Creating Accessible Online Courses

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Creating Accessible Online Courses

• SoftChalk LessonBuilder

Christine Lustik, Director of Distance
Education clustik_at_wwcc.wy.edu Nancy Johnson,
Internet Support Specialist njohnson_at_wwcc.wy.edu
Western Wyoming Community College
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Review of Accessibility

• The Law Section 508
• Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines
  http//www.w3.org/WAI/
• Disability Considerations

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The Law

• Rehabilitation Act Section 504 has long been the
  landmark legislation prohibiting discrimination
  in education to students with disabilities.
• Section 508 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act
  (revised in 1998) does specifically relate to
  electronic devices and the web. Many see it as a
  clear legal definition for web accessibility and
  are using it as a benchmark for institute
  policies.

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Disability Considerations

• Physical
• Hearing
• Visual (blindness, low-vision, color blindness)
• Motor (inability to use a mouse, slow response
  time, limited fine motor control)
• Learning
• Cognitive (learning disabilities,
  distractibility, inability to remember or focus
  on large amounts of information )
• And More

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Why WWCC Chose LessonBuilder

• Benefits
• Printing is easy!
• Automatically readable for screen reading
  software.
• Helps to chunk content for learning disabilities.
• Great training and support
• Easy for faculty to use and learn

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Examples

• General Art
• Facilitating Online Learning

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A Quick LessonBuilder Tutorial
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Resources

• www.w3.org Guidelines and Checklist
• www.wave.webaim.org Accessibility Test Site
• http//www.cast.org/index.html Center for Applied
  Special Technology - creator of the National
  Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
  (NIMAS)
• http//www.icdri.org/section508/section_508_resour
  ce_page.htm The International Center for
  Disability Resources on the Internet Good
  Resource List
• www.easi.cc Equal Access to Software and
  Information (EASI) online courses and
  certificate available