Introduction to Accessibility

Authored by Michael Kozak

What is Accessibility?

Simply put, in the context of education, it's providing equitable access for everyone. For the application of accessibility related to this course, we are going to focus on digital accessibility as it applies to educational content supporting traditional in-person experiences, online, and a hybrid of both.

Cultural Models of Disability

Image depicting a traditional medical model of disability where the focus is defining the problem of being a disabled person. Outside of the focus, are reasons why a person is disabled i.e. needs help, is housebound, confined to a wheelchair, can't walk, can't see or hear, is sick or needs a cure

What do these images mean to you? Have you viewed disabilities through a medical model lens, a social model lens, or something in between? These images come from https://www.neurodivercitysg.com/medical-model-vs-social-model.html. Please take a few moments to browse this site and watch the four embedded YouTube videos. For some, the information presented will change your outlook, empathy, and general understanding about disabilities and others' perspectives. After ingesting the content, pause and reflect, asking yourself, does this information change or challenge my views and opinions? How can I take this information and use it to enhance my work and my daily interactions?

Why do we need to make our educational materials accessible?

Increases student learning and success

- Digital accessible strategies can improve learning for a variety of students
- Providing captions to videos improves exam performance 10% (Whitney & Dallas, 2019)
- Removes barriers to learning for a variety of students
- Improves student retention (Tobin & Behling, 2018)

Promotes the UNMC Value of Healing

- Shows the empathy you feel. Be selfless in caring for patients, one another, and the community
- Every person and every interaction matters
- Further's President Gold's goals:
  - Extraordinary teaching & learning
  - Extraordinary culture & environment

Potential to save instructors' time

- During the instructional term, individual accommodations need to be implemented quickly and can be time-consuming
- When material is proactively made accessible, fewer accommodations are needed during the instructional term or reactionary

Meet the needs of students who do not request or receive accommodations (National Center for Education Statistics, 2022)

- Over 20% of college students have a disability, and rates are increasing (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023)
- Over 1 in 5 undergraduate students
- Over 1 in 10 post baccalaureate students
- Approximately 3.9 million total college students
- 15% of students registered with disability offices do not receive accomodations

You are supporting students' civil and human rights

- Right to an equitable education
- Separate is not equal

It's the law

- The Americans Disabilities Act ADA Title II
  - Disability rights are civil rights. ADA is a law that protects people with disabilities in many areas of public life.
- On April 24, 2024, the U.S. Attorney General signed a final rule containing new regulations about digital accessibility
- All digital materials (including web and mobile) need to be accessible
- Must meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA Criteria
- The deadline is April 24, 2026

Web Accessibility Perspectives Videos: Explore the Impact and Benefits for Everyone

Web accessibility is essential for people with disabilities and useful for all. Please watch and and learn about the impact of accessibility and the benefits for everyone in a variety of situations in this compilation video covering 10 topics.

How will we do this work?

Our digital educational content and materials will need to be updated.

Digital materials include...

- - Canvas content
  - Documents and files
  - Media (video and audio)
  - Textbooks and third-party software
  - Websites
  - Apps
  - Social media

These materials should not be published or made available to learners until guidelines are fully met. In the next section of this course, we will dive into more detail on how to make your course and its content accessible. We will focus in on specific software tools you already know and have access to to help make this happen. We will also introduce Antholgy's ALLY, an accessibility tool within Canvas to help you improve your content, making it more accessible.

Example:

This page is a basic example of content created using Canvas' basic authoring tools that enable accessibility. In the rich content editor toolbar, use the Headings Style menu to select the style of text i.e. H1, H2, H3, H4, preformatted, or paragraph. This is a common and consistent feature in most software applications. These heading designations, as in the context of a Canvas page, are essential for an assistive technology device like a screen reader to properly and accurately navigate the content and provide accurate service to a user. These same concepts apply to documents like PDFs as well.

Heading 1 (within Canvas, this is always reserved for the page title)

Heading 2 (the white text title in the red top horizontal line)

Heading 3 (chunked content questions)

Heading 4 (indicators in the Why section)

Paragraph

Using predefined text headings is important for several reasons:

First, predefined headings improve accessibility. They allow screen readers and other assistive technologies to interpret the document's structure, enabling visually impaired users to navigate the content more effectively.

Second, they help organize content in a clear and logical structure, making it easier for readers to navigate and understand the material. This is especially useful in lengthy documents where readers need to quickly find specific information.

Third, headings enhance readability by breaking up text into manageable sections. This helps readers to skim through the document and grasp the main points without getting overwhelmed by large blocks of text.

Lastly, using predefined headings can also benefit search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines use headings to understand the hierarchy and relevance of the content, which can improve the document's visibility in search results.

Content Block #5

Content Block #6

Closing Content Block

Do not use headings out of sequential order. Should you do that, an accessibility checker will flag your page or content as not accessible.

Example of an incorrect use of the headings style:

Paragaph

Professional Development Workshop Recordings:

2025 IAE Teaching Launchpad

Space for Everyone: Launching Accessible Course Design with Title II in Mind

Boost your teaching to the next level with Teaching Launchpad. New to teaching? Want a quick refresh of your existing skills? Teaching Launchpad, a series of training sessions from the UNMC Interprofessional Academy of Educators, can help hone your skills!

Date: October 27, 2025

Experts: Kristin Bradley, Julie Gregg, Janet Skogerboe, Dr. Suhasini Kotcherlakota, Michael Kozak

Watch the 2025 Teaching Launchpad Presentation Recording

This accessibility presentation and panel will feature UNMC experts who will be available to help you troubleshoot updating your course materials using tools such as Ally, TidyUP, UDoIT, DesignPLUS and general accessibility guidelines/principles.

Introduction to Accessibility Workshop

Hosted by UNL's Center for Transformative Teaching

Intro to Accessibility Recording (1:20:20) | Intro to Accessibility Slides | Digital Accessibility Checklists

In this pre-recorded workshop, you will learn what it means to implement digital accessibility and how enhancing digital accessibility in your courses positively impacts all students. We will also introduce you to the most common types of accessibility features that tend to show up across content types. 

Select Next below to continue ⬇︎