Accessibility and Universal Design for Blackboard Courses
Blackboard has the potential to provide a more level learning space than ever before for learners with disabilities in both face-to-face and online courses. However, the wrong design choices by instructors can also create new barriers to accessing course materials.
Accessibility refers to creating information and environments which can be used successfully by people with a wide range of disabilities. The principles of universal design take accessibility further by recognizing that modifications made to improve accessibility for people with disabilities actually benefit all users. By incorporating these principles of universal design instructors can provide flexible ways for all students to access material, communicate, and participate in class.
In this session we'll focus on specific ways you can avoid creating unintentional roadblocks in your Blackboard course for students with disabilities.
We'll also focus on incorporating universal design concepts to increase the usability of a Blackboard course for a wider range of users right from the beginning of the building process without significantly increasing the amount of time needed to build it.