According to the Office of Civil Rights, “accessible” means that “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 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.”

When creating an online course, it’s important to keep accessibility in mind when developing your content and assignments.

Here are a few tips:

Include captions and transcripts with videos
Add alt tags to images
Make sure links are descriptive. Avoid using “click here”
Add headings to content and assignments
Avoid using color as the only way to communicate/differentiate information. Add font type, size, shapes for this kind of differentiation
Avoid the following color combinations for those who might be color blind:
- Green & Red
- Green & Brown
- Blue & Purple
- Green & Blue
- Light Green & Yellow
- Blue & Grey
- Green & Grey
- Green & Black

The Office of Disability Services continues to be the point of contact for students and faculty in terms of accommodations requests. Faculty can review their students' accommodations by accessing the Disability Services AIM portal. There, faculty can view a list of students who have requested accommodations and which accommodations they need by class and section.

Faculty should consider alternate assessments to timed, exam-based assessments, as many students with disabilities have special situations that could impact their ability to complete a timed, online exam.
Students should review updated syllabi for course adjustments and contact faculty via email if there are concerns.
Faculty should also check-in with each student via email to ensure that accommodations are applicable and adequate.
Students and faculty should consistently monitor and address accommodation concerns and continue to vet all questions about accommodations through the Office of Disability Services.

For more information on how faculty can create accessible courses, please see Maintaining Accessibility When Teaching Remotely.