Practice
Structure Your Accessibility Work
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 12/4/2020 | 0 comments
The following special topic paper originally appeared in the publication Pursuing Regulatory Compliance for Digital Instruction in Response to Covid-19: Policy Playbook, which was published by the Every Learner Everywhere Network and develop and edited by WCET. The Playbook gives background on several regulations, resources to understand them, and recommendations on how to comply. Today, we are featuring […]
Practice
Did Your Course Go Digital Due to COVID-19? Playbook Advises on Regulations When Making the Switch
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 11/4/2020 | 0 comments
The spring 2020 term saw an unprecedented response to an unprecedented challenge as virtually every U.S. higher education institution offering face-to-face instruction rapidly switched to remote instruction, many in as little as one to two weeks and some in a few days. Institutions struggled to resolve challenges ranging from the technological to the pedagogical to […]
Practice
Update on Federal Regulations Impacting Distance Education During the Pandemic
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 5/22/2020 | 0 comments
In Harold Ramis’ 1993 classic, Groundhog Day, Bill Murray portrays a television weatherman sent to cover Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Day who ends up repeating the day over and over again. At first, Murray’s character, Phil Connors, uses the time loop to his advantage—binge eating, having one night stands, committing robbery, and manipulating local residents […]
Practice
Promising Practices for Navigating “What’s Next”
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 4/23/2020 | 1 comments
I have long marveled at how quickly and effectively WCET pivots to support its members when we most need assistance. Remember the announcement of new guidelines that regional accreditors were going to use to evaluate distance education (CRAC-2001)? State authorization enforcement by the Department of Education? WCET helped us navigate around those icebergs. The Coronavirus […]
Practice
Keeping Accessibility in Mind During the COVID-19 Conversion of Courses
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 3/24/2020 | 5 comments
We welcome today’s guest post from Cyndi Rowland, Executive Director of WebAIM (at Utah State University) which empowers organizations to make their web content accessible to people with disabilities. Cyndi gives us great and compassionate advice for teachers and faculty suddenly thrust into teaching with technologies. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, Cyndi! — Russ […]
Practice
Meet AURS — Your Go-To Resource for Addressing Accessibility Challenges
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 9/27/2019 | 3 comments
Accessibility is not only one of the main areas of focus for WCET, but a consistent issue and opportunity for higher education institutions. In order to support faculty, instructional designers, and others who work in the area, Quality Matters, a WCET member, created a new resource site for educators to get information on how to […]
Practice
From Policy to Compliance: What do Faculty Need to Develop Accessible Course Content?
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 9/12/2019 | 0 comments
Accessibility of college and university materials and services is an important topic for all those involved in education today. Higher Education institutions are working to develop policies and guidelines for ensuring accessible content for all learners. Do such policies result in more accessible digital environments? How can institutions help support faculty to develop more accessible […]
Practice
An Introspective Look at WCET’s Own Accessibility Practices, Part II
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 8/5/2019 | 0 comments
Last week, I began to explain what WCET is doing – and potential areas of improvement – about web accessibility, based on different disabilities and barriers that people with those disabilities may encounter as described by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Check out my first post for background information on what led me to […]
Practice
An Introspective Look at WCET’s Own Accessibility Practices, Part I
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 8/2/2019 | 1 comments
Are your course materials and institutional websites accessible for all learners? Here at Frontiers, we discuss accessibility quite often, but today we have a very practical post that directly reviews content to determine accessibility for all. I’m excited to welcome Rosa Calabrese, WCET’s Digital Designer, who is here to discuss her review of the accessibility […]
Practice
Improving College Readiness for Every Student: the Importance of Accessibility
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 6/26/2019 | 0 comments
Today we welcome the President of the NROC Project, Ahrash Bissell, to discuss accessibility as an opportunity we should all be involved with, rather than a regulatory requirement that we should all worry about. We are excited to see this post from our friends at NROC, who have won a WOW award or have collaborated […]