Creating ADA Compliant Studies

Kelly Hermann, Director of Disability ServicesKathleen Stone, Director of Curriculum and Instructional

Design

ADA: American with Disabilities Act of 1990

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973◦504◦508

WCAG 2.0 Guidelines

Laws and Regulations 

Compatibility with assistive technology Navigation to required course components

and structures Use of third party vendor sites and products

where accessibility is unknown Captioning and transcripts

What are the issues

Kindle – the case that started it all Louisiana Technical university – working

with My “insert your subject here” labs and other third party sites

South Carolina Technical Community College system – no complaint necessary

Relevant cases

Strategies: Documents

Style headings Alternative text for

images, tables, charts Null attribute for purely

decorative images (alt="")

Complex images explained in context

Descriptive text for links Table of contents for

longer documents

Font size smaller than 9 points

Low contrast between the text and the background

“Click here” and “Read more” as link text

Visual clues only (e.g., click on the red button)

Bad Document!Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are often seen as the opposites of one dimension (Lepper, Corpus, & Iyengar, 2005). This means that students are engaged in an activity either because they are interested in the activity or because they are interested in the reward they will get after completing the activity. Read more…Intrinsically motivated students persist when confronted with a challenge and generally exhibit higher academic performance than extrinsically motivated students (Goldberg & Cornell, 1998).Look at the diagram of intrinsic motivation definition on the right.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are often seen as the opposites of one dimension (Lepper, Corpus, & Iyengar, 2005). This means that students are engaged in an activity either because they are interested in the activity or because they are interested in the reward they will get after completing the activity. Read more…Intrinsically motivated students persist when confronted with a challenge and generally exhibit higher academic performance than extrinsically motivated students (Goldberg & Cornell, 1998).Look at the diagram of intrinsic motivation definition on the right.

Bad Document continued

◦ Accurate synchronized closed captions ◦ If audio only - transcript◦ If video only – descriptive text transcript of

screen action◦ Use our Library resources

Films on demand Alexander Street Press

Strategies: Media

Vimeo vs. YouTube

Some Basic Questions◦ Can you use the keyboard instead of the

mouse?◦ Does the cursor move in a logical order or flow? ◦ Is there ALT text for all non-text elements?◦ Are there captions for audio and visual

elements or transcripts for audio only elements?

Voki Voicethread Prezi

Strategies: Web 2.0 Tools

Student Services and/or Disability Services with concerns about a student. We are here to help and happy to consult

Instructional designers and web designers – especially when developing/revising a course

Where to go for more info:

Web resources – some valuable places to go:◦ Web AIM – www.webaim.org◦ Penn State Accessibility website –

accessibility.psu.edu◦ Others on our website –

www.esc.edu/disabilityservices◦ Disability Services Blog

http://commons.esc.edu/disabilityservices/

Where to go for more info cont.

Questions?

Kelly.Hermann@esc.edu Director of Disability Services

Kathleen.Stone@esc.edu Director of Curriculum and Instructional Design