CETL Educational Technology Tools

If you are teaching an online/blended course, or you are using a Blackboard shell in conjunction with your in-person course, accessibility issues become a much larger issue, as the student cannot get them resolved in-class. One great way to make sure you avoid most common pitfalls is to use this course checklist to go over your course shell and ensure that you are following basic accessibility protocols.

• Getting Started
  • The course begins with a "Start Here" page that gives information about the course and the instructor, instructions for navigating the course, finding assistance if needed, and guides the student to the first module of the course.
• Readable Text
  • The text in the course is readable, on a high-contrast background (black text on a white background counts), and is readable by a screen reader.
• Images
  • Images in the course include alt tags that accurately describe all information in the image.
  • If have a student with visual accommodations, and you are using charts and graphs in your course, you work with the Testing and Accessibility Services to ensure that tactile versions of these items are created.
• Multimedia
  • All audio files include transcripts.
  • All video files include captions.
  • If requested by a student with visual accommodations, all video files have descriptive audio.
    • If this cannot be provided, alternative, easy-to-access means for the student to gain the information from the video must be provided.
• Accessibility Statements
  • Vendor accessibility statements are provided for all technologies required in the course.

If you're having difficulty with any of the accessibility items above, these videos can help.

Captions and Transcripts

Readable PDFs

Alt Text

The Linscheid Library has a libguide on accessibility that you can find here: https://ecok.libguides.com/accessibility/

It is regularly updated by the librarians, and contains a lot of great information on making your classroom and course shells accessible.

The mission of the Office of Testing and Accessibility Services (TAS) is to assist East Central University (ECU) students with disabilities by offering services to promote and ensure that no student with a disability is denied the benefits of, excluded from participation in, or otherwise subjected to discrimination under educational programs and activities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (Section 504), and applicable state law. Student input is vital to this mission. 

For more information regarding the Office of Testing and Accessibility Service, visit www.ecok.edu/tas.