For Faculty

Pivoting to Accessible Online Instruction

By Terry Knight, Assistant Director/Accessibility

While developing quality online courses is always of the utmost importance, taking a face-to-face course or a hybrid course fully online quickly in the best of circumstances can be a great obstacle. Over the last year, pivoting to accessible online courses because of the current pandemic has proven more than challenging. TTU's eLearning Accessibility Services can help ease the accessibility concerns that instructors may encounter.

When building accessible online courses, whether it be a long-term process or an immediate pivot, there are a few aspects of initial design, or "low hanging fruit," to consider that will help in beginning content development. First and foremost, consider how lectures will be delivered. If sharing recorded lectures is the preferred method, or used at all, providing those video lectures with proper closed captions is the most accessible means for delivery. TTU eLearning offers captioning support for instructors teaching in the online environment. To request captioning services, please complete the Captioning Request Form on the TTU eLearning Accessibility Services website.

For the development of documents or presentations that may be used within an online course, there are some general yet immediate accessibility basics to consider. In developing Word documents, PDFs, and PowerPoint presentations, including alternative text for images, creating accessible tables that include header rows and no split or merged cells, and writing descriptive links rather than including only the URLs are just a few of the ways to ensure accessible content. Using a logically nested heading structure in both Word documents and PDFs ensures that the content can be navigated reasonably by assistive technology. In PowerPoint presentations, utilizing the preset templates and slide layouts built into the application preserves the accessibility of the content. For step-by-step support in creating accessible Word documents, PDFs, or PowerPoint presentations, please visit the Creating Accessible Materials section of the TTU eLearning Accessibility Services website.

Creating accessible course materials for an immediate shift in instructional modalities, or any time, can be an intimidating undertaking, but addressing the above initial aspects of design will help make the transition easier and better serve all students. For additional support or information, TTU eLearning Accessibility Services is available to help because, at Texas Tech University, accessibility matters.