Building an Accessible Online Course: Best Practices & Principles

Media

Presented at 9:15am in Meadowbrook I on Friday, November 22, 2019.

#29682

Speaker(s)

  • George Joeckel, Online Training Program Manager, Utah State University / WebAIM

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format: Lecture
  • Expertise Level: Beginner
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

Participants will receive an overview of best practices for creating accessible online courses delivered through a learning management system. Participants will also review some accessibility principles, and how WebAIM addressed specific challenges when developing an online course for creating accessible documents.

Abstract

When our team at WebAIM set out to build an online course for creating accessible documents in Word & PowerPoint, a significant percentage of our effort was dedicated to optimizing the accessibility of the course itself. To one degree or another, all subject matter experts, designers and developers face limitations related to accessibility within the resources they have available to build an online course. Without the ability to make pragmatic decisions within the constraints of these resources, an online course would never be launched. This presentation will focus on best practices for creating online courses delivered through a learning management system, as well as some of the principles our team used to address the issues we encountered.

Keypoints

  1. All online course creators face limitations related to accessibility within their available resources.
  2. Best practices for creating an accessible online course are an important resource.
  3. Accessibility principles can inform pragmatic decisions within the constraints of available resources.

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Psychological, Vision

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Accessible Educational Materials, Assistive Technology, Uncategorized, Web/Media/App Access

Speaker Bio(s)

George Joeckel

George is the Online Training Program Manager at WebAIM. He has a master’s degree in instructional psychology and technology, and over 20 years of teaching experience. Since 2008, he has developed online courses at Utah State University, and he joined the WebAIM team at the end of 2015. The Accessible Documents video-based course went online in July 2018. To date, more than 10,000 independent-study learners have participated in the training.

Presentation Resources