Library: Quinebaug Valley Accessibility: Faculty Resources

Accessibility by Design

Accessibility is about creating opportunities and removing barriers. It is easiest to implement accessibility from the beginning - by design - rather than try to retrofit accessibility features onto an inaccessible resource, space, or service. A good place to start thinking about accessibility by design is with "universal design" or "inclusive design."

Whether you are creating new learning materials or updating existing ones, you can explore this page to find useful resources and tips for making your learning materials more accessible!

Getting Started: The Principle of "One More"

Rather than look at accessibility as a binary, it can be useful to think about making content more accessible by the principle of "one more." Adding one more option for engagement or removing one barrier goes a long way towards making learning more accessible. The Universal Design for Learning Guidelines and the Educator's Accessibility Toolkit are great places to start looking for ideas.

UDL Guidelines
These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.
Educator's Accessibility Toolkit
A curated list of resources and tips for creating accessible learning environments for all students. Created by Ontario's Universities Accessible Campus.
Understanding Barriers to Accessibility: An Educator's Perspective
An organized list of the five barriers to accessibility alongside actions for educators to help remove said barriers. These barriers include: attitudinal, organizational or systemic, architectural or physical, information or communication, and technology. Created by Ontario's Universities: Accessible Campus.

Live Captioning

Live captioning is an assistive technology that provides closed captions in real time. These captions are generated by a form of AI called Automatic Speech Recognition. This feature can be great for disabled students and for ESOL students to help with access and comprehension. Both Windows 11 and Microsoft Teams offer free live captioning features.

CSCU Accessibility Resources

Course Content Checklist A checklist provided by the CSCU Accessibility Council that is designed to assist instructors in identifying key areas of their course that may need alterations to make the learning experience more inclusive and accessible to all students, in alignment with ADA and Section 508. Includes resources for document formatting, multimedia and image usage, and overall course design.
Digital Accessibility Resources The CSCU Accessibility Council developed and collected a number of resources to assist in the evaluation and creation of accessible content. Includes resources on accessibility tools, self-assessment tools, and assistive technology procurement.
Guidelines for Creating Accessible Content The CSCU Accessibility Council has curated a collection of training resources that can assist in creating accessible content. Covers documents, PDFs, PowerPoint, social media, videos, and multimedia.
Technology Adoption Considerations Equitable access to digital and print learning materials and technologies may vary greatly among our students and may impact student success. In order to promote an inclusive and equitable learning environment for our students, this technology adoption guide provides considerations and recommendations for content and technology choices for when faculty are designing their remote/distance learning courses.

Accessibility Tools

Ally in Blackboard Learn Blackboard Ally automatically runs your course files through an accessibility checklist that looks for common issues. Each file is compared to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 standards.
Kaltura Kaltura is a video repository that provides a free machine captioning service. Captions can be edited manually after creation to ensure greater accuracy. Kaltura videos can be embedded directly into Blackboard courses.
WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools WAVE is a suite of evaluation tools that helps creators make web content more accessible. This link includes access to the free WAVE browser extension.
Microsoft Accessibility Features An overview of five accessibility features available within Microsoft 365 including: Dictate, Read Aloud, Immersive Reader, Live Captions, and Accessibility Checker
Accessibility Features in Blackboard Learn Blackboard Help Center's description of the accessibility features available on Blackboard and Blackboard Ultra courses.