology allows, regardless of the type of medium of the technology individuals with disabilities…access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access to and use of the information and data by such members of the public who are not individuals with disabilities. ” Although Section 508 does not technically apply to education, we need to pay attention to it because courts rely on its standards to assist them in measuring web accessibility. Therefore, it is often seen as a companion to Section 504 when evaluating the accessibility of technology used in education.
• #17: The Americans with Disabilities Act states that “No qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity.” The act is focused on government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation, and telecommunications. However, it is also frequently cited by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in its investigations.
• #18: The BC Human Rights Code states that “A person must not, without a bona fide and reasonable justification,deny to a person or class of persons any accommodation, service or facility customarily available to the public, or discriminate against a person or class of persons regarding any accommodation, service or facility customarily available to the public because of the race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation or age of that person or class of persons.”
• #19: Now that we’ve covered the applicable laws, we’re going to go over the accessibility policies and procedures that are school-specific. Your schools probably have most or all of this information, but the important part is to make it easy for students to find. School-specific accessibility information includes a Compliance Statement, ADA Policy and Procedure Guide, Accommodation Request information, and accessibility related to software tools used at the school.
• #20: An accessibility compliance statement is included in all syllabi and the student handbook. It is important that students have easy access to information about who to talk to if they need accommodations in their course and understand that they need to do so in a timely manner.
• #21: One of the challenges with accessibility in higher education is the issue of timeliness and trying to avoid rushing around at the last minute to implement accommodations.In their earlier educational experiences, students with disabilities likely had an Individualized Education Program/Plan (IEP) or Section 504 plan that helped their instructors understand their disability and what could be done to ensure the student learned more effectively (i.e. if accommodations needed to be made). That plan is updated and maintained through high school graduation. However, the plan is not required for post-secondary education. Therefore, in order for accommodations to be made for a particular student, they need to self-disclose their disability or impairment.
• #22: The Adler School ADA Policy reads as follows, “The goal of reasonable accommodation is to enable the student to meet the learning objectives of the degree program without placing an undue burden on the campus and without sacrificing the content and the objectives of particular courses and training events. An accommodation focuses on removing barriers that may prevent a student from meeting those objectives, or focuses on allowing the student to prove that the objectives have been achieved in another way. Accommodations do not make course work easier for students with disabilities than for the general student population; they simply make equivalent learning opportunities available.”
• #23: The Policy and Procedure Guide goes into more depth than the compliance statement and gives detailed information about:Adler School policy regarding the school’s compliance with disability lawsAVP of Student Affairs as facilitator of accommodation implementationHow to initiate the accommodation processThe components of the accommodation processAccommodation timeline and confidentialityAccommodations for external sites (qualifying exams, practicum, internship)
• #24: When making sure that you are using accessible software and resources, it is important to review available accessibility statements, evaluate proposed software, and evaluate proposed resources such as files and links.
• #25: When considering a software program or too, start by reviewing accessibility statements provided by those products. These statements typically include:Accessibility features and supportAccessibility best practices and tips for user-generated contentInclude links to the software accessibility statements where applicable. For example, we provide a link to the Moodlerooms accessibility statement on our Accessibility information pages.
• #26: If you are planning to have students use any particular software in the course, look to see if the company provides an accessibility statement. Evaluate any proposed software and resources (such as documents and links), by asking yourself:Can this be used by students with visual disabilities?Can this be used by students with auditory disabilities?Can this be used by students with motor disabilities?Can this be used by students with cognitive disabilities?If the answer to any of those questions is no, determine if there are accommodation options (such as converting a resource to an accessible version).
• #27: When you are creating content for your courses, it is important to make them accessible whenever possible. We are going to cover the following areas when discussing how to create accessible content: Structure and Formatting, Alternative Text for Images, Scanned PDFs vs. Accessible PDFs, and the Accessibility Checker.
• #28: When creating documents, always use the Styles feature to indicate the title, headings, etc. Do not format the text only using the text formatting options (such as Increase Font Size and Bold).Students with screen readers will have a much easier time accessing and understanding the information in this document if Styles are used. Styles will also pre-populate the document sections in the Navigation pane and make it much easier for all students to search through the document.
• #29: If you are working with a lengthy Word document, it can also help students to insert a Table of Contents. If you have been using Styles correctly, a Table of Contents can be automatically populated from the items in the Navigation pane. To insert a Table of Contents, go to the References tab in Word and select the Table of Contents type that you would like to use. It will auto-populate with the correct page numbers. The numbers will be replaces with clickable links for all Table of Contents items if you ever choose to save the document as a web page.
• #30: Alternative text (Alt Text) should be added for all images. The Alt Text provides a description of the image for students who are unable to see the image. To add Alt Text:Right-click on the imageSelect “Format Picture”Click on “Alt Text”Enter a brief description of the image in the Description field
• #31: Here are a few tips for when creating accessible Excel spreadsheets:Provide Alt Text for all imagesAvoid using blank cells for formattingGive all sheet tabs unique namesSpecify column and row headersIf row 1 and column A contain the headers, put your cursor in the top-left cell (A1), select “Name Manager” in the Formulas tab, click the “New” button, and enter “Title” as the name. A screen reader will now be able to automatically speak the row and column headings as the user moves between cells.
• #32: Here are a few tips for when creating accessible PowerPoint presentations:Use slide layouts as provided and organize content in a logical structureProvide Alt-Text for all imagesText should use a legible font and be clear in meaningMake sure that there is good contrast between the text and backgroundView the slides in Grayscale to see how a person who is colorblind would see your presentationUse unique titles for all slidesEnsure that the reading order of each slide is logical
• #33: Many instructors like to share PDF copies of articles or documents with their students. If those PDFs are accessible, that is a great way to disseminate information. However, not all PDFs are accessible. Inaccessible PDFS (including any PDFs that were scanned) need to be made accessible by using text recognition (also called OCR – optical character recognition), adding Alt Text for images, and making sure the PDF will be read in the correct order by a screen reader.PDFs can be converted using Adobe Acrobat Pro. If you have any PDFs that need to be converted and would like additional information, please contact Adler Online.
• #34: Transcripts and/or closed captioning should be provided for all videos in a course when possible. If a video as been provided by a publisher, they will typically have a transcript or captions available. When a video does not have captions or a transcript you can either send it to a third-party captioning/transcription service (we use 3Play Media) or do captioning/transcription in-house (we use YouTube to sync and upload video and SRT file to Kaltura). Captions and transcripts are not only useful for students with auditory disabilities. They can also help ESL (English as a Second Language) students and students who learn better by reading than listening.
• #35: An Accessibility Checker tool is available in Microsoft products such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel as well as in Adobe Acrobat Pro. These tools will analyze your document and give you a report about what areas need to be updated in order to make the file fully accessible.
• #36: After you run the Accessibility Checker on your document, you will receive results that will list items that you must fix and items that you may want to check. You will click on an item to see additional information about the issue and step-by-step directions on how to fix it. Make all repairs and run the Accessibility Checker again.
• #37: If you have a document with no accessibility issues or have fixed all accessibility issues in a document, you will see a message like the one on the right. When you reach this point, you can be confident that all students will be able to fully engage with this file, regardless of any disability they may have.
• #38: An awareness of inclusive course design (commonly called Universal Design for Learning) has been incorporated into our development process. When designing out courses we make sure to include captions and transcripts, use accessible documents, provide Alt-text and use templates to provide clear directions and easy navigation.
• #39: It is important to teach faculty about accessibility, especially because not all courses go through a formal instructional design process or instructors may make changes after courses have been built.Faculty training for new online instructors includes an introduction to accessibility issues and information about how to ensure accessibility in their courses. Additionally, all course authors are required to submit an audio script for any presentations that are created for their course in order to make the implementation of closed captioning more efficient. We are also planning to offer an accessibility-specific training course in the future that will go into more depth.
• #40: Adler Online started a formal accessibility review process in summer 2013. So far, 67 courses have gone through an accessibility review. Of those courses, only 3 did not require accessibility updates. Of the 64 remaining courses, so far 44 have been updated and are now accessible.The biggest accessibility barriers in courses reviewed were:Inaccessible documentsVideos without transcripts/captions
• #41: For each course, an Accessibility Review Form must be filled out. The form is broken into the following sections: General InformationCourse PagesVideosWord DocumentsExcel SpreadsheetsPowerPoint PresentationsPDF filesLinks
• #42: The review process is supported by the following documents and technologies:“How To” Guides for filling out the Accessibility Review Form and fixing accessibility issuesCourse Accessibility Review Status spreadsheet tracks review status, updates needed, and courses that need to be reviewedWAVE Toolbar for easily identifying website accessibility issuesMicrosoft Office and Adobe Acrobat Pro Accessibility Checker tool
• #43: Here are a few resources that will provide you with additional information about the topics we discussed today.
• #44: If you have questions about anything we have discussed, please contact Colleen Fleming using the contact information below.