Accessible education is the process of designing courses and developing a teaching style to meet the needs of learners from a variety of backgrounds, abilities and learning styles.
The term accessible education has been adopted by the University of Guelph in order to capture the value of the following two frameworks that are recognized and used for improving the accessibility of university education:
Accessible education:
- Takes into account a variety of student characteristics within the student body, including ethnic backgrounds, race, abilities, disabilities, age, gender, and language abilities
- Does not compromise academic rigour
- Is a proactive and inclusive way of teaching and designing courses and curriculum for students
- Identifies and clearly expresses the essential course content--while recognizing that there is flexibility--or multiple methods in the way that students can express understanding of the essential course content
- Is consistent with universally recognized principles of good teaching
- Is consistent with the spirit of the Accessibility of Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), 2005
CourseLink
Brightspace (by D2L) is the learning management system (LMS) used at the University of Guelph. Referred to as CourseLink on campus, this learning environment is compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0), an industry standard for creating accessible web content.
There are many built-in features of the LMS that can be adjusted to improve access for individuals with disabilities. If you are an instructor, there are some accessibility best practices that you can follow when designing your CourseLink course, including the setting of special release conditions, organizing content in a more accessible style and using available accessible HTML templates.
For more information about accessibility and other recommended practices, visit D2L's Accessibility Resource Center or contact our CourseLink Support team.
Learn more about D2L's Accessibility Standards Compliance.
Accessibility Resources
- Accessibility and Course Materials: Basic guidelines for University of Guelph instructors on accessible course materials.
- Accessible Instruction - Resources: Resources for course development, writing Course Outlines, creating lectures, etc. with accessibility in mind
- WebAIM: Resources for creating accessible documents, training, and other links.
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): Strategies, guidelines and resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities