What should I do when a student informs me of a disability and requests an accommodation for a distance learning course?

Talk with the student to see of you can modify your course delivery to make it accessible. For example, providing alternative text descriptions for graphic images can make the content of images accessible to a student who is blind using text-to-speech technology that translates only text. Consulting with the distance learning technical design staff on campus may be helpful for the immediate need, as well as for ensuring that future courses offered through this program are more accessible to students with disabilities. If you cannot make course modifications to accommodate the student, consult the campus disability support services office. Staff in this office can help both the student with the disability and the faculty member determine reasonable accommodations.

For more information on developing an accessible distance learning course, consult the publication Real Connections: Making Distance Learning Accessible to Everyone or view the video by the same title.

In addition, you may also find the following DO-IT Knowledge Base articles helpful: What are some of the barriers students face in distance learning courses? and How can I get started in making my distance learning course accessible to all students?