May 16th, 2019 is the 8th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion and people with different disabilities.
According to the World Health Organization, “More than one billion people in the world live with some form of disability, of whom nearly 200 million experience considerable difficulties in functioning.”
Do you know what resources WPI offers to help make your course materials accessible to all?
Office of Disability Services
The Office of Disability Services has Accessibility Guidelines and Resources on their web site to help you create an environment welcoming to all students, regardless of accommodation status.
WPI also has a student group called ACCESS which seeks to support their peers and the WPI community in developing a welcome, supportive and universally accessible campus.
If you have additional questions, reach out to Office of Disability Services or visit their web site for more information.
If you’re a student and need help, feel free to e-mail an ODS Ambassador who can provide guidance and share their perspective on working with our office, sharing accommodation letters with professors, general WPI student questions, and being a strong self-advocate.
Technology for Teaching and Learning
A Canvas Accessibility course site with a variety of resources to help you make your course site and course materials accessible to all students.
Canvas @WPI has 2 tools to check the accessibility of your course materials. AccessChecker (UDOIT), in the left-hand menu of each course site, and an accessibility checker in the toolbar of the Rich Content Editor of each page.
In Canvas, you can also turn on High Contrast UI and Underline Links in Canvas to enhance usability of the Canvas interface.
We’re always looking to improve our resources and keep the conversation going about Accessibility at WPI. Be on the lookout for more workshops this year, and if you have any ideas, feel free to reach out to us at atc-ttl@wpi.edu.