Extend the Core Skills

Summary

Once you have learned the core skills, keep learning and practicing even more skills!

The University of Minnesota is committed to the idea that accessibility is everyone's everyday work. 

All you have to do is start small. For example:

Then use the Filter and Sort Options below and review what you learned, or learn even more skills!

Accessibility Skills Pages and Events

Displaying 11 - 20 of 98

Accessible U Committee

The Accessible U website is governed by the Accessible U Committee, established in the spring of 2021. 

Adaptive Technologies

Adaptive technologies are products, equipment, and services that help users with disabilities access digital content. They work best with materials created while following accessibility best practices.

All About Screen Readers Event on

Join the Accessibility Ambassadors for a demonstration and discussion of screen readers by Accessibility Ambassador Khaled Musa from Academic Technology Support Services.

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Alternative Text

Alternative text, or “alt text” describes the content of images, graphs and charts. It should be added to every meaningful image in instructional and communications materials including Canvas sites, word processing documents, slide presentations, and web pages.

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ARIA

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) is a set of attributes that define  ways to make web content and applications (especially those with JavaScript) more accessible to people with disabilities. Many of its features are incorporated into HTML5, so use HTML when possible.

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Attend Events and View Recordings

Attend University accessibility events where you can learn more about making our digital resources accessible online, discuss digital accessibility topics, and advocate for inclusion.

Benefits of Accessible Design

Accommodations benefit one person at a time, but accessible practice can benefit everyone who interacts with your material. Accessible design saves you time and effort in the future while benefiting the largest number of people in the present. It also reduces institutional risk.

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Canvas Accessibility with UDOIT Event on

Join the Accessibility Ambassadors on Thursday, May 28, for a presentation by accessibility ambassador Khaled Musa of Academic Technology and Kristina Cibuzar of LATIS. 

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Captioning Event on

Videos and teleconferencing are part of everyone’s daily life in a (nearly!) post-pandemic world.

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Centering Disabled Community Members Event on

Join the Accessibility Ambassadors for a presentation by Jay Wilson and Corbett Laubignat of the Disability Resource Center.

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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.