OER Accessibility

Accessibility Resources

• Taft College Resources
  You can contact the offices of Distance Education (link to DE homepage) and Disabled Student Programs and Services (link to DSPS homepage) to see what resources that they provide.  For example, the Accessibility Technician in DE may be able to audit your OER, or the High Tech Specialist in DSPS could help you create an accessible version.  Also, DE has a Canvas shell with more information (link to Taft College's DE Canvas Accessibility shell.).
• Evaluate OER Accessbility

  There are many programs and rubrics to help you determine if your OER is accessible to all kinds of students:

  • Use the WebAIM accessbility checker (WAVE:  Web Accessbility Evaluation Tool link) on any webpage, including OER that are collections of webpages (like LibreTexts).
    • Introduction video on YouTube
  • OER Commons offers an accessibility checklist (link to overview to access a PDF of the checklist)
  • The Affordable Learning Georgia has many resources, including printable rubric to assess accessibility (a .docx file can be found here)
  • Canvas has several features to assess accessbility.  Learn more from Taft College's DE Canvas Accessibility shell.
• Courses and Trainings

  You can complete one or more of these trainings for credit. Don’t forget to apply for Salary Credit (full-time faculty),  Flex Time (full-time faculty) or professional development (paid for adjunct) BEFORE these courses begin.  

  • ASCCC OERI’s Accessibility Basics course:  Make sure to enroll in the course so that you can take the quizzes and the later modules aren’t locked.
  • STEM Accessibility public course, no registration required.
  • You can find trainings around accessibility that aren’t OER-specific ftom:
    • WebAIM
    • @One.
    • Suggestions from TC DE:
      • Digital Accessibility by W3C
      • Web Accessibility by Google
      • ICT Accessibility by Georgia Tech
      • Accessible Website by Wix
      • Learn Accessibility by Web.Dev

  While not yet a full course, you can find more information at the Taft College's DE Canvas Accessibility shell.

• Learn More?

  Other resources can be found through the following:  

  • ASCCC OERI:  The ASCCC OER Initiative provides accessbility resources (link to OERI accessibility resources) and resources for accessbility in terms of Universal Design (link to OERI accessibility and UD page).
  • Color Contrast:  Link to a Canvas page with resources to check on color contrast.
    • You can find the hex code by clicking on the color in this Contract Checker from WebAIM 
  • Accessible Documents:
    • Video for Word Documents from Microsoft
    • Video for Google Documents from NC State IT Accessibility
  • Names:  Use this Wikipedia page to find common names in a variety of cultures (link to wiki list of popular names)
  • Online courses: Accessibility for Online Course Content: A Guide for Instructors from Portland Community College
  • Punctuation:  This resource helps understand how screenreaders use puncuation (link to blog).  
    • For equations, make sure + and - are in an equation, not just typed because screen readers might not read them.  Or don’t add space between the numbers and symbols.
  • Toolkit:  BCcampus has an accessbilitity toolkit with resources (link to toolkit) 
  • Accessible Videos:  Information on making videos accessbility can be found at this  video about digital materials and accessibility.  You can also view this "POUR" Infographic or the POUR Text Explanation, which argue that web-based material should be not only designed for technical accessibility but also usability)
  • The Web Contact Accessbility Guide's (WCAG) principles are:
    • Perceivable: Can get info through sight, sound, OR touch
    • Operable: Navigation or tools to help typing.
    • Understandable: Info is ordered logically and predictably, including learning supports (not just the major text)
    • Robust: Can be used on different devices, and using tools.
  • CUNY has many resources on making OER accessible (link to CUNY accessibility guide), but it’s pretty similar to the ASCCC OERI Canvas course...