Page Overview: Education

Understanding the history of the disability rights movement is crucial when discussing accessibility today because it provides context and perspective on the challenges overcome and progress made. This page provides essential guidance for enhancing accessibility through education and practical application.

1. Let’s Talk about Accessibility: Emphasizes the importance of engaging in respectful dialogue to address and educate others about accessibility. By understanding and discussing the challenges faced by people with disabilities, we can foster greater empathy and support.

2. Teaching Web Accessibility: Curating Curricula on Web Accessibility: Offers modules for creating or improving accessibility courses, tailored to various roles from faculty to hiring managers, with flexible    options for training.

3. Modules: Covers basic accessibility principles for IT professionals and provides specialized modules for developers, designers, and content authors focusing on creating accessible digital content.

a. Foundation Modules: Covers basic accessibility principles.

b. Developer Modules: Covers hierarchy and organization with an emphasis on accessibility.

c. Designer Modules: Covers key accessibility points in visual design.

d. Content Author Modules: Covers accessible content formation and organization.

4. Structure and Terminology: Details the components of each module, including prerequisites, learning outcomes, and teaching resources, for effective course creation.

5. Essentials for Teaching Accessibility: Shares tips for effective accessibility training, such as involving people with disabilities, explaining the reasons behind accessibility features, and ensuring comprehensive coverage of various disabilities.

Let’s Talk About Accessibility

Conversations Are The Key to Changing Minds

Some believe that to achieve a more just and accessible future, we must resort to insults and sneers, labeling people as “ableist” or “backward.” However, this approach often backfires, pushing people away rather than drawing them in. Instead, we should focus on listening to others’ concerns and discussing the importance of accessibility in a respectful manner. By highlighting how disabled people are often left out or forgotten, we
can change hearts and minds to be more open-minded and understanding. Every organization has room to improve, and by engaging with different perspectives, including dissenting or misguided opinions, we can
better understand the root of the problem and work together towards a solution.

Jumping to conclusions about people labeled as ableists can be counterproductive. Many ableist views
stem from ignorance rather than intentional malice, as a significant portion of the population simply lacks information about the challenges faced by people with disabilities. This is why engaging in meaningful conversations about accessibility is crucial. Educating individuals about the barriers people with disabilities encounter can transform them into advocates for change. Understanding the importance of accessibility
allows people to see that making accommodations is not just a legal requirement but a fundamental aspect
of human decency and respect.

Instead of labeling society as inherently ableist, we should focus on the potential for growth and learning.
By providing information and education, we can help individuals recognize and rectify their unintentional ableism. This approach not only promotes accessibility but also fosters a more respectful and understanding society. It’s about encouraging people to see accessibility as a moral duty and an essential component of a fair and just community. More importantly, it’s about helping people to truly see one another and support each other in reaching their goals, regardless of their ability level.

Teaching Web Accessibility

Curating Curricula on Web Accessibility

This resource offers teaching modules to help you create courses on digital accessibility or include accessibility in other courses. The modules cover basic accessibility concepts and specific skills for developers, designers, content creators, and others.

Uses for the Curricula

This resource offers material for teaching accessibility. Use it to create courses on digital accessibility or to add accessibility topics to courses like programming and graphic design. Here is a list of different roles where you might use this information:

      • Faculty Lecturer: Selects topics from the foundation, developer, and designer modules to teach accessibility to computer science students.
      • Accessibility Professional: Selects topics from the foundation, developer, designer, and author modules to create accessibility training courses.
      • Employee Training Coordinator: Compares the course content offered by different providers based on the modules provided in this resource.
      • Procurer: Includes requirements in a training Request for Proposals (RFP) based on the modules provided
        in this resource.
      • Hiring Manager: Compares the competencies assessed for different certificates based on the modules provided in this resource.

This resource offers flexible modules that you can combine for either brief or detailed accessibility training.
It does not specify duration, effort, or accreditation.

Modules

This resource provides modules covering basic accessibility principles for IT professionals, as well as specialized modules for developers, designers, and content authors focusing on creating accessible digital content.
Under each module, you’ll find a brief guide on how to design courses using the page’s recommendations.

Foundation Modules

What Is Web Accessibility?

    • Show how people with disabilities use websites
      and applications
    • Introduce core concepts
      of digital accessibility
    • Explain related terms like usability and user experience

People and Digital Technology

    • Explore assistive technologies, adaptive strategies, and accessible design principles
    • Study links between components of
      web accessibility

Business Case
and Benefits

    • Explore why organizations need to address accessibility
    • Provide examples of organizations that have successfully implemented accessibility initiatives

Principles, Standards,
and Checks

    • Introduce accessibility principles like POUR: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable,
      and Robust
    • Explore W3C accessibility standards and recommendations
    • Offer practical exercises to assess how well web pages adhere to these standards

Getting Started with Accessibility

    • Introduce various strategies for planning, applying, managing, and sustaining accessibility
    • Outline roles and responsibilities related
      to implementation

Developer Modules

Page Structure

    • Show how people with disabilities use headings
      and sections to navigate
      web pages
    • Explain how they rely
      on web page coding to identify and comprehend components
    • Teach coding techniques to ensure accessible content structure and meaning

Menus

    • Show how people with disabilities use structures,
      labels, and styling to interact
      with menus
    • Teach coding techniques for accessible menu structures, labels, and functionality

Images

    • Show how people with disabilities use text alternatives to access
      image information
    • Teach coding techniques
      to create text alternatives
      for images

Tables

    • Show how people with disabilities use table structures to understand information
    • Teach coding techniques to mark up headers and data cells and describe the table’s topic and purpose

Forms

    • Show how people with disabilities use form structures, labels, instructions, and notifications to
      interact with forms
    • Teach coding techniques to mark up form controls
      and provide accessible instructions and notifications

Custom Widgets

    • Show how people with disabilities use properties,
      states, keyboard interactions, and live regions to interact
      with custom widgets
    • Teach coding techniques to create accessible custom widgets like buttons, carousels, sliders, and tabs

Rich Applications

    • Show how people with disabilities interact with
      rich applications, including
      Single Page Applications (SPAs) and those generated
      by JavaScript
    • Teach coding techniques
      to create rich applications
      with proper structures, keyboard interactions,
      and notifications

Designer Modules

Visual Design

    • Show how people with disabilities depend on layouts that adjust to various screen sizes, configurations, and style sheets
    • Explain the accessibility needs for color, layout, spacing, and component placement

Information Design

    • Show how people with disabilities gather and understand information
      through text, labels, instructions, semantics,
      and imagery
    • Explain accessible methods
      for conveying the structure, relationships, and purpose
      of information

Navigation Design

    • Describe how people with disabilities navigate websites and applications
    • Explain accessible behaviors, visual cues, and interaction patterns of navigation menus and other components

Interaction Design

    • Show how people with disabilities interact with links, buttons, controls, and complex widgets like sliders, tabs, dialogs, menus, tree views, and notifications
    • Explain accessibility requirements for input methods such as mouse, keyboard, touch, and speech

Images and Graphics

    • Describe how people
      with disabilities
      access information
      in images and graphics
    • Explain accessibility rules
      for images and graphics,
      like providing text alternatives and ensuring suitable contrast ratios

Multimedia and Animations

    • Cover how people
      with disabilities access multimedia content such
      as audio and video
    • Explain accessibility rules
      for multimedia, such as audio descriptions, captions, transcripts, and sign language support

Forms Design

    • Show how people with disabilities interact
      with forms
    • Explain accessibility needs for forms, including where they go, how they’re set up, labels, instructions, and notifications

Content Author Modules

Clear Content

    • Show how people with disabilities rely on clear, easy-to-understand
      language and visuals to process information
    • Explain why clear,
      easy-to-understand
      content benefits
      accessibility

Structure

    • Show how people with disabilities use headings, paragraphs, lists, and other structures for orientation and content understanding
    • Explain the accessibility standards for content structure

Forms

    • Show how people with disabilities depend on
      clear labels, instructions,
      and error messages for
      using web pages and applications with forms
    • Explain the accessibility
      rules for form fields and controls, like edit boxes,
      list boxes, buttons, and
      other interactions

Images

    • Show why text alternatives
      for images help those who can’t see the images understand their content
    • Explain the accessibility
      guidelines for text alternatives of informative, decorative, functional,
      and complex images

Data Tables

    • Show how people
      with disabilities use
      the relationships
      between table cells to understand data tables
    • Explain the accessibility
      rules for creating
      accessible data tables

Multimedia

    • Show how people with disabilities use alternatives
      to multimedia content
      like transcripts, audio descriptions, captions,
      and sign languages to
      access information from audio and video content

Structure and Terminology

Each part of these curricula (foundation, developer, and designer) includes:

    • Prerequisites: Skills and knowledge students should have before starting.
    • Modules: Designed to be taught and assessed completely.

Each module includes:

    • Learning Outcomes for Module: What students will learn and be able to demonstrate.
    • Competencies: Skills required for students and instructors.
    • Topics to Teach: Recommended themes that can be taught in any order

Each topic includes:

    • Learning Outcomes for Topic: Detailed description of what students will learn and
      be able to demonstrate.
    • Teaching Ideas for Topic: Suggested methods to help instructors teach the topic.
    • Ideas to Assess Knowledge for Topic: Suggested ways to assess students’ skills
      and knowledge for the topic.
    • Ideas to Assess Knowledge for Module: Suggested ways to assess students’ skills and knowledge
      for the module.
    • Teaching Resources: Materials to help teach the learning outcomes, with some resources being essential and others for further reading.

    Essentials for Teaching Accessibility

    Here are some tips to help you provide more effective courses, training, and certification                               programs on accessibility:

    1. Involve People with Disabilities: Incorporate individuals with disabilities into your courses to provide firsthand insights into accessibility barriers and features. Use videos if direct involvement isn’t feasible, ensuring clear guidance to avoid misconceptions.

    2. Include the Reasons for Accessibility Features: Teach the rationale behind accessibility features alongside their implementation. Students grasp concepts like text alternatives more effectively when they understand why they’re necessary and how they enhance usability.

    3. Cover All Disabilities: Ensure your teaching addresses a broad spectrum of disabilities, including auditory, cognitive, physical, speech, and visual impairments. Recognize that digital accessibility benefits diverse user needs and refer to comprehensive guides for cross-disability insights.

    4. Approach Accessibility Holistically: Integrate accessibility into a broader framework of inclusion and diversity, emphasizing its role in enhancing user experiences for people with disabilities and its benefits for all users. Avoid treating accessibility as a checklist item and explore its connection to usability and inclusive design.

    5. Make It Accessible: Ensure all course components, from presentations to assessments, are accessible. Create inclusive environments in both physical and digital spaces, providing necessary accommodations like captions, sign-language interpretation, and large-print materials, and ensuring clarity in visual information descriptions.