New Tutorial for Making Online Learning Accessible to Students with Disabilities

With their rush to move instruction online in response to the world-wide pandemic of 2020, some instructors and course designers have inadvertently left some students out of many learning activities because they have not employed well-established inclusive practices. These students include those who have disabilities that impact their abilities to see, hear, move, learn, and engage.

DO-IT Director Sheryl Burgstahler has responded to this need by creating a new Tutorial for Making Online Learning Accessible to Students with Disabilities.

In this module, she provides a self-paced instruction to help you get started in making your online course accessible to, usable by, and inclusive of all students, including those with disabilities. She share tips for the inclusive design of online learning that have evolved from her efforts to teach courses that are accessible to all students, as well as from the experiences of colleagues who have done the same. This tutorial covers these topics and more:

• Legal issues
• Accommodations and universal design
• Principles that underpin the universal design (UD) of online learning
• Practices that are accessible, usable, and inclusive

The tutorial also include links to resources for further learning that include technical details and issues relevant to making your online course inclusive of all of your students who may be enrolled now or in the future. The instructional materials provide a path forward in improving existing offerings and designing new ones that ensure that all students can benefit from online educational opportunities.