Overview
Accessibility in higher education implies the creation of a barrier-free learning environment in order to ensure that all students are able to experience all aspects of their educational experience and focus on the main objective: learning.
Strategies
Check For Accessibility
Run an accessibility check on all your course materials including videos, PDF documents, and textbook. Doing this front-end work before the semester begins can help your semester run more smoothly. The Center for Instructional Technology and Training is launching a new service to assist instructors in learning how to remediate course files to make them more accessible. This will make courses more usable for all learners, especially students with disabilities. Using the Ally tool in Canvas, instructional support assistants will provide an overview of accessibility concerns within the course, evaluate what content to remediate, and work with instructors to improve the overall course accessibility score. Throughout the consultation, the instructional support assistants will model remediation techniques for content in Canvas, Word or Google documents, PowerPoint presentations or Google Slides, spreadsheets, videos, and PDFs.
To get started, submit an Accessibility Consultation request.
Engage Students
Many students are aware of how they learn best, providing a welcoming opportunity for students to talk with you about their needs can save time and frustration for you and your students.
Provide Multiple Formats
Give students the opportunity to access materials and course content in a number of ways such as video, podcast, study guides, checkpoints, and class notes. This helps by providing access to materials in a multitude of ways. All materials are not created equal. It is important to check that all students have access to the material for their course in a way that they can best understand it.
Provide Campus Resources
Students may not be aware of all the resources available on campus to assist them. The Disability Resource Center (DRC) celebrates disability identity as a valued aspect of diversity. The DRC champions a universally-accessible campus community that supports the holistic advancement of individuals with disabilities. Students may not know about the DRC, tutoring centers, and other resources designed to help them be successful at UF. Providing that information is vital.
References
- University of Florida: UF Accessibility
- Center for Teaching Excellence (University of Florida): UF Instructor Guide Chapter 7: Accessibility
- Center for Teaching Excellence (University of Florida): Universal Design for Learning: Accessibility (.pdf)
- John Jordi, Ph.D., Center for Teaching Excellence (University of Florida): Video Accessibility (.pdf)
- WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind
- Consuelo Kreider, Ph.D. (University of Florida): Students with Learning Disabilities (22:30)
- Consuelo Kreider, Ph.D. (University of Florida): Universal Design of Teaching
- University of Florida: Getting Started with Accessibility for Faculty (25:18)
- Alice Anderson: Introduction to the Screen Reader (7:03)
- Teaching in HigherED: Disability Accommodations Podcast: Teaching in Higher Education (38:42)
- UF HR Training: The Law & Accommodating All Abilities (UF_GET807v_OLT)
- To register, login to my.ufl.edu, then navigate to My Self Service > Training and Development > myTraining and search for “UF_GET807v_OLT” by using the Activity Search field in the upper right hand corner.