What is Digital Accessibility?
Accessible digital content is that which all people, regardless of disability or impairment, can perceive, navigate, and use with equivalent ease. This content can include websites, electronic documents, desktop and mobile apps, course content containing images, audio, or video, Zoom meetings, and more. Accessible content provides all people the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services.
In academic year '20-'21, Student Accessibility Services (SAS) worked with 581 students on academic accommodations.
Which disabilities affect access to digital content?
- Auditory - Examples: hard of hearing, deafness
- Cognitive - Examples: ADHD, dyslexia, autism
- Physical - Examples: paralysis, lack of use of limbs
- Speech - Examples: speech impediment, inability to speak
- Visual - Examples: low vision, blindness, color-blindness
Who else benefits from accessible content?
- People using mobile phones, smart watches, smart TVs, and other devices with small screens, different input modes, etc.
- Older people with changing abilities due to aging
- People with “temporary disabilities” such as a broken arm or lost glasses
- People with “situational limitations” such as in bright sunlight or in an environment where they cannot listen to audio
- People using a slow Internet connection, or who have limited or expensive bandwidth
- People for whom the content’s language is not their first language
Digital Accessibility Guides
Canvas
- Course Review Checklist
- Creating Accessible Canvas Content
- Teaching Guidelines for Making Courses Accessible
- Using the Ally Tool in Canvas
- Using the Course Accessibility Report
- Applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to Your Canvas Course
When possible, create quizzes using the Canvas Quizzes tool. The most commonly requested accommodation is extended time on tests; about 200 students each semester have this accommodation. Canvas quizzes can quickly and easily be adjusted for accommodation requests such as extending the time allotted to take the quiz, providing different due dates for individual students, or providing extra attempts.
Images, Documents, & Videos
Geographic & International
Training Opportunities
- “Getting Your Materials Online” self-paced Canvas course
- ITG Upcoming Training Schedule
- ITG Training Session Descriptions (see "Accessibility Sessions")
- “Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for International and Multilingual Learners” self-paced Canvas course
Learn More
- How Schools and Teachers Can Support Students with Disabilities in Remote Learning (AIR): a summary of accessibility features instructors can quickly implement in the context of Covid-19.
- Introduction to Web Accessibility (WAI): a good place to learn the basics of digital accessibility.
- Section 508 Checklist (WebAIM): an advanced rubric for checking that online content is fully accessible.
- UDL Principles and UDL Guidelines (CAST): Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.
- Web Accessibility Perspectives (WAI): a video demonstration of accessibility’s impact and benefits for everyone in a variety of situations.
Get Help
The resources on this page concern proactively designing accessible content rather than reacting to specific accommodation requests.
- To learn about available support for fulfilling text-to-speech accommodations, please see the Iwasaki Library's page on Support for Accommodations.
- If you have questions about accommodations for students, please contact Student Accessibility Services (SAS) at SAS@emerson.edu.
- If you have questions about accommodations for faculty or staff, please contact Human Resources (HR) at HR@emerson.edu.
- If you have questions about building digital accessibility into your course design and content, please contact the Instructional Technology Group (ITG) at ITG@emerson.edu.
Some information in this article is from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) document: Introduction to Web Accessibility. Shawn Lawton Henry, ed. Copyright © 2021 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio). Status: Updated 5 June 2019. First published February 2005. https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-intro/