1. Moving Toward Inclusion in Online and Onground Courses
Marisha Marks: Instructional Designer,
Online Education, UMass Amherst
Valerie Haven: Academic Technology Coordinator, Ross Center for Disability Services, UMass Boston

2. Accessibility Vs. Inclusion
How do you define accessibility?
How do you define inclusion?

3. With inclusion, everyone benefits
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4. Who are the students? Students with disabilities.
These students can be assisted by Disability Services.
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5. Who are the students without disabilities?
Students without documented disabilities:
First generation.
English language learners.
Non-traditional / post-traditional / older learners.
Students for whom inclusion can make all the difference.

6. Multiple Intelligences Theory
What kind of learner are you?
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7. Educational Tools and Techniques

8. All Courses Person first language. Supportive course policies.
Cultural / socio-economic awareness of course activities.
Student choice: universal design for learning for course activities and assessments.

9. Onground courses Flexible classroom layout.
Verbally describe all visual elements:
Slide images.
Written formulas.
Classroom demonstrations.
Open book / take home assessments.

10. Online courses Easy, consistent course navigation. Course netiquette:
Full sentences and appropriate grammar.
Avoid jargon.
Treat others with respect.
Provide opportunity to practice with technology.
Untimed assessments.

11. Other ideas?
All courses
Onground courses
Online courses

12. Ally as Inclusion Tool

13. What does Ally do? Checks document accessibility. Added files.
Files built in LMS.

14. What else can Ally do? Creates alternative file formats. OCRed PDF
HTML
ePub
Electronic Braille
Audio

15. How can Ally help? Provides steps to retrofit.
Lists all needed corrections.

16. Ally Limitations
Does not assess audio / video / multimedia files (on their roadmap).
Automated algorithm can produce both:
False positive
False negative

17. Inclusion for students with disabilities
Preclude need to retroactive modifications.
Students have immediate access to accessible documents.
Screen reader and braille access to documents.
Alternate file formats will only work if the original file is built correctly. An OCRed PDF with no further corrections will read headers and footers in the middle of a sentence broken across pages.

18. Audio files for all learners
Students with visual impairments.
English language learners.
Students with long commutes (listen in the car).
Students with dyslexia and other reading comprehension difficulties.

19. Study aid for all learners
An accessible document is:
Searchable.
Indexed.
Has tagged table of contents and bookmarks.