Accessibility in Distance Education, University of Maryland University College

This website focuses on helping faculty develop accessible online learning materials for people with disabilities. It is divided into five major sections targeting common accessibility questions. The site covers many basic questions and has scenarios of possible difficulties students with disabilities may have in an online learning environment.

AccessDL, University of Washington

The Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology Center (DO-IT) at the University of Washington has undertaken a nation-wide effort to move online course accessibility beyond reactive compliance (accommodation) to proactive compliance (universal design). The website provides links to many resources on making distance learning courses accessible to students and instructors with disabilities.

Distance Learning, University of Washington

This article discusses some of the challenges that students with disabilities face in regards to distance learning. A variety of topics covered in this article, including access challenges for people with disabilities, visual impairments, specific learning disabilities, mobility, hearing and speech impairments, universal design, on-site instruction, internet-based communication, and web pages. This article also includes “Ten Indicators of Distance Learning Accessibility”.

Real Connections: Making Distance Learning Accessible to Everyone

This video presentation provides guidelines for designing internet-based distance learning courses to fully include all students, including those with disabilities. The presentation is open-captioned and audio-described to assure access to the content for viewers who are deaf or blind, respectively. The video is somewhat out-of-date, but still very useful.

Distance Education: Access Guidelines for Students with Disabilities

This website addresses the basic requirements for providing students with disabilities access to online courses. In addition, the various modes of delivery for online learning, including print media, audio conferencing and video conferencing, are addressed in detail.

WAVE 4.0

This is a free service to help web page authors identify and repair significant barriers to access by individuals with disabilities. Just enter the website address into the program and you will receive feedback on potential concerns.

Equal Access: Universal Design of Distance Learning

This is an article on legal guidelines and universal design when creating web pages for distance learning programs.

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