Ann Marie VanDerZanden, Laura Bestler, Sara Marcketti
How do the course format and course content support, or limit, accessibility? This is a critical framing question to consider when designing or redesigning a course. Accessible courses and course content anticipate the potential needs of diverse learners, and remove barriers or provide alternatives so all learners can be successful. Embedding accessibility in courses is becoming increasingly more important as the population of college students becomes more diverse and these students are arriving at the university with more diverse backgrounds and abilities. A report from the U.S. Department of Education (2016) shows that in 2007-2008 and again in 2011-2012, eleven percent of college age individuals reported a disability. Further, among those enrolled in public 4-year institutions, 33% of students with disabilities completed a bachelor’s degree, compared with 48% of students without disabilities (3Play Media, 2018). This discrepancy in graduation rates may be linked in part to accessibility issues around courses and other digital content related to their degree program. In an effort to address accessibility issues on an institutional scale, many institutions of higher education in the United States have implemented digital access initiatives to create an institutional framework for digital content development and compliance with the United States federal digital accessibility requirements. Digital technologies have led to a number of new teaching modalities (e.g. blended, flipped, fully online), and use of these technologies requires thoughtful consideration to ensure course content is accessible to all learners. This poster will highlight ten basic strategies for creating accessible online course content. Participants will learn about the Quality Matters framework and specific approaches to address accessibility and usability. The poster will be graphically rich and be organized in a funnel approach starting with broad framing topics and sequentially guiding a viewer through the ten strategies to increase accessibility in online courses. The final takeaway product for participants will be a model action plan that they can use to build a personalized timeline for implementing course changes to improve accessibility. The poster will provide both context for increasing accessibility as well as actionable items an individual can complete to enhance accessibility in their course and course content.
