Unit 1: What is Accessibility?

Accessibility means access. It refers to the ability for everyone, regardless of disability or special needs, to access, use and benefit from everything within their environment.

By the end of this unit participants will be able to:

  • discuss federal and state regulations important to accessibility in online education;
  • explain barriers to access and assistive technologies designed to overcome these barriers;
  • create an initial Accessibility Plan with an inventory of course materials and resources;
  • identify campus resources that support building and delivering accessible courses.

Unit Overview

In our first unit, we'll take a look at both federal and state regulations governing accessibility in online courses, identify populations who may need or benefit from well-designed, accessible courses, and provide an overview of the assistive technologies most commonly used by online students. 

Knowing and understanding these regulations is only a part of the process. Online educators need to be able to apply these regulations and guidelines while developing and teaching their courses to ensure the spirit of the regulation is honored. Compliance needs to be "built in" to the course.  This level of design requires careful planning, so we'll look at an approach to course design, as well.  

In upcoming weeks, we'll be continuing this process by using design principles to build accessible components of a course.

To meet the objectives of this unit you will complete the following activities and assessments:

  1. Review the unit.
  2. Participate in the "Assessing Your Course" discussion.
  3. Complete an Accessibility Plan.

Creative Commons License
Creating Accessible Course Content by CVC-OEI Links to an external site. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Links to an external site.. Development of this course was funded by a grant from the California Community Colleges' Chancellor's Office.