Interest in accessibility has grown recently. Despite this, we have found that most people focus too much on compliance and often on the fundamental elements of creating compliant online courses. Instructional designers and online educators often turn to popular quality assurance frameworks to help them design and develop quality online courses.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of access to digital technology by using the lens of accessibility as set forth by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the American Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. More specifically, this paper focuses on gamification, considers the needs of all learners, including those who identify as…

Meaningful technology use in education continues to improve given an increase in access to available technologies and professional development. For educators, professional development has focused on approaches for technology use that foster content-specific best practices and improve student learning in traditional classroom formats. Meaningful…

With the growth of online learning, as well as the use of technology to supplement in-person learning, technology has enabled many opportunities for creating highly interactive and highly accessible learning environments. However, it is important to design learning environments to be accessible to diverse learners and learners with disabilities.…

Accessibility is a hot topic in online education these days. Despite the increased focus on accessibility, most discussions of creating "accessible" online courses and elearning simply focus on adding alternative text to images and captions to video. In this article, we argue that online educators and workplace learning professionals…

For over 20 years, I have worked for various types of organizations as a higher education administrator, consultant, and Quality Matters Peer Reviewer. Some of my responsibilities consisted of leading the instructional, design, development, delivery, and maintenance of all online courses. The purpose of this article is to present some of the…

With the increasing number of students enrolling in distance education, there is a need to consider the accessibility of course materials in online learning environments. Four major groups of disabilities: mobility, auditory, visual, and cognitive are explored as they relate to their implementation into instructional design and their impact on…

This study investigated online faculty familiarity, course design use, and professional development interest regarding universal design for learning (UDL) guidelines. The researchers surveyed all 2017 to 2018 online faculty at a large university in the southeastern United States. Findings included 71.6% of faculty reporting familiarity with at…

The states and localities, not the federal government, primarily control and fund K-12 education. As a major source of revenue and with its historic role in our federal system, the states are the driving presence in most every education policy area. That is true in the current efforts to adjust education programs to the Coronavirus disease…

Inclusion of the universal design for learning (UDL) model as a guiding set of principles for online curriculum development in higher education is discussed. Fundamentally, UDL provides the student with multiple means of accessing the course based on three overarching principles: presentation; action and expression; and engagement and interaction.…

Although both the number of online learning opportunities and students with disabilities in higher education has increased over the last two decades, students with disabilities may be overlooked. The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes toward requesting accommodations in the online learning environment among college students with…

Discussion of online distance learners with disabilities focuses on the essential components of a Web-based course, the learning advantages that arise from equal access Web formatting, and design strategies that lead to creating accessible, online materials. Highlights include legal mandates, including Americans with Disabilities Act; assistive…

Online learning is growing rapidly across the United States within all levels of education, as more and more students and educators become familiar with the benefits of learning unconstrained by time and place. Across most states and all grade levels, students are finding increased opportunity, flexibility, and convenience through online learning.…

This "Informed Educator" provides a snapshot of the current state of virtual education at the elementary and secondary levels. A number of critical factors are addressed, including: (1) the types of online courses and schools now available; (2) virtual program providers-- institutional, school, district, state, consortia and private…

Access to education has always challenged students with disabilities. The increase of online instructional materials presents new opportunities--and possible barriers--for accessibility in higher education. Despite rising numbers of students with disabilities in higher education, colleges and universities have not ensured accessibility of online…