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Accessibility to Digital Materials

What does it mean to create digital materials that comply with accessibility requirements? Let's start at the beginning and define accessibility. Accessibility means disabilities are not a barrier to access (Cifuentes et al., 2016). Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ensures accessibility compliance with digital materials from agencies receiving federal monies (Federal Communications Commission, n.d.). Any material created for digital access needs to be accessible to people with various disabilities. Disabilities include visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments. 

    Accessibility is a term that scares many people because they have not learned how to create materials that comply with the law. However, there is help available to create compliant digital materials. One helpful resource is WebAIM. WebAIM (n.d.) is an online resource that provides training, technical assistance, and website evaluation to ensure accessibility requirement compliance. Another helpful resource is the WCAG checklist which provides point-by-point guidelines for how to make documents accessible (Peri, 2022). 


    Documents have many intricate pieces necessary for accessibility compliance. For instance, headers, text organization, line spacing, and font style, size, and color have specific compliance rules! Documents are not the only digital material online educators utilize to teach content. Every educator worth their salt (online and in-person) utilizes more than just documents for teaching! 


    Videos and images are essential parts of conveying information, and they, too, have to be compliant. Videos need closed captioning or a transcript for compliance. Suppose the video relies on images to convey meaning. In that case, the video should be narrated or include a separate audio file with narration explaining the images. Images should have alternative text and a caption to increase the transfer of ideas. The video embedded in this post discusses why accessible content is essential and some simple steps you can take to make your materials compliant. 


    How do accessible digital materials tie into creative technology integration? Technology integration is all about using technology to enhance and support learning. What better way to support learning is there than using digital materials to deliver content in various ways? Do you see where I am going with this? The ability to support learning through various means depends on accessibility compliance for all digital materials because accessibility ensures that all students learn.


How can you improve your digital materials for accessibility compliance?


(MSFTEnable, n.d.)

References

Cifuentes, L., Jannery, A., Guerra, L., & Weir, J. (2016). A working model for complying with accessibility guidelines for online learning. TechTrends, 60(6), 557–564. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-016-0086-8

Federal Communications Commission. (n.d.). Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. 

MSFTEnable. (n.d.). Creating accessible content [Video]. YouTube.

Peri, R. S. (2022, May 3). WCAG checklist - A free and simple guide to WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1. DigitA11Y. https://doi.org/www.digitala11y.com/wcag-checklist/

WebAIM. (n.d.). Microsoft word. https://webaim.org/techniques/word


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