Accessibility and Section 508

Access for All

To ensure that all students have the same opportunity, Online and Hybrid courses should be designed to provide “built-in” accommodation, known as Universal Design for Learning. This means all instructional materials you create, link, or post, including external websites and resources, must be accessible to “industry standard” assistive computer technology commonly used by students with disabilities.

Some common problems in instructor-created content and third-party resources include missing ALT tags for pictures and tables, insufficient color contrast for images and slides, using text color only to indicate differentiation or emphasis, linking to outside sites, video, or media that are not accessible or accurately captioned. At COS, we have tools and resources to support you in creating accessible course content.

PopeTech Accessibility Dashboards and Guide 

The Canvas LMS is  accessible and includes a built-in accessibility checker, as well as the integrated Pope Tech Accessibility Dashboard and Guide. Faculty should seek training in and use these tools as they build their courses.

• Canvas Accessibility Instructor Dashboard Links to an external site.
• Canvas Dashboard Course Scanning Links to an external site.
• Learn how to use PopeTech Accessibility Guide Links to an external site.

Additionally, all of your course files (e.g., Word, Excel, PPT, Google, PDF, etc) must also be checked for accessibility before posting or linking.

Accessibility Requirements

Minimum accessibility requirements within your Canvas course include:
•    All Canvas pages utilize Header structure 
•    All images and tables have ALT (alternative text) tags.
•    Canvas Tables are accessible
•    All linked documents (doc, docx, pdf, pptx) must use Header and Styles and pass accessibility checks.
•    All video must be accurately captioned (auto-generated captions are not accessible)
•    All audio-only resources must have a transcript.

To learn more about using the accessibility tools, Universal Design for Learning, or creating accessible documents or Canvas pages? Contact Maria Elena Fernandez, fernandez@siskiyous.edu, visit the Professional Development Portal for training, and explore the resources in the pages that follow 😊

Section 508

Section 508 addresses the purchasing and creating of accessible course materials and media and applies to an online environment. Meeting Section 508 guidelines is a campus wide responsibility. Instructors should be familiar with Section 508 and use accessibility resources inside and outside of the College to meet the minimum accessibility requirements listed above. Please also review the Textbooks and Course Materials module for more information.