Access Plan
Introduction
Background
First Steps
Evaluation
Course Retrofitting
Accommodations
Effective Policies
Resources
A study by the National Center for Education Statistics
reveals that as of the 12-month 2000-2001 academic year, institutes of higher
education offered an estimated 127,400 different distance education courses.
Only 3% of the institutions reported that they received frequent requests for
accessibility in their distance learning programs, with 37% of those surveyed
reported receiving no requests for such accommodations. Given these statistics,
it is very likely that a significant fraction of the courses available today
have not been made accessible for students with disabilities.
Once an instructor has created a course, retrofitting the materials in that course for accessibility can be problematic and time-consuming. Ideally, all courses should be designed in as accessible a manner as possible from the beginning. However, the reality is that many existing courses are not accessible for many students with disabilities, and that these courses will require a large commitment in time and energy from an instructor to become accessible.
Proper planning is just as important in retrofitting a course as it is to accessible course development. However, since retrofitting is to be done retrospectively, the planning process for retrofitting differs somewhat from the planning process for course development. In both cases, though, planning ahead for accessibility can help instructors deliver course materials in an accessible context in a timely fashion.
Often, the first step in the retrofitting process is building individual knowledge about accessibility issues. Once an instructor has a good grasp of the basics of accessibility -- using this tutorial, for example, or other resources -- then the next step is to identify the existing barriers in the course materials. Some barriers will be relatively easy to identify, such as uncaptioned video, or Flash or Javascript animations without visual cues. Some barriers will require an understanding of assistive technology to detect, or tools such as HTML validators. Putting together a list of barriers in the course is a helpful early step towards removing those barriers. It may be helpful to call on a student with a disability or the campus disability services program to identify barriers as well.
If there is ample time and resources available to the instructor, the entire course should be retrofitted. However, most instructors will not always have the time and resources available to retrofit course materials for accessibility, especially for courses that contain a large amount of inaccessible material. In most cases, the next step for an instructor would be to prioritize the barrier removal process.
Tip: The easiest way to develop priorities when retrofitting a course is to list the existing barriers, then re-order the list in terms of what barriers should be removed first based on the answers to the following questions:
Obviously, every course will have a different set of priorities, depending on the complexity of the course materials and the individual needs of students with disabilities. Usually, it is probably going to be preferable to eliminate those barriers that will be easiest and simplest to fix. However, if the barrier is minor and would be incredibly time-consuming to fix -- for example, an unlabeled spacer graphic that appears on 200 different HTML pages -- then that barrier should be low-priority, even though it would be very easy to label the graphic. By comparison, providing captioning for online video lectures will likely be very time-consuming, however, this should be a high-priority item if there is a student who is deaf or hard of hearing taking the course who cannot access the information any other way.
Course retrofitting is a process that is often complex and time-consuming -- all the more so if a request for course retrofitting comes in from a student with a disability at the last minute. Planning ahead can help make a very stressful process easier, and can result in increased accessibility for students with disabilities.
The next page will present information on working with students with disabilities and disability services offices on specific accommodation requests.
College of Architecture (COA)
Fax: 404-894-9320
Phone: 404-894-4960 (v/tty)
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