Accessibility & Universal Design

3 min read

It is important that a person with a disability be able to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability, and be able to do so in an equally effective manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use.

The best place to find resources about making educational materials accessible is looking at the resources created for faculty teaching at colleges.  

Accessibility References

  1. W3C accessibility guidelines, which explains the reasons behind each guideline.
  2. U.S. Federal Government Section 508 accessibility guidelines.
  3. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
  4. WebAIM, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving accessibility to online learning materials.

Accessibility Software

Ensure the tools your Company uses are accessible
Accessibility Technology & Tools | Microsoft Accessibility
Explore accessibility and inclusion technology from Microsoft Accessibility. Ensure and empower those around you to participate in activities at work or play.
Products and Features
Accessibility content and links for Google websites.
Adobe Accessibility
Adobe is an industry leader in accessibility and supports the creation of outstanding web experiences by encouraging developers to produce rich, engaging content that is accessible to all.

Captioning

Vendors for video captioning:

Vendors for live captioning:

Screen reader tools

  • JAWS, a screen reader for Windows. A time-limited, downloadable demo is available.
  • VoiceOver - VoiceOver is a screen reader built into Apple Inc.'s macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and iPod operating systems
  • NVDA: A free, high-quality, full-featured screen reader for Windows.

Color contrast tools

Testing

Accessibility Services

  1. WAVE, a free service from WebAIM to analyze web pages for compliance to accessibility guidelines.
  2. HTML Validator, a free service for checking that web pages conform to published HTML standards.
  3. Functional Accessibility Evaluator - F.A.E. (web-based, free)