Students are represented in your
classroom as coming from a variety of backgrounds, ages, languages, and
learning styles. Similarly, you may experience a need to provide accommodations
for a student with a disability such as blindness, low vision, hearing
impairments, mobility impairments, learning disabilities, and health
impairments.
When building online
course materials, it is important to bear in mind that, as a public university,
Indiana University of Pennsylvania is required to meet Section
508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 standards
for web-based intranet and internet information and applications. The
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania follows Section 508 Web Accessibility Standards.
As of June 30, 2001, all agencies under the Governor’s jurisdiction are
required to ensure that websites (both existing and in development) comply with
Section 508 accessibility guidelines. Conforming to these standards
requires that materials that would pose problems for students with disabilities
need to be altered to accommodate the disabled.
Examples of materials that
would require accommodations would include:
- Videos that have
audio would need captioning and text transcripts.
- Audio files
would need text transcripts.
- Images should
have alternate text or descriptions set for them to convey meaning.
- Color-blind
individuals should be able to interpret a page successfully.
- HTML tables
should use the <th> tags to designate column and row headers.
Note:
Information about specific accommodations can be directed to Disability Services and Advising.
Students
and instructors share the common goal of learning. So how can instructors
design courses that maximize the learning of all students? Universal Design can provide a starting point for developing a model for
instruction. Universal Design and accessibility are teaching practices
that make course concepts educationally accessible and skills attainable
regardless of learning styles and physical or sensory abilities.