Featured Entries
Know a good UD website or resource?
Tools and Resources
How-to Strategies
Resources in this section include guidelines and methods for implementing universal design.
29 items: 8 internal 21 external
Creating an Accessible Tri-fold Brochure
If you are using “Adobe InDesign Creative Suite 2” and “Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional” this document will teach you how make accessible brochures.
R2D2 Center at UW-Milwaukee
DARC Manual- A How-to Guide for Increasing Campus Accessibility
If you have interest in developing a campus network to infuse and disseminate universal design information and strategies, this manual will be helpful to you. The DARC (Departmental Accessibility Resource Coordinators) Network is highlighted along with tips for start-up, management, and training.
R2D2 Center at UW-Milwaukee
Do an Accessibility Gems & Bloopers Workshop
This example is provided to demonstrate how you can set up a fun workshop where you explore accessibilty issues on your campus. (The EqTD's for the SAMPLE Introduction to Bloopers are in the process of being written.)
R2D2 Center at UW-Milwaukee
DARC Training: Blooper Observation Handout
DARC Training: SAMPLE Introduction to Bloopers Workshop (Draft)
EqTD's for Graphic Elements - Why & Where
Equivalent text descriptions (EqTD's) are extremely important and can be difficult to create. Here you will find a set of EqTD related documents that detail processes, purposes and levels of complexity. The origin of providing alternative text for graphic elements and a brief review of the R2D2 standard are included.
R2D2 Center at UW-Milwaukee
Equivalent Text Description (EqTD) Tutorial for Graphics
This 5 page tutorial provides step by step instructions and examples for writing equivalent text descriptions for graphic elements.
R2D2 Center at UW-Milwaukee
Plan UD & LCE Workshops
These files will provide the information you need to lead Universal Design & Learner Centered Workshops. Please note that the ppt file is labeled "Draft" because some of the graphics do not have EqTDs written yet.
R2D2 Center at UW-Milwaukee
Video Closed Captioning Protocol
This protocol will help you to create a video with a caption track. Videos captioned with this method will be playable by older versions of QuickTime, back to QuickTime 3 (depending on video and audio code used).
R2D2 Center at UW-Milwaukee
Video Descriptive Track Protocol (Draft)
This protocol will help you create a video with an additional audio track that attempts to describe the visual component of the video. Note that the file created from this document will always have the additional track playing. We are currently examining the possibility of adding a toggle button.
A Community Model to Promote Accessible Fitness Facilities
This is a PDF version of a slide show which offers a tool for assuring that a fitness center reviews several features to insure full accessibility. This presentation can be used in conjunction with Removing Barriers to Health Clubs and Fitness Facilities A Guide for Accommodating All Members, Including People with Disabilities and Older Adults, also found on this website.
NC Office on Disability and Health FPG Child Development Institute, Chapel Hill, NC
Access for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students
This website contains tips specific to accommodate hard of hearing students. These strategies can be applied by either students or teacher to improve the learning environment for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Class Act: a project of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology (NTID/RIT)
Accessibility Guides
This link explains general accessibility guidelines. "Not sure how to convert a Microsoft Word document into an accessible format? Confused as how to create a tagged document in Adobe Acrobat? The Accessibility Guides provided by CTFD are here to help you convert and create your course materials into accessible formats."
The Center for Teaching and Faculty Development, San Francisco State University
Accessible Podcasting
Excellent discussion and strategies for making accessible podcasts. "Podcasts are an increasingly popular way to present content on the Web. Because they are audio files, they generally only work for people who can hear. In addition, they are often quite large files, which can present accessibility problems for people with slower connections to the Internet. Podcasts that include video, often referred to as vodcasts, generally have larger file sizes than a podcast of the same duration, so the speed of the user's Internet access is even more crucial." The webpage appears to be home-made.
Peter Batchelor and Jonathan O'Donnell
Accessible Solutions from Bob Vila
This website page includes accessibility concerns from the work of Bob Vila (This Old House TV show). Many accessibility topics have "how to" videos.
Bob Vila
Company Disability Policy Guidelines
In formulating your company's policy regarding the inclusion of persons with disabilities as customers and staff you might want to utilize these guidelines.
Independent Living Institute, Johanneshov, Sweden
Description Key for Educational Media
Description is the verbal depiction of key visual elements in media and live productions. Also known as “audio description” or “video description,” the description of media involves the interspersion of these depictions with the program’s original audio. "Description is the key to opening a world of information for persons with a vision loss, literacy needs, or loss of cognitive abilities. While description was developed for people who are blind or visually impaired, millions of others may also benefit from description’s concise, objective translation of media’s key visual components.
These guidelines are a key for vendors and cover a range of topics from preparing to describe to determining both what information needs to be described and how to describe it. The information is also applicable to vendors and other businesses [PDF] that provide description for broadcast television and other media. Some background information and rationale are included for the novice, as well as an evolving list of description resources to help improve the quality and efficiency of one’s description."
This web page includes a more detailed definition, philosophy and more.
Described and Captioned Media Program, in conjunction with The National Association for the Deaf and the American asociation for the Blind
Captioning Key for Educational Media: Guidelines and Preferred T
Designing and Building Integrated Digital Library Systems - Guidelines
"The concept of a “world library for the blind” rests on the ability of digital libraries to share and coordinate collection-building resources and to use digital technology to share content."
The Hague, IFLA Headquarters, 2005
Guide to Planning Inclusive Meetings
This pdf guide is to help organize meetings that are inclusive. An area often overlooked by meeting planners, or dismissed as too difficult, is how to make a meeting accessible for people with disabilities. By considering accessibility as part of the planning process, you ensure that everyone can participate and be involved, which means a successful meeting. The guide includes a useful checklist, resources, and a glossary.
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada
Guidelines for Universally Accessible and Usable Workplaces
This 13 page guide explains the universal design guidelines for the workplace. It also introduces an approach to developing guidelines to integrate universal design into office planning. The results of a survey regarding the current awareness of universal design among Japanese facility managers is also addressed.
World Workplace Europe
How to Design an Accessible Church
Tips and suggestions by Robert Habiger for designing a church in order to make it accessible for individuals with all disabilities. Habiger outlines what should be architecturally done to accommodate people with disabilities.
Envision Church
Removing Barriers to Health Care: A Guide for Health Professionals
This 16 page booklet provides guidelines and recommendations to help health care professionals ensure equal use of the facility and services by all their patients. The information in this guide gives health care providers a better understanding of how to improve not only the physical environment, but also their personal interactions with patients with disabilities. There is also a review of some of the design standards established through state and federal laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), that health care professionals need to know.
North Carolina Office on Disability and Health & The Center for Universal Design
Removing Barriers: Planning Meetings That are Accessible to all Participants
This publication highlights basic guidelines and strategies to help organizations make their meetings accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities. The tips in this guide ensure that a variety of participants are included in all aspects of the meeting/conference process. An environment that is accessible, functional, and safe benefits everyone.
North Carolina Office on Disability and Health & The Center for Universal Design
Residential Rehabilitation, Remodeling and Universal Design
This 27 page guide explains general accessibility features every home should include in order to accommodate homeowners with various abilities and needs in the future. The guide includes a list of priority features, select important universal features, and diagrams of how to remodel/build an accessible home inside and out.
The Center for Universal Design, NC State University College of Design
Summary of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
The web page provides 14 guidelines for making websites accessible, gives a brief description of each one and some hints on how to ensure accessibility.
Association of Accessibility Professionals (AAP)
Ten Tips to Check a Website for Accessibility
This web page lists ten relatively simple tests to check the accessibility of a website. All of the tests are free and fast options. However, "The Association of Accessibility Professionals is no more" and some links may no longer be available (e.g.link to Bobby).
The Association of Accessibility Professionals (AAP)
The Incredible, Accessible Presentation: Crafting PowerPoint Presentations That Work With Assistive Technology
This web page includes the steps to create an accessible PowerPoint presentation, from beginning to end. Tips and resources are included with easy-to-read directions for anyone.
Indezine
Universal Design of Advising
General guidelines and a comprehensive checklist of considerations to make the student advising process accessible for persons with disabilities.
Burgstahler, S - Washington University, DO-IT
Universal Instructional Design (UID): A Faculty Workbook
This workbook is for faculty and instructional developers who are in the process of planning or revising a predominantly“face to face” course and are interested in making it more consistent with UID principles. "Indeed, because fewer individual accommodations are needed when the principles of Universal Instructional Design (UID) are applied, UID can save time for instructors, reduce possible stigma associated with asking for special accommodation, and provide a greater sense of equity and fairness for students." The checklist is based on the 7 Principles of UID.
Learning Opportunities Task Force, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Government of Ontario, 2002-03
Wayfinding Design: Hidden Barriers to Universal Access
This excellent article, in Implications, A Newsletter by InformeDesign, a website for design and human behavior research has very good recommendations regarding wayfinding. "Community settings must accommodate an increasingly diverse population, it is critical that they be designed to be as inclusive and universally accessible as possible, addressing the requirements of a wide range of physical, sensory, and cognitive abilities and needs."
"Wayfinding (the process individuals use to navigate in unfamiliar surroundings) is necessary to living one’s life and is something that most people do every day. Wayfinding information is instrumental in finding a desired destination."
InformeDesign, University of Minnesota
Web Best Practices Overview
Web Best Practices Overview: This group, lead by Jon Gunderson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, convenes regularly "to develop best practices for web development using HTML, CSS, Javascript and Adobe PDF." Information about joining, issues and topics for discussion are found at this website.
Assistive Technology in Higher Education Network (ATHENS)
