1. Get Rid of the Gray! Make Accessibility More Black and White!
Erin Blauvelt
Excelsior College
Instructional Designer

2. Learning Objectives
By the end of this presentation, you will be able to:
Create a set of accessibility standards for online courses that fit your individual institution.
Explain accessibility requirements for Standards 8.3 and 8.4 of the Quality Matters Rubric.
Identify technical coding and details needed for compliance with screen readers.
Plan a process for converting some or all of your online courses to an accessible format.

3. So many standards, so little time
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
Rehabilitation Act
Section 508
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative)
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
Universal Design

4. Do what is right for you Divide and conquer
What elements are in your courses?
What standards match the elements in your courses?
What standards can be eliminated?
What is your student population base?
Are certain disabilities more common than others in your student population?
Are there other students that could benefit from accommodations? (universal design)
Develop your own set of standards from those available.

5. QM Standard 8.3
The course facilitates readability and minimizes distractions.
What types of disabilities does this affect?
What visual elements and formatting do your courses use?
Colors
Tables
Graphics
Text placement

6. Facilitating readability Minimizing distractions
Elements
Fixes
Color
Do not use color for instruction
Use only high-contrast colors together
Use color sparingly to keep look simple
Tables
Use tables to convey data in a simple, clean format
Graphics
Include alt tag with image for description
Do not include citation in alt tag
Avoid flashing graphics or animations that do not align with content
Text placement
Use <h1>, <h2>, etc. heading elements to convey headings, subheadings and order
Use bulleted and numbered lists for simplicity
Break up large areas of text
Text formatting
Use consistent font types and sizes

7. QM Standard 8.4
The course design accommodates the use of assistive technologies.
What are assistive technologies?
What are the types of disabilities that benefit from using assistive technologies?
What elements in your courses need to play nice with assistive technologies?
Text formatting
Tables
Equations
Scanned PDFs
Links
Media

8. Accommodates use of assistive technologies
Elements
Fixes
Example
Text formatting
Use <abbr> tag for abbreviations or acronyms
Use em for size instead of px (em is resizable, px is not)
<abbr title=“National Aeronautics and Space Administration”>NASA</abbr>
Equations
Use HTML codes for symbols when possible
If not possible to use HTML codes (complex equations), add equation as image with proper alt tag of text form of equation
Δ is code for Δ
a2+b2=c2 in text form would be “a squared plus b squared equals c squared”
Links
Use destination description as link title, not the URL
If link opens to PDF, video, audio file, etc. include file type and size
Proper: Visit Google.com Improper: Visit
Module 1 Readings [PDF File Size 1.6 MB]

9. Accommodates use of assistive technologies
Elements
Fixes
Examples
Tables
Only use tables for data
Use <caption> tag to describe table data
Use <th> (table header) tag to signify column headings
Scanned PDFs
Find text-based version of PDF or scan a copy of the PDF (or original work) using an OCR Scanner
A good way to check if your PDF is text-based: place your cursor over the text and try to highlight it…if you can highlight the text, it is text-based
Media
Provide text-only copies of media, including audio or text on screen
Module 1 Flash Interaction (text-only version)
Session
Room
Time A
212
3:45 B
209
4:14

10. Create a plan How much can you have an effect on?
Institutionally or just your courses
What is your institutional disability policy/process?
What resources do you have?
Make a list of standards to focus on, and how you will take care of each of the standards

11. Our project 4 years, 450 online courses Hired external consultants
Developed standards list to fit our courses (focus areas)
Established standards for edits (for consistency)
Training will be conducted for various groups involved with the courses during Year II

12. Our yearly process 1 Courses are selected 2
Course list is divided up into smaller batches and put on a schedule 3
Each course is analyzed for needed edits 4
Edits that require academic involvement are sent to academic units (broken links, descriptions of charts, scanned PDFs, etc.) 5
Each course is edited 6
Each course is reviewed for approval (and edited again if necessary)

13. In summary… Industry standards/laws Quality Matters Standards
Technical Jargon
Creating a process

14. References and Useful Resources
Section 508 Standards Guide -
ADA.gov
W3C WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) -
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) -
HTML Symbols Codes -
HTML Code Help -
EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) Training -
Sloan-C Workshops -
Sloan-C Accessibility Webinars Recordings -
*** Great Webinar - Accessibility Specialists: Understanding “Invisible” Disabilities & What this Means for Online Education - invisible-disabilities-what-mean