CUDE

Increasing numbers of postsecondary institutions are exploring ways to promote the procurement, development and use of accessible informative technology (IT) on campus. Most efforts have focused on the creation of policies and guidelines for web accessibility. One promising practice that has been implemented by the University of Washington (UW) is to give an IT accessibility award as part of an annual collection of campus-wide awards on outstanding efforts in the development and use of IT to support academics and administration.

As society progresses farther into the digital age and electronic and information technology (E&IT) becomes as integrated into the classroom as paper and pencils, the question of how to make E&IT accessible to all students, faculty and staff becomes more critical. In a project funded by the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation and Research (NIDRR) of the U.S.

Yes. The Access Board's Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards, developed in accordance with Section 508, divides information technology into several categories and delineates accessibility standards for each category. For example, one category in Section 508 addresses software applications and operating systems, and another addresses web-based intranet and internet information and systems.

Alternate text for images, often abbreviated "alt text", is supported by all major document publishing formats, most famously Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language of the World Wide Web. The purpose of alt text is to provide a text equivalent of an image, so people who are unable to see the image have access to the message it’s intended to convey.

Many websites have redundant navigation systems across multiple pages. Usually these navigation systems include several links across the top and/or down the left side of the page. For screen reader users and users navigating by keyboard, these links can become burdensome if there is no way to efficiently skip past them. A sighted user can jump visually past these links and begin reading the main content of the page. A "skip navigation" link is a technique for facilitating similarly efficient access for users with certain disabilities.

Web accessibility is comprehensively covered by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in their Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which includes guidelines and checkpoints (called success criteria). There have been multiple revisions of WCAG. Most laws, policies, and legal settlements or resolutions identify either WCAG 2.1 or WCAG 2.0 Level AA as the standard by which accessibility is measured.

Captions provide equivalent text for individuals who are unable to hear the audio portion of a video presentation. Open captions are part of the video and can not be turned off. Closed captions, however, are contained with a separate text track and can typically be toggle on or off as needed.

Yes.

"Information technology" (IT) is "any equipment or interconnected system or subsystem of equipment, that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information. Information technology includes computers, ancillary equipment, software, firmware and similar procedures, services (including support services), and related resources."

Many distance learning courseware packages include a whiteboard tool. The purpose of an electronic whiteboard is the same as that of a blackboard or whiteboard in a school. Instructors and students write or draw on the board in order to share their ideas and to deliver instruction. Electronic whiteboards work as graphical chat tools. They allow multiple users to draw, paint, and share existing graphical files in real time. Unfortunately, exclusively graphical workspace is not accessible to users of screen readers.

The increased use of technology in our schools brings innumerable benefits but also new challenges for teachers and students as they try to integrate technology in an accessible manner.