Find Accessibility Resources

Summary

Find pages on this site plus other University resources that can help you review what you learned in DAP courses, participate in other professional development opportunities, explore additional accessibility skills, or get help from supporting units.

You may also get information and support by attending or reviewing recordings of accessibility events.

Results

Displaying 1 - 10 of 54

Supporting Unit

Academic Technology Support Services (ATSS)

As a system-wide office, Academic Technology Support Services supports the UMN teaching mission in three areas: 

Contact Academic Technology Support Services to: 

Academic Technology Support Services publishes the Teaching with Technology monthly newsletter and the Extra Points blog.

Content Formats

  • Course Activities and Materials
Accessible U Web Page

Alternative Text

Add alternative text, or “alt text,” to every meaningful image in digital content.

Related Badging Program Courses

  • All Courses

Content Formats

  • All Digital Content
  • Core Skills
Supporting Unit

Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing

The Bakken Center enriches health and wellbeing by providing interprofessional education, delivering innovative engagement programs, and advancing innovative models of care. 

Offerings include:

  • A public-facing Wellbeing Series 
  • Webinars
  • A variety of mindfulness and other programs

Content Formats

  • Course Activities and Materials
Professional Development, Public Web Page or Site

Canvas: Design an Accessible and Usable Course Site

Learn about good practices for creating course sites that are both usable and accessible to the widest range of students, including organizing content with:

  • A landing page 
  • Module layouts 
  • A limited menu

Related Badging Program Courses

  • Canvas Course Sites Course

Content Formats

  • Course Activities and Materials
Supporting Unit

Center for Educational Innovation (CEI)

CEI offers a variety of opportunities to deepen your learning and expand your practices on this topic and others. They include: 

Content Formats

  • Course Activities and Materials
Accessible U Web Page

Choose and Create Accessible Content

All digital content should all accessible, no matter what type it is or what technology is used to display it. After you learn the accessibility core skills, explore good practices for content presented in different formats.

Related Badging Program Courses

  • All Courses

Content Formats

  • All Digital Content
Accessible U Web Page

Classroom Activities

Use multiple means of representation, engagement, actions, and expressions in your classroom activities. 

Related Badging Program Courses

  • Canvas Course Sites Course

Content Formats

  • Course Activities and Materials
Accessible U Web Page

Classroom Barriers

Learn about online and face-to-face classroom barriers rather than focusing on types of disabilities.

Content Formats

  • Course Activities and Materials
Supporting Unit

Computer Accommodations Program

Students, faculty, staff, guests and visitors with disabilities and medical conditions can contact the Computer Accommodations Program for adaptive technology demonstrations, evaluations, assessments, installations, training, and support. The staff can talk by phone, meet with you one-on-one, or talk with your team. 

Accessible U Web Page

Contrast

Make sure foreground and background colors and other visual indicators contrast each other.

Content Formats

  • All Digital Content
  • Core Skills

Expand all

Authors, Designers, and Editors

When you think about accessibility laws and related University policies, you might think they apply only to course and website content.

But at the University of Minnesota, we create thousands of digital content products each day. These can be in a variety of formats, and should all be as accessible to the widest range of audiences as possible

Instructors

The more you make your course accessible, the fewer accommodation requests you may receive.

In addition, more students will be able to better learn from and navigate your course materials and classroom experiences, even if they have different learning styles and abilities.

Leaders and Managers

Leaders can communicate a clear and achievable vision for digital accessibility within the organization.

Managers can drive action by communicating a vision, establishing clear goals and expectations, and providing resources and training.

Check out Promote Digital Accessibility for ideas.

Presenters

You can make your presentations and events you host more inclusive.

For example:

  • Verbally describe your slides while presenting.
  • Include alternative text for images.
  • Provide captions, audio descriptions, and transcripts.

Students

When you produce digital assignments, apply the core skills and your instructors and the students you collaborate with will be better able to understand them, even if they use assistive technologies.

Technology Purchasers

Before a big purchase, the wise shopper gathers requirements, performs research, and reviews potential solutions.

At the University, your digital technology pre-purchase checklist must include an evaluation of the extent to which a product is accessible and how a vendor meets accessibility standards.

Web Developers

From a developer's perspective, the goal is to code a website or web application that, at minimum, meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) AA standards and follows the POUR guiding principles of accessible technology.