Certain accessibility requirements must be addressed when developing learning materials for electronic dissemination to students. Distance education courses, resources and materials must be designed and delivered in such a way that the level of communication and course-taking experience is the same for students with or without disabilities.

• Solution
• Get Assistance
• Accessible Webpages
• Review your Webpages for Accessibility Compliance
• Tutorials and Training
  

The 2011 Distance Education Accessibility Resolution by Foothill College Faculty Academic Senate strongly encourages faculty to familiarize themselves with the requirements specified in the Distance Education Accessibility Guidelines for Students with Disabilities and to take immediate steps to ensure that their online courses and materials are in compliance with these guidelines.

See Distance Education: Accessibility Guidelines for Students with Disabilities from the Chancellor’s Office California Community Colleges.

• By law, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act , learning materials, including interfaces, images, sounds, multimedia elements, and all other forms of information, must be made available for used by anyone, regardless of disability.
• Detailed information about accessibility guidelines are available at Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Still not convinced of the need to address accessibility? Watch this 11 minute video - To Care and Comply: Disability Access produced by Portland Community College.

Solution:

The most common accessibility compliance issues can be avoided by only using webpages for instruction that -

• Provide text-equivalents for non-text content (including pictures and audio)
• Use foreground and background colors that contrast sufficiently
• Provide captioning for videos
• Structure large blocks of information into more manageable groups
• Clearly identify the target of each link (do NOT use "click here")
• Avoid animation

Learn how to make your online course and learning materials available to ALL students regardless of learning style or disability and then get assistance from staff.

How to make your online course site and webpages accessible

Etudes

• Guide to Making Your Etudes Course More Accessible
• Granting Special Access to Assignments or Tests

Webpages

• Find out what to ask publishers BEFORE you adopt their textbooks or require your students to use their websites.

Videos and Audio Recordings

• All required instructional video for online and hybrid courses MUST be captioned and audio must be transcribed.
  • Captioning and Transcribing (Videos and Audio)
  • How to Caption in YouTube
  • Accessible Captioned Web Video at No Cost
  • Accessibility of Video and Audio
  • Distance Education Captioning and Transcription
  • Caption It Yourself
  • Where to Find Videos that are Already Captioned

Images

• All images and photos must have alternate text and/or long description
  • Adding Alt Text to Images in Microsoft Word
  • Creating Accessible Image Links
  • Appropriate Use of Alt Text
    • Use empty Alt-tags - (example: " ") for all decorative and non-essential images
    • Alt-Tags - for all non-decorative images with alt-tags that describe the information you want the student to understand from the displayed image.
      • Example: Use “Joy of connecting with family while watching a movie” instead of more literal “Family sitting on couch watching movie”

Math

• Math Symbols and Equations
• Convert Expression to MathML
• Accessibility and Mathematics
• Strategies for Math on the Web

Downloadable Documents

• Make all downloadable documents accessible
• Guidelines to Make Accessible Documents and Media
• Cheat Sheets - Make Microsoft Word, PowerPoints and PDFs Accessible.
• Microsoft Word Universally Designed
• Accessible Microsoft Office Documents
• Accessible PDF’s (Created using MS Word, Open Office)
• Accessible PDFs with a Macintosh Computer
• Microsoft Office 2010 Accessibility Checker

Information Hierarchy

• Use Headers, shorter 3-5 sentence paragraphs, simple and communicative visuals
• Use “bold” and “italics” sparingly

Color and Contrast

• Only use color to convey meaning if you provide a written explanation
• Use high contrast for text against the background

Universal Design for Learning

• UDL: A Concise Introduction (HTML | PDF)
• How Do You Teach? A UDL Checklist (DOCX | PDF)

Accessibility Compliance Verification: Review your webpages for accessibility

• Accessibility Checklist for Web Content and Online Courses: A Self-Assessment Tool
• Accessibility Testing Tools
• Evaluating Website Accessibility
  • Web Accessibility 101 - Manual Validation
  • WAVE: Submit a URL for Accessibility Verification and get a detailed report
  • Web Accessibility Achecker
    AChecker can be used to test Web pages to ensure they conform with various international accessibility standards, and that pages are accessible to people with disabilities.
    • PDF of Instructions for Using Achecker to check accessibility of content in Etudes Modules using Achecker
    • Video of Instructions for Using Achecker to evaluate a webpage for accessibility (8.52 minutes)
  • Web Accessibility Evaluation and Repair
  • Quick Reference: Testing Web Content for Accessibility
  • Accessibility Checklist-508 Compliance
• Evaluating Document Accessibility
  • PDF Checker
  • Document Checker
• Accessibility Evaluation and Repair Tools
• The Importance of Human Evaluation

Get Assistance from Staff

• Nas Ouliaei, Tech Training Specialist
  • (650) 949-7566
  • ouliaeinas@fhda.edu
• Steve Sum, Alternative Media Specialist for Adaptive Learning
  • (650) 949-7673
  • SumSteven@foothill.edu
  • Alternative Media Services (request captioning for video)
  • General information for faculty
• Judy Baker, Dean of Foothill Global Access

Tutorials and Training

• Creating Accessible Microsoft Office 2010 documents (Office of the Governor, Texas)
• AtomicLearning Assistive Technology Tutorials
  • Contact Judy Baker for login info
• Access E-Learning - 10 modules
  • Accessibility Issues of Disabilities in Distance Education
  • Planning for Accessibility in Distance Education
  • Making PowerPoint Slides Accessible
  • Making Video Accessible
  • Making Flash Accessible
  • Making Word Documents Accessible
  • Making Excel Documents Accessible
  • Making PDF Documents Accessible
  • Making Webpages Accessible
  • Making Scripts and Java Accessible
• Create Accessible Learning Material
  • Video: Find and fix accessibility issues in Word 2010 (3 minutes)
  • Create Accessible Word Documents
  • Video: Find and fix accessibility issues in PowerPoint 2010 (1 minute)
• Microsoft Powerpoint Techniques
• Video: Find and fix accessibility issue in Excel 2010 (2:42 minutes)
• Creating Accessible Flash Content
• PDF Accessibility
• Preparing Accessible PDFs with Adobe InDesign CS5.5
• Creating Accessible Javascript
• Captioning Video the Do-It-Yourself Way with Donna Eyestone and Micah Orloff
• Captioning and Transcribing (Videos and Audio)
• How to Caption in YouTube
• HTML Accessibility with Dreamweaver
• Dive Into Accessibility -30 days to a more accessible web site
• Introduction to Screen Readers
• Guidelines
  • Models of Accessible Course Design
  • Fact Sheets on Accessible Distance Education
  • Guidelines for Accessible Distance Education
• Accessibility Tools
  • Introduction to the Screen Reader
  • WebAIM Screen Reader Simulation
  • The Secrets of Screen Readers Revealed with Sean Keegan
• Accessibility of Online Chat Programs
• Introduction to Web Accessibility
• Are Frames Accessible?
• Section 508 Tutorial
• Art of ALT
• Real Connections: Making Distance Learning Accessible to Everyone (12 minute video)
• High Tech Center Training Unit - Training schedule
• Cognitive Disabilities
• Invisible Disabilities

Accessible Web Design

• Evaluating Website Accessibility
• Quick Reference: Web Accessibility Principles
• Accessible Web Design
• Real Connections: Making Distance Learning Accessible to Everyone
• POUR

Tool

• My Web My Way - Tips for students about how to make the web easier to use 

Guidelines

• Distance Education: Access Guidelines for Students with Disabilities
• Utah State University, Web Accessibility in Mind (Webaim)
• Ten Indicators of Distance Learning Program Accessibility
• Principles of Online Design Instructional Media