Tips for Accessible Online Course Design

Sheryl Burgstahler from the University of Washington shared tips for accessible online course design in the 2020 Lilly Conference online. Burgstahler has decades of experience directing units in accessible technology services: the DO-IT Center has now global reach. Burgstahler discussed the student-centered community building model used to focus on the key stakeholders that contribute to the success of students with disabilities. Burgstahler has developed and written about UDL, and recently published Creating Inclusive Learning Opportunities in Higher Education published in 2020 by Harvard Education Press. Burgstahler mentioned a listserver that sounds like a great way to learn about updates and resources from these initiatives. I appreciate that Burgstahler defined inclusive, as we often use that term quite freely: all people should have opportunities to fully engage. Burgstahler reviewed the history of the evolution to human differences by highlighting three phases: eliminate, exclude, segregate; cure, rehabilitate, accommodate; social justice: inclusion and universal design. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and 2008 Amendments provide guidance on the legal requirements for accessibility. Burgstahler mentioned that we should consider ability on a continuum and that we should think of everybody having different abilities. Social norms may be different, and this may influence ability. Burgstahler noted that most disabilities are invisible, fewer than one third of students with disabilities report them to the disabilities services office, and support services are primarily accommodations after inaccessibility is discovered. Two of the most expensive and time-consuming accommodations for online courses according to Burgstahler are making documents accessible (particularly inaccessible PDFs) and captioning videos. Burgstahler even mentioned not using PDFs, using a Word document for the syllabus for participants to modify for their needs. One suggestion made that Burgstahler demonstrated was describing images on slides for visually impaired participants. Universal Design was defined and three components were described: usable, accessible, and inclusive. Burgstahler said that universal design implementation results in fewer accommodations and provides inclusive access. One example shared was that a building with a wide sloping entrance is more inclusive than an ADA compliant but narrow ramp because you can walk side-by-side with a wheelchair. I had never considered this! Universal design considers who might be in a course to allow everyone to have the opportunity to engage. Examples of different participants and their assistive technologies were described. Burgstahler suggests thinking about accessibility practices that are informed by limitations of assistive technologies. Can a user navigate with the keyboard alone? The assistive technology can tab from link to link… but this is only helpful if the link are descriptive: go to the DO-IT website (and link the text directly). Burgstahler suggested providing multiple ways for engagement and participation and ensure all the technologies used are accessible to individuals with a wide variety of disabilities. Twenty Tips for Teaching Accessible Online Courses were briefly mentioned by Burgstahler:

1. Use clear consistent layouts and organization schemes.
2. Use structured headings.
3. Use descriptive wording for hyperlinks.
4. Avoid PDFs when possible, no scanned image PDFs, and use accessible HTML for primary content. The example Burgstahler shared was using HTML for main content and linking PDFs for printing, for example.
5. Use text descriptions of content in images.
6. Use large, bold, sans serif fonts, uncluttered pages, and plain backgrounds.
7. Use high contrast combinations and avoid problematic color combinations. Never use color alone to describe.
8. Content and navigation should be accessible with the keyboard alone.
9. Caption videos and include audio descriptions to describe in audio visual elements that were not captured by captions. I forget about this!
10. Address a wide variety of technology skills. Think about the objectives of your course.
11. Present content in multiple ways.
12. Spell out acronyms/jargon or define. This includes defining phrases like “low-hanging fruit” for people from different cultures.
13. Offer clear instructions and expectations.
14. Use examples, assignments relevant to a diverse audience.
15. Use outlines or other scaffolding tools.
16. Provide opportunities for practice so students can test themselves.
17. Provide adequate time for activities, projects, tests.
18. provide feedback on parts and corrective opportunities.
19. Provide options for communicating and collaborating.
20. Provide options for demonstrating learning.

Burgstahler ended by emphasizing the last point as an opportunity to create options for learning and showing what they learned while enhancing accessibility and decreasing accommodations. Burgstahler suggested using accessibility checkers available and thinking about “good teaching is good teaching”. One Burgstahler quote I loved was: “Universal design is not about lowering standards; it’s about allowing people to learn in different ways… benefits everyone!” I now have a couple of websites to visit including AccessDL and the Center for Universal Design in Education, a listserver to join, and a book for my reading list! The twenty tips are a nice list to have handy and share with new instructors. Burgstahler has taught me a couple of new things!