It’s important to us that anyone who visits our website can easily get the information they need despite any physical impairments or disabilities they may have. Universities and other higher education institutions are also required by law to comply with the accessibility standards established by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We maintain web accessibility standards by integrating elements such as alternative text (alt tags) and descriptive link text into our standard web design process. We also consider factors that affect readability, such as font size, color contrast, and text formatting.
Course accessibility is also important
Web accessibility is just the first step, though. Course accessibility is also a top priority for us. We want to ensure that all of our students are able to participate in our courses, access needed materials, and interact with their peers and instructors without any obstacles. This means that we closely evaluate each component of every individual course and do everything in our power to make all parts of a course as accessible and user-friendly as possible.
Our Learning Design team is passionate about course accessibility. Accessibility considerations are incorporated into every step of the course development process, and the designers work to eliminate or minimize potential challenges that might prevent any student from fully participating in the course. As Matt Farley, an accessibility consultant on the Learning Design team, notes, “We vet and test tools for accessibility before utilizing them in our courses and, in some cases, even work with developers or product representatives to fix issues we detect.”
Our primary goal is to avoid a separate experience, so we strive to develop courses in a way that allows any supports or accessibility tools a student may need to be integrated directly into the course environment. Of course, our Disability Services team is also ready to support any students who may need accommodations for any of their courses.