A Step Toward Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites:Instructional Design tips for the visually impaired and hard of hearing student in your online course.

Presented by: Dana Gullo

One fifth (20%) of the population has some kind of disability.

Not all of these people have disabilities that make it difficult for them to access the internet, but it is still a significant portion of the population.

Businesses would be unwise to purposely exclude 20, 10, or even 5 percent of their potential customers from their web sites. For schools, universities, and government entities it would not only be unwise, but in many cases, it would also violate the law.

Are our courses Accessible?

Section 508:

An amendment to the United States Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973, is a federal law mandating that all electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by the federal government be accessible to people with disabilities.

ADA Compliance:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) published the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design in September 2010. These standards state that all electronic and information technology must be accessible to people with disabilities.

The major categories of disability types are:

Visual

Hearing

Motor

Cognitive

From their point of view…

Check List for your courses

Type Formatting

Word, Power Point, and PDF documents

Links

Images

Audio and Video

Type Formattingand Document Organization

• Use sans-serif fonts designed for legibility on the computer screen (e.g., Arial, Verdana, Helvetica).

• Use bold or italic text to display emphasis.

• Don’t underline words since on a web page this indicates hyperlinks.

• Avoid using colored text (such as red) for emphasis since screen readers will not indicate it is there.

• Avoid including moving or blinking text.

• Keep the number of fonts used in a document to a minimum.

Type FormattingWord Documents

Type FormattingPDF Documents

Type FormattingPowerPoint Presentations

Checking AccessibilityPowerPoint Presentations

Links

Links are more useful when they make sense out of context. Avoid non-informative link phrases such as:

•click here•here•more•read more• link to [some link destination]• info

Images

Consider the Color Blind

Color Blind Simulator

Normal Color Red-Blind/Protanopia

Audio and Video

Add Closed Captioning or a Transcript for the video.

Additional Resources

ADA Standards for Accessible Design University of Central Florida Accessible Content For

matting Guidelines Web AIM Northeastern

University Instructor Resource Center: Best Practices for Online Course Accessibility

National Center on Universal Design for Learning: Postsecondary Education and UDL