UDL, Accessibility and Quality Assurance – Collaborations at the University of Arizona for Accessible Online Classes

Handouts Media

Presented at 2:15pm in WB III on Wednesday, November 15, 2017.

#9176

Speaker(s)

  • Dawn Hunziker, IT Accessibility Consultant, Sr., University of Arizona
  • Janet Smith, Instructional Designer, University of Arizona

Session Details

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

Summary

The University of Arizona’s Office of Digital Learning and Disability Resources collaborate to ensure quality, accessible, universally designed courses for UA Online. Key partnership elements include sharing resources and knowledge around innovative technologies for teaching and best practices for accessibility and inclusive learning components.

Abstract

This session discusses collaborations between the UA Online's Office of Digital Learning and the Disability Resources IT Accessibility Team to build processes towards ensuring UDL, quality assurance, and accessibility in digital course content. Learn how our comprehensive team works across campus to proactively evaluate teaching and learning software products, identify and modify content that may remain inaccessible and generate innovative pedagogical strategies based on UDL principles. Maintaining a culture of UDL takes active work and participation from across the campus. It demands constant vigilance in evaluating digital learning content across the life cycle of the curriculum, thus requiring dedicated resources to support that vigilance. There remain many challenges, including questions of how innovation in teaching and learning may create opportunity but also generate new challenges for accessibility.

Keypoints

  1. Understand impact of team structure and collaboration for ensuring accessible, universally designed courses
  2. Understand techniques and technologies employed for innovative courses which also includes accessibility
  3. Learn UA's IT Accessibility and our campus collaborations to create accessible learning and IT environments

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Vision

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Administrative/Campus Policy, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Dawn Hunziker

Dawn Hunziker is the IT Accessibility Consultant, Sr. for the University of Arizona’s Disability Resources. She co-coordinates the UA's IT Accessibility Program to support the UA’s commitment to full accessibility of all electronic and information technology employed on campus (itaccessibility.arizona.edu). Her job duties include working with campus units and committees, program managers, content developers, faculty and staff to provide input and proactive solutions regarding accessibility in the UA IT and academic environments. Additionally she coordinates Assistive Technology availability on campus, collaborates in alternate format production (documents and media), faculty development and accessible course and web design. Dawn currently serves as the President with the ATHEN Executive Committee. Dawn has presented at local, state, and national conferences regarding the UA IT Accessibility Program, pdf/web accessibility, captioning processes, and inclusive curriculum design.

Janet Smith

Handout(s)