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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.

Curious how to add these? We have tutorials to explain it!

If you came across any problems in this checklist that you are unsure of how to resolve, contact William Crowell in CETL for assistance. (wcrowell@ecok.edu, ext. 521)