October 28, 2015Marcie Savoie and Marisha Marks

A case for Accessibility and Universal Design

Continuing & Professional Education

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Why are we here? Legal considerations. ADA vs. Universal Design. Top 10 best practices. Creating accessible content. UD in and LMS. Challenges for implementation.

Resources available: bit.ly/UPCEA_UD

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What does accessibility mean?

“Accessible means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. The person with a disability must be able to obtain the information as fully, equally and independently as a person without a disability.”

(Resolution Agreement South Carolina Technical College System OCR Compliance Review No. 11-11-6002)

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Universal Design defined Originated in architecture. Accessible and functional without the

need for modifications or accommodations.

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Universal Design defined Can preclude the need for

accommodations and modifications. Eliminates stigma.

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Which statements apply to universal design (as opposed to ADA)?

Pedagogy Legislation Reactive Proactive Serves specific user Serves general population

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UD vs. ADA

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LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS

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The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The ADA became law in 1990. This civil rights law:• Prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability.• Mandates the reasonable accommodations and

programmatic modifications to support full inclusion.

Title III regulation covers public accommodations (including the Internet) and private entities that offer certain examinations and courses related to educational and occupational certification.

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Section 504 & 508

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 covers programs and services at colleges and universities.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, provides standards that cover:• Electronic and information technology• Includes websites and web-based content

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The United States Compliance Review of edX edX: Platform for Massively Open Online Courses

(MOOCs). edX was developed by Harvard and MIT U.S. government compliance review. www.edx.com and the Platform were not fully

accessible in violation of Title III of the ADA.

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Department of Justice (DOJ) Enforcement

DOJ settlement with “edX” includes:• Accurate captioning for the deaf• Oral navigation signals for the blind• Programming changes so that users with dexterity

disabilities can navigate content without struggling with a hand-operated mouse.

• modify its website, platform, and mobile applications to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 AA.

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Recent litigations – NAD vs. Harvard and MIT The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) filed

Federal lawsuits against Harvard University and MIT.

Lawsuits allege that podcasts and online lectures are:• not captioned• Inaccurately captioned• unintelligibly captioned

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MIT’s video captioning is allegedly inaccurate

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Blind Students Sue Florida State University

In 2012, two visually impaired students sued Florida State University (FSU) for discrimination due to inaccessible technology.

The students alleged that online software used at FSU was incompatible with screen readers.

The students could not access the software used for homework and tests.

The case was eventually settled and each student received $75,000 although FSU admitted no liability or wrongdoing.

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TEN STEPS TOWARD UNIVERSAL DESIGN OF ONLINE COURSES

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1. Include a welcoming access statement

“The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to providing an equal educational opportunity for all students. If you have a documented physical, psychological, or learning disability on file with Disability Services (DS) that requires an accommodation, please notify me within the first two weeks of the semester so that we may make appropriate arrangements."

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2. Provide simple, consistent navigation

Minimize clicks Easy to find

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3. Choose tools carefully

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4. Model and teach discussion board etiquette

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5. Use color with care

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6. Make sure text is readable

• Examples:• UPCEA agenda scanned PDF • automatic Optical Character Recognition (OCR) P

DF• OCR PDF with manually fixed errors

• OCR programs• Adobe Acrobat Pro• Scannable• RoboBraille

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7. Provide accessible document formats Use accessibility checkers

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8. Describe graphics and visual elements Add alternative (Alt)

text to all graphics. 

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8. Describe graphics and visual elements

For purely decorative images, use “” (null).

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9. Caption videos and transcribe audio clips

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10. Use descriptive hyperlinks Use unique link text.• Explicit link text• Not "click here”• Not full URL string

Not Meaningful Link Meaningful Link

Click Here for Assignment #1Assignment #1

http://www.assignment1.com

Homework Assignment #1 PDF Word HTML

Homework:Assignment #1 (PDF)Assignment #1 (Word)Assignment #1 (HTML)

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ACCESSIBLE DOCUMENTS

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Microsoft Word Documents Use heading styles.

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Microsoft Word Documents Use true bullets. Use true numbering.

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Microsoft Word Documents

Use true columns.

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Adobe PDF Documents Start with accessible to create accessible. Use the columns feature, not tables, for

formatting blocks of text.  If starting with a scanned image use OCR

(optical character recognition) to retrofit accessibility.

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Alternative Forms of Representation Provide alternatives for:• Submitting work• Reviewing materials• Receiving instructor feedback

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Audio Content RoboBraille

• Free resource.• Audio recordings

from text files.

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Audio content Student work or

instructor content• Soundcloud• Audacity

Student feedback• Turnitin GradeMark• Blackboard Grader App

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Video content YouTube: My Webcam• Instructors create videos with captions.• Students create video responses for discussion

questions or assignments.

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ACCESSIBLE PRESENTATIONS

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Rethink, redesign PowerPoint presentations

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PowerPoint Presentations

Use slide layouts.

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PowerPoint Presentations

Avoid watermarks, background images and color. 

Use bullets and end statements in a period. 

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PowerPoint Presentations Use slide notes to describe slide content. 

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Narrated Lectures YouTube• Upload from PowerPoint or Keynote.• Automatic captioning.• Manual caption editing.

Screen capture• Licensed tool such as Echo360.• Integrated captioning such as Cielo24.

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LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM BASICS

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LMS: Scheduling Keep consistent deadlines (i.e. All discussions will

be due on Sundays, and all assignments on Fridays).

Include intermediary steps on a calendar (i.e. first discussion post is due on Wednesday).

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LMS: Student TrackingTrack student progress for: access, activity, missed deadlines and grades.

1. Course access: Did everyone log in?2. Course activity: When is the last time you did

something?3. Course deadlines: Who has missed a deadline?4. Grading: Is someone at-risk due to low grades?

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LMS Basics: SubscriptionsYou can set up your Discussion forums to allow subscriptions.

• Subscribe to Forums• Notifies student of any new discussion posts within a

forum.• Subscribe to Threads

• Notifies student of any new discussion posts for a specific thread.

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LMS Basics: Subscribing To a Forum

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LMS Basics: ExceptionsBlackboard makes it easy to allow individual or groups of students extra time to complete timed tests by creating Exceptions.

You can create Exceptions for:• Number of attempts.• Dates of availability.• Time to complete.

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Challenges Some students will still require

accommodations. Time Instructor • Knowledge• Skills• Ownership of content

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Questions?

Resources available at: bit.ly/UPCEA_UD

For additional questions contact:CPE eLearning - facline@cpe.umass.edu