Accessibility Checklist for Faculty/Staff
Introduction
This checklist is designed to help you meet accessibility standards as required by the ADA (American with Disabilities Act) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, to ensure that your course materials are compatible with assistive technologies and other accommodations offered by the 91ÁÔÆæ Student Accessibility Services office.
It is suggested that you implement this checklist when:
- Creating new courses
- Redesigning an existing course
- A student with a disability enrolls in a course
Please review your course materials against each of the areas listed below. Check off items you have completed or plan to complete when the course is offered.
Syllabus
- Did I provide my syllabus in an electronic and accessible format, preferably prior to the start of the semester’s open registration period?
- Did I include the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) of the textbook(s) I require students to use in the course, and submitted them to the 91ÁÔÆæ Bookstore?
- Did I include a statement regarding support for students with disabilities in my syllabus?
Course Materials
- Did I design course materials created in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat PDF so that they are accessible and can be accessed by users of assistive technology?
- For guidance in creating accessible electronic documents of all types, see the 91ÁÔÆæ Web Accessibility Group’s Resource page.
- Did I establish a plan to provide an equal alternate form of access if a handout is not accessible to a student with a disability enrolled in my course?
- Did I ensure any and all course materials uploaded to eCore and On-Line courses are in an accessible format?
Video and Audio
- Did I identify video and or audio based materials I will use in my course at least eight weeks prior to the first day of class? Timely identification of materials allows for sufficient time to convert materials into alternate formats if needed.
- Did I make an effort to select video content that already contains accurate synchronized captions?
Web-Based Content
- Did I ensure that all images have descriptive ALT text, including charts and graphs?
- Did I ensure that color is not the sole means by which information is conveyed?
- Did I ensure that scientific notation is accessible to users of screen readers?
- Did I ensure that any animations present are necessary, and that the flicker rate is lower than 2Hz or greater than 55Hz? Animations within these frequencies may trigger epileptic seizures.
- Did I ensure that any video conferencing software used in the course is accessible and provides synchronized captions?
- Did I ensure that correct heading structure is followed? Did I ensure that users of screen readers have the ability to skip lengthy navigation menus?
- Did I ensure that content can be zoomed to 200% without severely distorting the formatting, requiring excessive scrolling, or otherwise losing functionality?
- Did I ensure that all links are descriptive, and avoid using generic titles such as “Click Here?”
- Did I ensure language tags are used correctly?
- Did I establish a plan to provide an equal alternate form of access if web-based content is not accessible to a student with a disability enrolled in the course?