The Accessible Virtual Community

This posterette provides a summary of the "basics" to introduce Universal Design into your classroom. Examples are optimum classroom environment and verbally describing images.

This website contains a tutorial comprised of 10 modules that offer information, instructional techniques, and practice labs to make distance education accessible. Tutorials are in-depth and require 1 to 6 hours depending on topic. This information is from Georgia Tech Research on Accessible Distance Education.

This website contains information on how to create an accessible poster from the American Public Health Association (APHA). It is one if APHA's goals to make meetings accessible to the widest range of people possible. This website gives bullet-points in several categories to make your poster more accessible.

This YouTube video describes the ADA guidelines for building an accessible playground.

AHEAD is a professional membership organization for individuals involved in the development of policy and in the provision of quality services to meet the needs of persons with disabilities, involved in all areas of higher education.

This PDF version Captioning Tipsheet from PEPNet offers an overview of all different types of captioning. A section on how to make video materials available for classroom use is included, with a discussion and facts about procedures and funding.

This website provides links to free learning tools for students, teachers and parents.

This website contains guidelines that are applicable to any accommodative testing. Per the authors, "The administration of any test that has been reproduced in Braille, large print, or audio format requires special attention by the test administrator or test proctor."

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.

This PDF describes accessibility standards and issues related to distance education.

"This project is researching and documenting effective practices for providing meaningful descriptions of science content within Digital Talking Books that serve post-secondary students, professionals and scientists who have visual impairments or blindness. A particular focus is ways to describe non-text content, such as equations, charts, and diagrams." [Annotation from CATEA resource page]

This webpage contains quick tips for bloggers to help make their blog more accessible to blind readers.

This webpage, developed by the National Science Foundation and Design Science, is a company working with the accessibility community to make math fully accessible. They have compiled ten of the most frequently asked questions. A brief answer is provided, as well as links to comprehensive resources for those who would like to explore additional information.

"The National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE) monitors and promotes electronically-mediated distance education policies and practices that enhance the lives of people with disabilities and their families." Information regarding policies and leadership, tools and technology, community and partnership, and projects and activities are provided on this website.

This website provides a checklist and information on making web based courses and materials accessible for people with disabilities.

"This video presentation provides guidelines for designing Internet-based distance learning courses to fully include all students and instructors, including those with disabilities." 11:55 minutes.

While the SciTrain project is designed for high school teachers, the accommodations link here discusses barriers that occur irrespective of grade level. This website also includes the success stories of teachers and students with disabilities.

This document is provided as a guide for making tests accessible in tactile, large print, and audio formats. "The American Printing House for the Blind (APH)" is committed to ensuring that educational materials are accessible to students with visual impairments. It is anticipated that this guide will be used as a tool for implementing appropriate guidelines as test publishers, test developers, test editors, and state assessment personnel are developing and adapting tests and assessments."

"As classrooms start to incorporate more digital technology, it becomes increasingly important that materials used in the classroom are designed to be useable by all students from the start. This requires adjustments in the way materials are purchased, and that, in turn, will drive the availability of more flexible and accessible learning materials in the marketplace." The PALM Initiative (Purchase Accessible Learning Materials) offers a Tool Kit and other valuable resources that identify the problem and offer suggestions for impacting publishers regarding accessibility of instructional media.

This webpage provides good suggestions for making math and science accessible for all students.

This 3-page PDF document provides UDL "Quick Tips" based on the Center for Applied Technology's (CAST) Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines. Objectives and Benchmarks, Instructional Materials, Teaching Methods and Assessment Methods are tied in with an educational approach using CASTs three primary principles of UDL:Representation, Engagement and Expression.

"This web site supports the teaching and study of universal design. It also provides a place where educators can interact with each other. Our goal is to develop a community of learners who exchange information for the benefit of all."

The seven principles of product and environmental universal design (from The Center for Universal Design, North Carolina State University) are applied to education on this printable "CATS Fact Sheet". Please note that wording is adjusted to the education realm.

"In these terms, universal design means the development of curriculum, instructional materials and instruction to be accessible to and useable by students with different backgrounds and abilities. The key aspect of a universally designed curriculum is its in-built flexibility."

CATS (Creating Accessible Teaching & Support) is hosted by the University of Tasmania, and was funded by the Australian Government, Department of Education, Employment, & Workplace Relations and the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.

Detailed checklists for planning and developing universally designed computer laboratories.

Details the historical root of UDL by detailing the early work of the Center for UDL at North Carolina State University and CAST. This website provides Universal Design Instruction principles, guidelines, and examples.

This InfoBrief identifies and explains selected classroom-based strategies within the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model.

The goal of this FREE resource is provide information on how to make websites for higher education accessible. The white paper discusses how to make the process of captioning, transcription, and subtitling as simple and streamlined as possible.