205 Accessibility and Universal Design
Supplemental Resources
Understanding Document Accessibility: A Reference for Creating Accessible Office Documents by Digital Education Strategies, The Chang School of Continuing Education (Toronto Metropolitan University) (CC BY-SA).
With much of the world gone digital, learning to create documents that are accessible to everyone is becoming a necessary skill. Intended for a general audience, this free resource reviews a wide range of document authoring applications, including the tools they contain for creating accessible documents and tests them to ensure they do not contain potential barriers. Learn how to create accessible word-processed documents, spreadsheets, presentation slides, and PDF documents, among others, so they are accessible to everyone. Includes: Additional resources
Textbook
Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by Amanda Coolidge (BCcampus), Sue Doner (Camosun College), Tara Robertson (CAPER-BC), and Josie Gray (BCcampus)( CC BY 4.0 ).
The goal of the Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition is to provide resources for each content creator, instructional designer, educational technologist, librarian, administrator, and teaching assistant to create a truly open textbook—one that is free and accessible for all students.This second edition has built upon, and improved, the original toolkit—a collaboration between BCcampus, Camosun College, and CAPER-BC—with a new “Accessibility Statements” chapter, bibliography, and list of links by chapter for print users in the back matter, updated information, and corrections to content, style, and layout.
Digital Methods for Disability Studies∗ by School of Disability Studies (Toronto Metropolitan University) (CC BY-NC 4.0)
The Digital Methods for Disability Studies course introduces students to a range of technologies and teaches them to think critically with and through media objects, practices, and processes. Through texts, videos, podcasts, games, and interactive activities, students develop their critical thinking, close-reading, textual analysis, platform analysis, visual analysis, and critical game design skills. This course offers students an opportunity to both interrogate the digital realm as a site of inequality and to harness digital tools and methods in addressing complex social challenges.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA)∗ by Darla Benton Kearney (Mohawk College) (CC BY 4.0).
The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) project was a collaboration between 10 universities and colleges across Ontario to develop a 6-module open educational resource for post-secondary educators to help them understand their responsibilities under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). It will help instructors and others to incorporate principles of UDL and considerations of EDI and Indigenization in their learning environments.
UDL On Campus: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education by CAST (CC BY-SA 4.0).
UDL On Campus is a collection of resources developed by CAST geared towards multiple stakeholders within postsecondary institutions, including instructional designers, faculty, policymakers, and administrators. The purpose of the site is to offer an understanding of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in higher education and contains four sections: 1) UDL in Higher Education, 2) Course Design, 3) Media and Materials, and 4) Accessibility and Policy. Each section provides resources about addressing learner variability at the postsecondary level in an effort to improve learning opportunities, retention, and outcomes.
What You Can Do to Remove Barriers on the Web: Making Websites Accessible by Digital Education Strategies, The Chang School of Continuing Education (Toronto Metropolitan University) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
This book accompanies the Accessibility Maze, a game developed to teach the basics of web accessibility for those new to the topic. Or, for anyone else who wants to see how fun learning about web accessibility can be. You should try the maze before reading this book, to get the full effect of the game.
Website
Dobble Debate: A Game Promoting Discussion of Difference and Disabilities by Lynne Heller and Nina Czegledy (OCADU) ( CC BY-SA 4.0).
This digital version of Dobble Debate was conceived, co-designed and co-created in partnership with a variety of disabled community members. Committed to changing conversations around what it means to live with disabilities, our many workshop participants experience everything from deafness and blindness, to learning disabilities and mental health issues; some experience multiple concurrent challenges and so offered especially nuanced perspectives. Dobble Debate’s accessible and community co-created game offers expanded gameplay options available to educators and learners across geographies, time zones and teaching contexts. It is designed to give educators, gamers and learners new perceptions around how they interact with the world—and how their family, friends, communities, peers and colleagues do.
FLOE: Flexible Learning for Open Education by Inclusive Design Research Centre (OCADU) (CC BY 4.0).
FLOE provides the resources to personalize how we each learn and to address barriers to learning. Learners learn differently, and today’s society needs diverse, self-aware, life-long learners. FLOE supports learners, educators and curriculum producers in achieving one-size-fits-one learning design for the full diversity of learners, leveraging the variants made possible by Open Education Resources (OER). Includes: Resources on “Learning to Learn,” “Multimodal Presentation, Concept Adaptation and Personal Preferences,” “Social Justice, Activism and Digital Equity,” “Inclusive Design Practice”, “Privacy, Power and Autonomy,” and “Inclusive Technology for Learning.”
Media Attributions
- Canada Map Icon by Icons8 (CC BY-ND).
- BC Map by Adamwashere (CC BY-NC-SA).
- Sask map by Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).
1. Resources in this chapter are based on OER by Discipline Guide: University of Ottawa (Version 2.0 – June 2022) Copyright © 2022 by Mélanie Brunet and Catherine Lachaîne (CC-BY).