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Discovery, Metadata & Accessibility: Accessibility: Home

Overview

Accessibility
OER must be accessible to all students, not just some, to truly claim to be "open." From a moral perspective, educators should change their practices to design for accessibility instead of relying on reactive accommodations, whether the law forces them to or not. Compliance with ADA Title II means that state schools, and the third-party services they use for web services, must meet specific ACCESSIBILITY requirements by either April 2016 or 2017.

Accessibility Topics

There are some usual suspects when it comes to accessibility problems. With OER mainly being online, special attention should be paid to navigation. Interactive exercises, frequently included in in OER, are also likely to be problematic. In managing reading list programs, electronic materials digitized from physical library materials often fall short depending on the quality of OCR and lack of alt text for images, tables, figures, and diagrams. Additionally, faculty often have the freedom to edit their reading list; as a program manager, that freedom introduces a wild card which is hard to stay on top of. 

Common Problems

  • Missing Alternative Text for Images: Visually impaired students using screen readers cannot understand images, graphs, or charts without descriptive alt text.
  • Uncaptioned or Untranscribed Media: Videos and audio content without captions or transcripts are inaccessible to hearing-impaired students.
  • Non-Accessible Document Formats: PDFs or other documents that are not text-readable or properly formatted can hinder accessibility for students using assistive technologies.
  • Inconsistent Navigation and Layouts: Complex or non-standard navigation structures and inconsistent layouts can pose challenges for students with cognitive disabilities.
  • Compatibility with Assistive Technologies: OER that are not compatible with screen readers, braille displays, or other assistive technologies limit access for students with various disabilities.
  • Color Contrast Issues: Poor color contrast in materials can make it difficult for visually impaired students to read the content.
  • Multimedia Elements Not Supported: Interactive elements like quizzes or simulations that are not designed with accessibility in mind can be unusable for students with disabilities.
  • Ancillary Materials: Supplemental materials (e.g., worksheets, diagrams, maps, flash cards, drag-and-drop activities, collaborative writing tools)  often have layouts or ask for interactions that are not designed with accessibility in mind and can be unusable for students with disabilities.

Accessibility can be mysterious, even intimidating, for those not feeling confident in technical aspects of web development. Breaking the problem down into constituent parts, and looking at each individually, is a good way to gain understanding and confidence in this realm. There are tools available online that ostensibly run accessibility checks and provide reports, but you become a better practitioner if you first learn the basics before simply plugging a URL or uploading a document into a checker. With basic knowledge you will know what you are looking at in the report, be able to track that back to the website or document structure, and have ideas for how to solve or avoid the problem. 

Learning About Accessibility

OER Accessibility Toolkit - introduction for non-technical people focusing on eight best practices

WCAG Guidelines: Where to Start? - non-technical starting points for understanding web accessibility

How to Meet WCAG 2 Quick Reference - "customizable quick reference to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 requirements (success criteria) and techniques"

There is a small world of standards and laws currently covering web accessibility. Though not a long list, each standard and law is complex. Below are some resources for both technical and lay audiences.

Standards

  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) - these are the gold standard in web accessibility standards, and have different levels denoted with A, AA, and AAA

Laws