Creating Accessible Online Materials
Some students encounter disability-related barriers with online instruction or assessment (e.g. students who use assistive technology, and students with medical limitations on screen usage). ARC staff are available for consultation regarding best practices and accessibility. (Phone: 505-277-3506; Email: arcsrvs@unm.edu).
Below are some tips to keep in mind as you are creating virtual course content (adapted from DO-IT):
- Use clear, consistent layouts and organization schemes for presenting content, and make instructions and expectations clear for activities, projects, and assigned reading.
- Offer outlines, scaffolding tools, and adequate opportunities for practice to help students learn.
- When selecting new materials, try to find videos that are already captioned, and articles that are available in a text-searchable format (meaning you can highlight and search the text within the document.
- If you are planning to post recorded lectures/videos, please use Kaltura and submit a request for the video to be captioned through media@unm.edu.
- Images can be made accessible to blind and low-vision students by providing captions or inserting alt text into the image. Use large, bold fonts on uncluttered pages with plain backgrounds and color combinations that are high contrast.
https://exploreaccess.org/accessible-online-course/
https://zoom.us/accessibility
