Get Familiar with Accessibility Adjustments

Accessibility refers to designing products, services, and environments to be usable by people with disabilities, while accommodation involves making adjustments or providing aids to enable individuals with disabilities to access existing products, services, or environments. Kennesaw State adheres to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its associated standards when designing courses. Our accessibility practices aim to make content perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for individuals with disabilities. This includes providing alternative text for images, captions for videos, keyboard accessibility, clear structure and navigation, and compatibility with assistive technologies. 
 
Creating accessible documents and media involves following guidelines for formatting, structure, color contrast, and alternative formats. Interpreting accessibility statements helps understand the level of accessibility and any known issues. When a learning object is not fully accessible, providing an equally effective alternative, such as a text transcript or audio description, ensures equal access for all students. 
 
The set of resources below is designed to support faculty by providing options which consider desired time commitment and depth of knowledge.

Professional Development

Start your professional development with these targeted trainings and resources on accessibility. Learn to find and use accessibility solutions in a brief 10-minute video, or tackle complex alternative text solutions with a 30-minute, self-directed session. For a more comprehensive approach, join our three-week Accessible Teaching Essentials workshop, designed to help faculty create accessible course content. Public-facing web content creators can also benefit from the self-paced workshop, earning digital credentials and a certificate renewal with a refresher video and quiz.

Boost your accessibility skills at Kennesaw State with our specialized professional development trainings!

TITLE DESCRIPTION LEARNING OUTCOMES RESOURCE TYPE AVERAGE TIME
Finding and Using Accessibility Statements Need clarification on what to include in your course concerning the accessibility of third party technologies your students will need to use?  This brief video will show you what an accessibility statement is and how you can find the accessibility statements you need for your course. 
  • Create accessible documents and media. 
 Microlearning Video 10 minutes
Complex Alternative Text Solutions: Focusing on Purpose Participants will be able to find creative solutions for writing alternative text for images that present difficult accessibility challenges, such as complex infographics and flow charts.  
  • Select and provide an equal alternative when a learning object is not fully accessible. 
 Self-Directed PD 30 minutes
Accessible Teaching Essentials Accessible Teaching Essentials (ATE) is a three-week, online workshop designed to fit easily into a hectic teaching schedule—in fact, you’ll only need 2-3 hours per week to complete it!   It is written for faculty who are new to the topic of accessibility, introducing them to the issues at stake, providing an approachable structure for making their course content accessible, showing them how to check course content for accessibility, and providing training and resources for creating accessible course content.
  • Differentiate between accessibility and accommodation.  
  • Identify laws and regulations on accessibility. 
  • Describe how accessibility practices make content accessible for people with disabilities.  
  • Locate accessibility gaps in own courses. 
  • Create accessible documents and media.
 Instructor-Led Course 9 hours across 3 weeks
Accessible Web Essentials The Accessible Web Essentials workshop is a self-paced three-module workshop for public-facing web content creators. The workshop provides resources and experiences to demonstrate web accessibility, detailed instructions on how to make content accessible, and practice creating accessible documents and media. Participants earn digital credentials as they complete each unit culminating in a digital certificate. A simple refresher video and quiz are all that is required to renew the certificate yearly. 
  • Differentiate between accessibility and accommodation.  
  • Identify laws and regulations on accessibility. 
  • Describe how accessibility practices make content accessible for people with disabilities.  
  • Locate accessibility gaps in own courses. 
  • Create accessible documents and media. 
 Instructor-Led Course 3 weeks; Self-Paced