How can I be certain that OER materials are accessible to students with disabilities?
Answer
Unlike traditional print or analog video materials, OER can be adapted and reformatted. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 provide an international standard for materials available on the web; these same guidelines can be used for other types of digital media. The faculty AIM Toolkit includes links to accessibility checklists. Generally, these are the most common areas of concern:
- closed captioning of videos
- making images accessible with "alt text' and descriptive captioning
- relying solely on color to communicate information in charts
- textual information should allow assistive technologies to read it in a meaningful way
Fortunately, most popular video sites offer closed captioning, and PDF documents can include accessibility features if created properly. Utilize the Canvas system interface for as much of your content as possible to take advantage of accessibility features.