(Teaching Practices Colloquium 2020 Speed Presentation)

Accessibility is the way of the future. TRU prides itself as being an open university, yet if students or potential students cannot easily navigate and read our websites and online documents, we are creating barriers for them.

In this presentation we introduced ways to improve accessibility of common online/digital teaching materials, by considering elements such as headings, links, media, tables, images, and colour. We considered ways to make complex images, such as charts, diagrams and illustrations, more accessible. By the end of this presentation you should be able to identify basic accessibility issues and propose solutions.

First, note the difference between accessibility and accommodation:

  • Accessibility is about proactive adaptations that are made to a course or file in the design and development stage that are beneficial to everyone. Accessibility is a form of inclusive or universal design for learning.
  • Accommodation is an adjustment made upon student request while a course is being delivered.

For the full presentation and a handout, see the following attachments:

Presenters

Carol Sparkes, PhD, Instructional Designer, and Carolyn Teare, MSc, Manager Learning Technology and Innovation, Open Learning gave this presentation at Thompson Rivers University’s Teaching Practices Colloquium 2020 on Basic Online Accessibility.

 

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