Disability Resources for Students

The following checklist is a basic level list to work towards online course content accessibility. DRS is happy to consult for more complex situations. The goal is to be able to answer yes to all of the following questions.

Syllabus

  • Does the syllabus have a statement about statement of support for students with disabilities? View an example statement of support.
  • Does the syllabus have a clear outline for course content and expectations?
  • Does the syllabus list have a contact for technical assistance?
  • Does the syllabus list a turnaround time for online communication (i.e. 24 hours response on emails)?
  • Does the syllabus state standards of appropriate communication online?

Documents

  • Can text be highlighted, copied, and pasted?
  • Were headings used?
  • Were headings used properly so that a heading level was NOT skipped?
    • Good: H1, H2, H2, H3, H3, H3, H2, H2
    • Bad: H1, H3, H3, H2, H5, H4. (for example, H2 was skipped)
  • Is there sufficient color contrast between text and background colors?
  • Do images (which offer important information not contained in the text) include text descriptions? 
  • Was the built-in MS Office Accessibility Checker used?
  • View Creating accessible Word documents from Microsoft Office Support for more information.

PowerPoint Presentation Slides

Excel Workbooks

Video and Audio

  • Is all video content (web, DVD and VHS) captioned?
  • Are transcripts available for video-based materials that were not able to be captioned?
  • Are transcripts available for audio-based materials?

View the UW Accessibility site for more information, specifically the UW IT Accessibility Checklist.