ITSpotlight is designed to keep the campus up to date on ITS activities and services.
Accessibility Challenge
Posted October 9, 2024
by IDLT
Join the Accessibility Challenge: Enhance Your Course and Earn a Digital Badge!
Are your class materials, activities, and assessments designed so they are usable for all students? ITS-Instructional Design & Learning Technologies invites you to participate in our Accessibility Challenge! This is an exciting opportunity to enhance the accessibility of your courses, making them more inclusive for all students while also earning professional recognition for your efforts to maintain compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act as it pertains to higher education .
Challenge Details
Dates: September 1 - October 15
Recognition: Earn a Digital Badge, a Letter of Completion for your dossier, and an item to place in your course recognizing its accessibility improvements.
How It Works
-
Assess Your Course: Use the Anthology Ally tool (see Resources below) in your course site to assess its current accessibility. Ally will provide you with detailed feedback and actionable steps to improve your content.
-
Make Improvements: Follow Ally’s recommendations to enhance your materials, such as adding alt text to images or properly formatting documents. Aim for a course accessibility score of 90% or higher, as indicated in the Course Accessibility Report .
-
Submit Your Progress: Complete the Challenge by submitting the completion form to confirm your participation and improvements on or before October 31.
Why Participate?
Support Student Success: Accessible courses help all students, including those with disabilities, fully engage with your content.
Demonstrate Commitment: Show your dedication to upholding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Digital accessibility is a key component of modern higher education, and the US Department of Education has emphasized its importance under Title II for public colleges and universities. This means that nearly all digital content, including password-protected content and content acquired by third parties needs to be accessible.
Professional Growth: Gain proficiency in accessibility tools within Blackboard, Microsoft Office Suite, and Adobe. Your completion letter can be included in your promotion and tenure dossiers.
Receive Recognition: You’ll earn a digital badge to showcase your commitment, a letter of completion, and an item to place in your course highlighting your achievement.
We’re excited to see the positive impact you’ll make through this challenge. Let’s work together to create a more accessible learning environment for all our students! Contact IDLT at [email protected] or 618-650-5500 with questions.
