Accessibility is a major concern with my students. Our college does so much to ensure the success of students with disabilities by providing in-class notetakers and interpreters, a testing centre equipped with technologies to aid in test taking, and ergonomic and other equipment to help with comfort and ability in the classroom. But looking at our college website with all of its non-intuitive, often hidden information, I wonder if they have seriously thought about making the online component of teaching and education as accessible as the traditional in-class part? I know I have not until now.
Reading through this material has really opened my eyes to the need for creating a course site that is easy to use for EVERYBODY. Does this make my work more labour intensive? Well yes, but the suggested improvements will make a better site for all students, not just those students with disabilities. For example, using simple, straight forward language, making the site navigation consistent, and paying attention to its ease of use will benefit everyone who accesses the course site. I also realize I need to add descriptions for my images (img alt tags) and lots of audio for those who are visually impaired. I hope I have time to have a friend test my site so that they can make suggestions as well. For now, I checked the Moodle site using the Markup Validation Service and so far it passed!
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