{"id":870,"date":"2016-11-30T15:49:38","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T21:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/?p=870"},"modified":"2019-09-10T18:04:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T00:04:42","slug":"sip-4-14-ensuring-online-accessibility-three-best-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/sip-4-14-ensuring-online-accessibility-three-best-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"SIP 4.14 Ensuring Online Accessibility: Three Best Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: left\">Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice?<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;font-weight: 400\">As creators of instructional content and designers of meaningful online learning experiences, establishing a consistent process for ensuring accessibility isn\u2019t easy. At some point, we all encounter moments when we sacrifice universal accessibility for the sake of just getting things done. Beyond saving time, as humans, we\u2019re also just inherently subjective. It\u2019s difficult to conceive of the variety of perspectives that may exist beyond our own. As educators focused on accessibility, we are constantly fighting the arrow of time, as well as our own biology.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/unbound.upcea.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/accessibility-1024x263.jpg\" alt=\"Computer keyboard with &quot;accessibility&quot; printed on enter key\" width=\"350\" height=\"90\" \/><\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify\">Take a SIP of This: Ensuring Online Accessibility: Three Best Practices<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;font-weight: 400\">Focusing on accessibility and striving for universal design doesn\u2019t have to be an anxiety-inducing practice. While we do have to establish intentional strategies and practices, once we do, ensuring online accessibility becomes second nature instead of an uncomfortable current we\u2019re constantly fighting against. In looking to develop your own unique set of strategies, consider the following best practices:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;font-weight: 400\"><strong>Best Practice #1:<\/strong> Utilize the overlooked tools that already exist. When creating content online, use the established formatting tools within your content editor (e.g. header presets &#8212; H1, H2, etc.), and provide alternative text for all images. This option is almost always available when embedding images into our online instruction, but all too often gets ignored.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;font-weight: 400\"><strong>Best Practice #2:<\/strong> Ensure that all links make sense out of context. Every link should make sense if the link text were to be read by itself. Phrases like &#8220;click here&#8221; and &#8220;more&#8221; are ubiquitous across the web, but should be avoided when designing instructional material.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Best Practice #3:<\/strong> Captions and\/or transcripts should accompany all video and audio content. If this isn\u2019t an option, then explore alternative means for conveying the information. If the video\/audio is critical, then it\u2019s time to get creative. How about using<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/docs\/answer\/4492226?hl=en\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Google Voice Typing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to quickly generate a transcript?<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Still Thirsty? Take Another SIP of Ensuring Online Accessibility<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Utilize a checklist or reference guide to ensure accessibility, such as the Department of Health\u00a0and Human Service&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/web\/section-508\/making-files-accessible\/checklist\">Section 508 accessibility checklist<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Use an accessibility evaluation tool, <a href=\"http:\/\/wave.webaim.org\">such as Wave<\/a>, to\u00a0evaluate\u00a0your websites and online content<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Use browser plugins to simulate impairments, such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/nocoffee\/jjeeggmbnhckmgdhmgdckeigabjfbddl\">No Coffee vision simulator for Chrome<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"http:\/\/webaim.org\">WebAIM<\/a> is\u00a0one of the leading providers of accessibility expertise<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.msudenver.edu\/etc\">The Educational Technology Center (ETC)<\/a> on campus is a fabulous resource! \u00a0Make an appointment or visit during drop-in hours for information on accessible materials.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;font-weight: 400\">When in doubt about the need for or means of providing accessibility, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msudenver.edu\/access\">contact the MSU Denver Access Center<\/a>!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? As creators of instructional content and designers of meaningful online learning experiences, establishing a consistent process for ensuring accessibility isn\u2019t easy. At some point, we all encounter moments when we sacrifice universal accessibility for the sake of just getting things done. Beyond saving time, as humans, we\u2019re also just &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/sip-4-14-ensuring-online-accessibility-three-best-practices\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[6,58,172,64,3],"class_list":["post-870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sip-post","tag-accessibility","tag-course-materials","tag-online-course","tag-teaching-online","tag-technology","item-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}