This content was published: April 28, 2014. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Another successful Subject Area Accessibility Study concludes!
Posted by Karen Sorensen
During winter term, CAS, CS and CIS faculty conducted an accessibility study of their particular subject areas. Our intrepid faculty researchers and subject matter experts were Marc Goodman from Computer Information Systems, Gayathri Iyer from Computer Science and Susan Watson from Computer Applications and Office Systems
While we have the general Accessibility Guidelines for Online Courses, the purpose of these subject area studies, this one generously funded by the Deans of Instruction, is to have subject matter experts examine their specific subject areas for potential accessibility barriers. And then with the assistance of Accessible Ed & Disability Resources and Distance Education, make recommendations on how to overcome those barriers.
This is the second study of this type. The first was in Math, and we hope to hold a 3rd in the fall with Chemistry. We are focused mainly on STEM fields as they are more complicated to make accessible online, but we will consider any SAC application. If your SAC is interested in participating in this sort of study, please fill out the Subject Area Accessibility Study application.
The objectives of this recent study was to develop a set of accessibility guidelines for CAS, CIS and CS faculty on how to deal with these areas that may cause barriers for people with visual disabilities:
- Programming environments that use graphical interfaces
- Complex diagrams
- Screen shots of code
- Videos without clear narration
- Inaccessible publisher materials
The recommendations that came out of this study will benefit more than just CAS, CIS and CS. They have far reaching benefits for not only our educational programs, but for other institutions of higher education too.
Thank you to our wonderful faculty researchers, Deans of Instruction, Accessible Ed & Disability Resources and Distance Learning/Instructional Support for making this research possible! Below are some photos of everyone hard at work! OK, we had fun too!
Gayathri, Phyllis, Supada, Angel and Marc testing for screen reader accessibility.
Gayathri & Angel testing Programming environments
Kaela and Susan
The presentation was great, and I can see this work being very applicable to a variety of other disciplines. Thanks for all the hard work!