Imagine being in class as a student; your district uses Google Apps, Schoology and iPads, teachers have had professional development led by their Technology Integration Specialists and are ready to support you. All class resources are posted as visually appealing PDFs with directions in each file. To complete your assignments you are to load them to the Notability app, mark them up and submit. Now, imagine that you are blind.

That anxiety inducing scenario is all too real for many students. Millions of individuals in the United States are blind or visually impaired. About 10% of the U.S. population has some form of colorblindness.¹ Nearly 500,000 of these individuals are school age (5-18). Consider your current teaching materials as they relate to accessibility. As you view, think about the content as it relates to your current role and the assignments you ask students to complete. Using new technologies does not mean that content is more accessible, in many cases, they can make things worse unless the effort is made to ensure it can work for all learners.

Many are unaware of how widespread disabilities are in the United States.

• An estimated 3.5 million people age 5-17 have a hearing, vision, or cognitive disability.
• Roughly 36 million individuals have a disability, which is 12% of the population.²
• In 2014–15, the number of children and youth ages 3–21 receiving special education services was 6.6 million, or 13 percent of all public school students. Among children and youth receiving special education services, 35 percent had specific learning disabilities.³

As part of Intermediate District’s strategic plan to eliminate systemic inequities and to increase opportunities we continue focusing on making sure that all learners have access to high quality educational resources. We have shared our professional development module to anyone under a Creative Commons license. Accessibility for Digital Content is available for browsing and by downloading for use in any Learning Management System (LMS). This module includes many examples and a style guide that demonstrates how to address many curriculum issues that are inaccessible to many users.

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See details below for more information.

Module Overview

This module will introduce the participant to laws and regulations related to making online and blended learning materials accessible to all students. In general, teachers are made aware of student disabilities by the IEP (Individualized Education Plan). However, many students have disabilities that go undiagnosed or unknown, such as color blindness or impaired hearing. Teachers following the Universal Design principles are ensuring that all students have accessible curriculum. By the conclusion of this unit, you will have reflected on your own accessibility practices.

Requirements for accessibility:

• All videos captioned and audio files include transcripts
• All images include captions and alt text
• Tables have defined headings and not used as design
• Purposeful use of color that doesn’t convey meaning
• Use of headers

Learning Objectives

In this module, participants will:

• Review relevant laws and regulations related to Section 508 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
• Review concepts related to accessibility.
• Reflect on current practice and materials regarding accessibility.
• Consider limitations and supports offered by a learning management system

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1. 1. Aao.org,. ‘Caucasian Boys Show Highest Prevalence Of Color Blindness Among Preschoolers’. N. p., 2015. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.
   2. Data are courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau, 2008-2010 American Community Survey.
   3. National Center for Education Statistics. Children and Youth With Disabilities.