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Find a Path! Two Different Approaches to Scaling Course Accessibility Training

Deborah Ezell, MS

Director for Health and Physical Education, Harford Community College

Megan Myers, PhD

Assistant Professor of History, Howard Community College

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Collaboration

Images: Maryalnd Online (used with permission).

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Problem Statement

People who deliver instruction agree that accessibility is important in an online learning environment, but they struggle with how to make content accessible.

They need more tools, resources, information, and a community of support to increase student access.

Images: Deborah Ezell

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Definitions

Leadership

  • Motivate institution
  • Common goal

Scalability

  • Expand to support increasing workloads
  • Growth, not replacement

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Roadmap for Accessibility

Attitudes

LMS Route

Non-native Tools

Knowledge

& Practices

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Attitude

  • Why it matters
  • The Audience
  • The Questions
  • The Ownership
  • The Messaging

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Knowledge & Practices

  • Identify (images, video, text)
  • Fix
  • Who can help
  • Proactive
  • Retrofit
  • Break Bad Authoring Habits

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Hierarchy & Structure Matter

Model 1

  • Faculty Committee & eLearning
  • College-wide communication

Model 2

  • Ed Tech Sub-committee
  • Distance Learning Committee
  • Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning

Images: Pixabay, CC by 4.0

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Model 1: LMS Based Approach

  • Faculty buy-in
  • Canvas
  • Accessibility Checker
  • Templates (voluntary adoption and gradual rollout)
    • Some examples
  • PD Sessions
  • Tools to Bridge the Gap (CIDI, UDOIT, Others?)
    • Faculty rate with a scorecard

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Model 2: EIT Authoring Software (non-native)

  • Scalable to entire institution
  • Accessible EIT into LMS (embed, hyperlink)
  • Microsoft, Adobe, Camtasia

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Images: Deborah Ezell

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Model 2: Knowledge & Practices

  • Internal review of online courses
    • Distance Learning Committee
  • Scaled to institute
    • Workshops, Spot & Fix, Grassroots
    • Tools to Bridge the Gap
      • Captioning Services

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Models: Hierarchy & Structure Movable Pieces

  • Hierarchy = Who
    • Faculty
    • Designer
    • Committees
    • Everybody
  • Structure = How & What
    • Practices and Processes
    • Tools

Images: Deborah Ezell

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Discussion Questions

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  • How could you lead change at your institution?

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  • What other approaches have you used with success?

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Megan Myers, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, History

Howard Community College

mmyers@howardcc.edu

443-518-3418

Deborah Ezell, M.S.

Director for Health & PE

Harford Community College

dezell@harford.edu

443-412-2064